Tom Dumoulin

Tom Dumoulin (; born 11 November 1990) is a retired Dutch professional road bicycle racer who last rode for UCI WorldTeam . He has won the Giro d'Italia and nine stages across the three Grand Tours, five medals in three different World Championships and two Olympic silver medals.

Known for his time-trialing ability, Dumoulin excelled in climbing and was viewed by many as a climbing specialist. At the 2015 Vuelta a España, Dumoulin had two stage victories and led the race into its final weekend, before losing four minutes on the penultimate stage and ultimately finished sixth overall. He led the 2016 Giro d'Italia during its opening week and won two stages at the 2016 Tour de France. His sole Grand Tour in 2017 was the Giro d'Italia, where he overcame stomach problems and a 53-second deficit entering the final stage to become the first Dutch winner of the race and the first Dutch Grand Tour winner since Joop Zoetemelk in 1980. Later that year, he became the first Dutch male to win the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships. In 2018, Dumoulin finished second overall at both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France.

Dumoulin missed the first half of the 2021 season after he took an indefinite break from cycling for personal reasons, ultimately making his return to the sport at the Tour de Suisse in June and winning his fourth Dutch National Time Trial Championships later that month. The following year, he announced that he would retire from the sport at the end of the 2022 season before retiring early on the 15th of August.

Early life 

Dumoulin was born in Maastricht, and grew up in the city near the Maas Boulevard, which used to host the finish of the Amstel Gold Race. Originally his ambition was to study medicine and become a doctor, but after not being offered a place at medical school he began a Health Sciences degree. Dumoulin did not enjoy classes and within a year he opted to pursue cycle racing for a year.

Professional career

2010–11 

Dumoulin first made an impact in 2010, when he competed at the Grand Prix du Portugal, part of the UCI Under 23 Nations' Cup – Dumoulin won the race's opening time trial, despite never having ridden a time trial bicycle before, and went on to win the race overall. Later that year he won a time trial stage of the Girobio. He was due to ride for  in 2011, however the team disbanded at the end of the 2010 season. He rode for the  in 2011.

Project 1t4i (2012–19)
Dumoulin turned professional with the Dutch  team in 2012. Although he did not win any races in his first two seasons as a professional, he began to make his mark in major races, especially in time trials. He made his grand tour debut in 2012, riding the Vuelta a España.

2014
In June, Dumoulin won the Dutch National Time Trial Championships. In September, he finished in second place at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec after surging ahead on the last climb but was passed by Simon Gerrans before the finish. Later that month he won bronze in the UCI World Time Trial Championships, placing third behind Bradley Wiggins and Tony Martin in Ponferrada, Spain.

2015

Dumoulin started the 2015 season by finishing fourth overall at the Tour Down Under. He took his first success of the season by winning the final individual time trial on the Tour of the Basque Country. His second victory of the year came at the Tour de Suisse, where he won the prologue with a two-second advantage over Fabian Cancellara. He also won the closing stage of that race, a  time trial he covered at an average speed of . In the Tour de France, Dumoulin was one of the favourites to take victory in the opening time trial on home soil in Utrecht, the Netherlands, but ultimately finished fourth. On stage 3, he was involved in a massive, high-speed crash and had to abandon the race.

Dumoulin recovered from his injuries to ride the Vuelta a España. On stage 2, he attacked on the final climb to Caminito del Rey and formed a group with Nicolas Roche () and Nairo Quintana (), but was caught and passed by Esteban Chaves (), who won the stage ahead of Dumoulin in second. On stage 5 there was a split in the peloton, and Chaves lost six seconds to Dumoulin, who took the race lead by 1 second. However, Chaves won stage 6 ahead of Dumoulin in third to re-take the leader's red jersey. Stage 9 was another first-category summit finish. There was a series of attacks on the early part of the climb, with many riders dropped from the lead group. Dumoulin eventually took a solo win in the stage, two seconds ahead of Chris Froome () and took back the red jersey as Chaves lost significant time. Froome had originally been dropped, but rode at a steady tempo and came close to winning the stage before Dumoulin outsprinted him in the final hundred metres.

After Froome crashed out on stage 11, Dumoulin limited his losses on the following mountain stages, as Fabio Aru () and Joaquim Rodríguez () traded the race lead. On Stage 17, Dumoulin won the  individual time trial. He gained 1 minute and 53 seconds on Aru to take the red jersey by three seconds over Aru, with Rodríguez 1 minute and 15 seconds back in third overall after losing over 3 minutes to Dumoulin on the stage. Dumoulin doubled his lead over Aru by gaining three seconds through an attack on stage 19's final cobbled climb, however he lost the race to Aru on stage 20, the Vuelta's last mountain stage, where Aru distanced Dumoulin on the third of the stage's four first-category climbs. Dumoulin lost almost four minutes to Aru and slipped down to sixth place in the general classification. In December, he won the Gerrit Schulte Trophy, the award for the best Dutch cyclist of the year.

2016

He was named in the start list for the Giro d'Italia, where he won the opening time trial on home soil in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, to take the maglia rosa. On stage 8, Dumoulin lost the race lead after finishing 38th and losing 1 minute and 10 seconds to Alejandro Valverde () in a hilly stage with portions of strade bianche () during the stage. He abandoned the race on stage 11.

Dumoulin also rode the Tour de France. He won stage 9 after attacking from a breakaway on the lower slopes of Arcalis in Andorra, and riding up the climb solo in torrential rain. Dumoulin also won stage 13, a  time trial over hilly terrain in windy conditions, by a margin of over a minute to Chris Froome in second place. Despite a broken wrist, he won the silver medal in the time trial at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, behind Fabian Cancellara.

2017: Giro d'Italia victory and World Time Trial Champion

Dumoulin's team announced in the winter that he would target the Giro d'Italia, held in May. On Stage 9, Dumoulin finished third on the summit finish at Blockhaus, finishing alongside Thibaut Pinot (), 24 seconds down on the stage winner and new race leader Nairo Quintana (). Dumoulin then won stage 10, a  individual time trial (ITT) from Foligno to Montefalco, to take the overall race lead by 2 minutes and 23 seconds over Quintana. Dumoulin won Stage 14, which featured a mountain top finish at Santuario di Oropa to extend his lead over Quintana by a further 14 seconds. On Stage 16, Dumoulin experienced stomach problems and had to take a comfort break at the foot of the Umbrail Pass; none of the other contenders waited for Dumoulin and he finished more than two minutes down on stage winner Vincenzo Nibali (), keeping his race lead by just 31 seconds over Quintana. Dumoulin defended his lead until the stage 19 mountain finish in Piancavallo, where he crossed the line over a minute behind Quintana, the new race leader. Quintana would put fifteen more seconds into Dumoulin the following day on stage 20. However, Dumoulin's performance on stage 21, a  individual time trial in which he finished second, took him from fourth to first place in the general classification, becoming the first Dutchman to win the Giro d'Italia and the first to win a Grand Tour since Joop Zoetemelk won the 1980 Tour de France.

As a result of his victory, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Limburgian by Merit. He also received the Honorary Gold Medal of the City of Maastricht.

To finish off his successful season, Dumoulin went on to win September's individual time trial at the World Championships in Bergen, Norway, his first individual world championship victory. He also won the earlier team time trial championships in that event, as part of .

2018

Giro d'Italia
Dumoulin entered the Giro d'Italia as the defending champion, and was considered one of the favourites for overall victory, along with Chris Froome (), who had won the 2017 Tour de France and 2017 Vuelta a España and was therefore aiming to hold all Grand Tour titles simultaneously. Dumoulin won the opening  individual time trial in Jerusalem, beating Rohan Dennis () to victory by 2 seconds to take the race leader's Maglia Rosa for the third year in a row. Dennis took the race lead from Dumoulin on Stage 2, after picking up bonus seconds in an intermediate sprint. Dumoulin remained second overall behind Dennis until Stage 6, when Simon Yates () attacked from the group of favourites  from the summit of Mount Etna to take the race lead ahead of Dumoulin in second. Yates won stage 9 after accelerating away with  to go on the summit finish to Gran Sasso d'Italia, extending his lead over Dumoulin. Yates claimed his second stage victory on Stage 11, attacking with  to go and holding off a pursuit by Dumoulin to win on a hill-top finish in Osimo to further increase his lead over Dumoulin. On Stage 14, Yates dropped Dumoulin to finish second behind solo winner Froome on Monte Zoncolan. With six bonus seconds for finishing second, Yates extended his overall advantage over Dumoulin to 1 minute and 24 seconds, whilst his gap over Froome was 3 minutes 10 seconds.

On the following stage, Yates rode away from Dumoulin and the other contenders to take a solo win on stage 15 to Sappada, after attacking with  remaining. This victory saw his lead over Dumoulin increase to 2 minutes and 11 seconds. On Stage 17, a  individual time trial from Trento to Rovereto, Dumoulin finished third behind Rohan Dennis, and reduced Yates' overall lead to 56 seconds, with Froome lying fourth, another 2 minutes and 56 seconds behind Dumoulin. On stage 18 to Prato Nevoso Yates appeared to crack on the final slopes of the summit finish and lost 28 seconds to Dumoulin and Froome. Stage 19 of the race had been classified as the 'queen stage' of the race, with three focused climbs in the latter half of the stage: the half paved-half gravel climb of the Colle delle Finestre, followed by the climb to Sestriere and the final uphill finish to Bardonecchia. Yates cracked on the lower slopes of the Finestre, putting Dumoulin in the virtual race lead, before Froome launched a solo attack further up the climb with  left of the stage. Froome's advantage grew throughout the second half of the stage, as Dumoulin gave chase in a group also containing Thibaut Pinot and Sébastien Reichenbach of , Miguel Ángel López of  and Richard Carapaz of . Froome eventually took the stage victory by more than three minutes and thereby also taking the overall race lead, 40 seconds ahead of Dumoulin, who was attacked by the other riders on the final climb after having set the pace for much of the chase. In a post-stage interview, Dumoulin stated that there was nothing that he could have done to stop Froome. Dumoulin attacked Froome several times on Stage 20 but was unable to force a gap, and ultimately finished second overall behind Froome.

Tour de France

Following the Giro, Dumoulin confirmed his participation in the Tour de France, targeting a high general classification placing. On Stage 6, Dumoulin suffered a mechanical issue late in the stage in the run in to the finish at Mûr-de-Bretagne, which saw him lose time to the other contenders; he was also penalised 20 seconds for drafting behind his team car in his attempt to limit his time losses. On Stage 11 in the Alps, Dumoulin launched an attack on a descent with teammate Søren Kragh Andersen before pressing on alone on the final steep finishing climb to La Rosière. Behind him, Geraint Thomas () attacked from the group of favourites, including his team mate Chris Froome,  from the finish and caught Dumoulin before attacking again in the final kilometre to distance Dumoulin, who was soon caught by Froome. Thomas, Dumoulin and Froome all passed lone breakaway rider Mikel Nieve () in sight of the finish line, with Thomas taking the stage win and Dumoulin finishing second, 20 seconds behind. Thomas took the race leader's yellow jersey by 1 minute and 24 seconds over Froome, with Dumoulin third overall, 1 minute and 44 seconds behind Thomas.

On the following day, Stage 12, Dumoulin again finished second to Thomas, in a sprint finish at Alpe d'Huez. Thomas, Dumoulin and Froome arose as the likely contenders for overall victory in Paris. On Stage 17, the first of the three Pyrenean stages, a  stage to the summit of the Col de Portet, Thomas extended his lead by placing third behind stage winner Nairo Quintana of . Froome's challenge faded on the approach to the summit and he dropped to third position in the general classification, 2:31 behind Thomas. Dumoulin moved into second place, 1:59 off the lead. On the mountainous stage nineteen from Lourdes to Laruns, Primož Roglič of  attacked on the final climb, the Col d'Aubisque, and soloed to the finish nineteen seconds ahead of the chasing group of overall favourites. Thomas was able to consolidate his position in the yellow jersey by picking up six bonus seconds in the sprint thereby extending his lead over Dumoulin to 2 minutes, 5 seconds. The penultimate stage was a  time trial, Dumoulin won the stage, one second ahead of Froome. Dumoulin finished safely on Stage 21 to secure second place overall behind Thomas, his second successive second place in Grand Tours.

2019
Dumoulin crashed towards the end of Stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia and eventually finished the stage four minutes after many other favorites had crossed the line. Dumoulin officially withdrew after only a few kilometers of Stage 5, stating that the pain was too much to continue. Dumoulin also missed the Tour de France as a result of his injuries.

Team Jumbo–Visma (2020–22)
In August 2019, it was announced that Dumoulin would join  on a three-year contract from the 2020 season onwards.

Dumoulin and his team announced he would take an indefinite leave from the sport in January 2021. Dumoulin indicated he needed time to better understand his motivations for cycling and its effects on his personal life. In May it was announced that he intended to return to racing in June at the Tour de Suisse to start his preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic-delayed 2020 Summer Olympics. He took the silver medal in the individual time trial event, for the second consecutive Olympic Games. Dumoulin finished his 2021 season early after he was hit by a motorist during training.

He went into the 2022 Giro d'Italia with hopes of finding the form he had ridden with in previous years. Unfortunately things did not go his way, as he did not have much luck in the first two weeks and ended up abandoning ahead of the final rest day. On stage 7 however, Dumoulin featured as part of the day's breakaway along with his teammate Koen Bouwman. He had attacked out of the peloton to join the second breakaway attempt of the day, which would stay away to fight for the stage win. While both Dumoulin and Bouwman were dropped from the group at different times they were each able to fight their way back to the front. As the end of the stage neared Dumoulin rode hard to set Bouwman up for the stage win, celebrating his teammate's victory as he crossed the line in Potenza. Several weeks later, Dumoulin posted a statement to his Instagram account, announcing that he would retire at the end of the 2022 season.

Major results

2010
 1st  Overall Grand Prix du Portugal
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
 1st Stage 8 (ITT) Giro Ciclistico d'Italia
 7th Time trial, UCI Under-23 Road World Championships
2011
 1st  Overall Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux
 3rd Overall Olympia's Tour
 3rd Overall Thüringen Rundfahrt der U23
 8th Time trial, UCI Under-23 Road World Championships
 8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège Espoirs
2012
 5th Overall Tour de Luxembourg
 5th Rund um Köln
 6th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
 10th Time trial, UCI Under-23 Road World Championships
 10th Overall Vuelta a Burgos
2013
 1st  Mountains classification, Vuelta a Andalucía
 National Road Championships
2nd Road race
3rd Time trial
 2nd Overall Eneco Tour
 5th Overall Tour of Belgium
1st  Young rider classification
 6th Overall Three Days of De Panne
 6th Grand Prix de Wallonie
2014
 1st  Time trial, National Road Championships
 1st Stage 2 (ITT) Critérium International
 2nd Overall Tour of Belgium
1st  Young rider classification
 2nd Overall Tour of Alberta
1st  Young rider classification
1st Prologue
 2nd Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec
 3rd  Time trial, UCI Road World Championships
 3rd Overall Eneco Tour
1st  Points classification
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
 5th Overall Tour de Suisse
 6th Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal
2015
 1st Stage 6 (ITT) Tour of the Basque Country
 3rd Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Stages 1 (ITT) & 9 (ITT)
 4th Time trial, National Road Championships
 4th Overall Tour Down Under
 5th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships
 6th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Stages 9 & 17 (ITT)
Held  after Stages 5, 9–10 & 17–19
Held  after Stages 9–14
 Combativity award Stage 17, 21 & Overall
 Tour de France
Held  after Stage 2
2016
 1st  Time trial, National Road Championships
 Tour de France
1st Stages 9 & 13 (ITT)
 Combativity award Stage 9
 Giro d'Italia
1st Stage 1 (ITT)
Held  after Stages 1–2, 4–7
Held  after Stage 1
 2nd  Time trial, Olympic Games
 3rd Overall Tour of Britain
 4th Overall Tour of Oman
 5th Overall Tour de Romandie
 9th Overall Eneco Tour
2017
 UCI Road World Championships
1st  Time trial
1st  Team time trial
 1st  Time trial, National Road Championships
 1st  Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Stages 10 (ITT) & 14
Held  after Stages 14–15
 1st  Overall BinckBank Tour
 3rd UCI World Tour
 3rd Overall Abu Dhabi Tour
 4th Clásica de San Sebastián
 5th Strade Bianche
 6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
2018
 UCI Road World Championships
2nd  Time trial
2nd  Team time trial
4th Road race
 2nd Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Stage 1 (ITT)
Held  &  after Stage 1
 2nd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 20 (ITT)
 4th Overall Deutschland Tour
 10th UCI World Tour
2019
 4th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
 6th Overall UAE Tour
2020
 7th Overall Tour de France
 7th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné
 10th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships
2021
 1st  Time trial, National Road Championships
 2nd  Time trial, Olympic Games
 9th Overall Benelux Tour
2022
 2nd Time trial, National Road Championships
 6th Volta Limburg Classic
  Combativity award Stage 7 Giro d'Italia

General classification results timeline

Classics results timeline

Major championship results timeline

References

External links 

 

1990 births
Living people
Cyclists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Dutch cycling time trial champions
Dutch Giro d'Italia stage winners
Dutch male cyclists
Dutch Tour de France stage winners
Dutch Vuelta a España stage winners
Giro d'Italia winners
Knights of the Order of Orange-Nassau
Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic cyclists for the Netherlands
Olympic medalists in cycling
Olympic silver medalists for the Netherlands
Sportspeople from Maastricht
Tour de Suisse stage winners
UCI Road World Champions (elite men)
UCI Road World Championships cyclists for the Netherlands
Cyclists at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Cyclists from Limburg (Netherlands)