Tom Dumoulin withdraws from Criterium du Dauphine: There’s no need to push it with the knee
Jun 15 2019 10:02 pm CET
Photo of Tom Dumoulin © Team Sunweb
Team Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin has withdrawn from the Criterium du Dauphine before the start of the seventh stage. The rider prefers to take it easy with the recovery of his knee.
Before the seventh stage of the French race -in which the peloton was set to face three climbs of the first category and a finish on an hors-cat ascent- Dumoulin has decided to call it a day and continue focusing on the recovery of his knee. The rider is still healing from the hard hit he received in his left knee during the Giro d'Italia.
"It’s been a solid week of racing and it was good to gain some racing rhythm," the Dutchman commented. "Yesterday after the stage I felt pretty good, but during the evening the irritation started to come back. I feel like there’s no need to push it with the knee, so rest is a good option before I continue with a quality training block at altitude."
Dumoulin will start next week the altitude training with the team to prepare for the Tour de France. "This is more a preventative measure than anything," said Sunweb's physician Camiel Aldershof. "Ahead of the Dauphiné we said we would take no risk, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
"This week has been pretty satisfactory; we’ve monitored the situation every day and of course had ups and downs, but that was to be expected. Initially, after feeling good yesterday, the irritation returned during the evening so we decided some extra rest ahead of altitude would be better than continuing to push into the mountains here in France."
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