Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) raced to victory in today’s time-trial stage of the Tour de France, taking his second win of the Tour after his victory on stage 9 to Andorra.
The thirteenth stage consisted of a 37.5km test from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont-d’Arc, and Dumoulin was the fastest on the tough parcours, with a time of 50’15” and an average pace of around 44.7km/h.
Tom Dumoulin – “It’s a day of two halves. I’m very happy with the win but my thoughts go out to everyone affected by the horrific attack in Nice. This morning we woke up to the terrible news and I had to get into my zone and focus on the time trial. It is terrible what happened today and it shadows the day a lot. I think we cannot let terrorists decide our lives in our society.
“During the recon which I did behind John [Degenkolb] in the team car I noticed there were a couple of tricky moments with the cross winds so I was well prepared and aware of it. Therefore we decided to race with a normal front wheel.
“Throughout the course anyway the wind was very dangerous and very hard to cope with. In the final run in there was one dangerous moment where I almost went off the road.
“Overall it was a very good time trial and it shows that I am in good shape at the moment. During the last two days I was not feeling so well, but today I had good legs. I was able to enjoy the ride today and I was able to concentrate on my performance. I know I can pick my days during the Tour and go for a good result, and today’s victory gives me a lot of confidence.”
