Giro d’Italia leader Tom Dumoulin has expressed his disappointment with how events unfolded during stage 16 of the race, but is not blaming the tactics of the teams of his rivals.
Dumoulin suffered from stomach problems during the stage and he had to stop suddenly at the side of the road before the final climb of the Umbrailpass to go to the toilet. As Dumoulin pulled in for his emergency stop, the attacks started with Ilnur Zakain (Katusha-Alpecin) the first to go clear.
This set the tone as Nibali’s Bahrain-Merida team and the Movistar team of Nairo Quintana pushed on without waiting for Dumoulin. Nibali was to go clear on the final descent to battle for the stage win with Mikel Landa (Team Sky) as Dumoulin struggled behind.
He ended up finishing more than two minutes behind stage winner Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and has seen his lead significantly reduced. The Dutch rider now leads Quintana by just 31 seconds with Nibali in third place at 1’12”.
Afterwards he tweeted: “A day to quickly forget! Good legs, but very disappointed that I lost 2 min because nature called. Also very disappointed that they cancelled the downhill prize. I think I won it today going down Stelvio.”
He went on to say: “Oh, and I’m not angry or disappointed that other teams didn’t really wait! It was not the moment or the time in the race anymore to come to a complete shutdown because nature called me.”
'I had to take a dump'@tom_dumoulin telling it like it is pic.twitter.com/CDrxhmIIBV
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 23, 2017
A pretty shi**y thing to do though!
And that’s why he deserves to win, shows respect to others but doesn’t hold it against them when they don’t show respect to the leaders jersey
Its a race in fairness therefore no opposition rider should have to wait for the race leader should they have a call of nature. Make hay when the sun shines as the saying goes.
They could ‘smell’ the chance to reduce his lead
Adrian….so they got a sniff ‘off’ success..
My best friend used to stop frequently for nature breaks… he would make us keep riding… we finally concluded he just liked the challenge of catching back up. 😉
That’s racing for you.
Stand up guy
The ego on this guy! Why the F would your competitors wait for you? Someone kick this guy in the balls, he needs a dose of reality
Maybe you should read what he said
Because he waited for them? Plus, he said he wasn’t holding it against them.
Holding what against them? Why on earth would any racer wait for his competitors? Is this something particular to cycling races? To google I go!
He was in the pink jersey… it is customary for the peloton to wait for the race leader in an event of a crash or poop stop… I think they actually did wait for him… he held a 2’30 gap behind the peloton and was solo and I bet he used more than that time for his number two… they just didn’t completely stop…
Yeah they tried to slow down and wait for him, from what it looked like.
So google told me this is how they used to do it; a tradition to wait .. a “gentlemanly” thing to do .. but that it’s not entirely practiced anymore .. in fact most the athletes I read about said poop in your shorts and keep riding ..
Hmmm. Seems to be a lot of short term memory here. Didn’t Tom stop the lead group after Quintana fell? He also got p’d off when Niballi/Bahrain Mérida attacked when Nairobi had to change bike again. Double standards or what. This behaviour leads me to think they don’t have much faith in their abilities if they need to resort to these tactics. It’s an unwritten “rule” but when a rider has shown you courtesy I’d expect it to be returned.
Every man for himself.. Selfish they are.
After he waited for Quintana and asked the Peloton to wait for him. This is how they repay A class act?
Very noble of Tom BUT IMHO those that attacked showed the sport in a terrible light particularly after what he did when Quintana attacked, was the worst moment of the Giro by a mile