Dumoulin -- A More Human Champion

by Edward Pickering, Procycling magazine, August 2017

We were happy to get our interview and shoot with this month’s cover star, Tom Dumoulin, at short notice after his spectacular Giro d’Italia win. He has emerged as one of cycling’s most dynamic talents, and his win in Italy had it all. Comparisons were made with Miguel Indurain and Bradley Wiggins, his antecedants – superb rouleurs who built the resilience to contend over three weeks. 

However, I felt Dumoulin was a more human champion than his two forebears, who were tactically unexciting and generally defensive riders. Yes, he trounced everybody with a TT performance for the ages through the vineyards of Perugia. He was astonishing in overhauling Nairo Quintana at Oropa. But he didn’t just sit implacably on his lead. There was both physical and tactical fallibility in Dumoulin’s win. His body gave out on him on the Umbrailpass in a way that launched a thousand poo jokes. Then he got caught napping at the back of the bunch on stage 18, and that was before he got dropped in the finale of the next two stages, though he defended well. And there wasn’t just the racing suspense to keep us hooked, Dumoulin also faced down Quintana and Nibali in the pages of the newspapers, maintaining a provocatively confident level of needle. Well, it wouldn’t be the Giro without a bit of healthy polemica. 

My counterpart in the Dutch edition of Procycling, Rodrick de Munnick, has talked about a possible Dumoulin effect in the Netherlands to echo the Wiggins effect of 2012. It would be a positive thing for Dutch cycling fans, who’ve had many strong riders to follow, but have been somewhat starved of big wins in the last few years. However, I think Dumoulin has even broader and international appeal. He’s a great interviewee and formidably strong, with his best years still to come. I can’t wait to see him hit the Tour hard next year.