Criterium du Dauphine - Tom Dumoulin: I’m happy with how the knee is holding up so far
Jun 11 2019 04:29 am CET
Photo of Tom Dumoulin © Team Sunweb
Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) was part of the first breakaway of the day in the Criterium du Dauphine. The rider showed to have strong legs on his second day of racing after recovering from the Giro d'Italia injuries.
Dumoulin broke free with the rest of the escapees during the first kilometres of the second stage at the French race. Later on the day, he attacked during a climb and formed a smaller group that was later on caught by the peloton, but he had the chance to test his legs in the escape after returning to racing following the recovery from the injuries sustained at the Giro d'Italia.
The rider crashed out at the fifth stage of the Italian grand tour with a big hit in his knee and at the stage of the Dauphine he had the chance to see how his shape is developing. "I’m pretty satisfied with how it is going now," said Dumoulin at the finish. "It wasn’t really the plan to go in the break this morning but I found myself in the front on the first climb and it split behind. I knew it would be very difficult to go to the finish with the quality of riders we had in the group so they didn’t want to let us go, but it was a good day out.
"My level is not where it is supposed to be to fight for a GC here, so I decided to give it a go and get a good ride in once I was in the breakaway. I’m happy with how the knee is holding up so far. It’s just a matter of keeping the line going upwards and hopefully, my shape will also improve over the next couple of weeks."
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