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"It's a little like if the Tour starts again tomorrow," said Dumoulin Monday during the first day of rest in Aix-les-Bains. "We had a crazy first day of nine days, without mountains, and from Tuesday it will be another Tour."
After the rest day, the runners have a difficult triptych in the Alps for the wheels. In the stages of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the peloton has a total of four passes of the first and preferably six passes of the outdoor category, culminating in the arrival at Alpe d'Huez on Thursday .
Dumoulin begins the tenth stage of Tuesday at the fifteenth place overall, 2 minutes and 3 seconds of the geletruidrager Greg Van Avermaet
"Until now, I still feel fresh," says the number two of the Tour of Italy two months ago. "Of course, I also have nine stressful runs in the legs, but physically it was not the most difficult steps."
Dumoulin dares to make no prediction on the next three steps. "It's almost impossible to say how I will feel in alpine rides, I felt good the first week, but a mountain ride is totally different from what we had until here." My shape or form of my competitors, we know much more in three days. "
Riskant
Dumoulin is surprised that the time differences between the ranking riders are not greater after the first nine stages. Geraint Thomas, the shadow man of Team Sky, is the best ranking man at 43 seconds of the yellow, while Daniel Martin, slightly beaten, has the worst starting position with a 3 minute delay and 22 seconds
. that the differences between the classification runners would be greater, especially in the paved Sunday race, "says Dumoulin." The fact that everything is still close could be beneficial for the excitement in the mountain stages, but that could also mean that not much will happen, because everyone is afraid of wasting time. "
Sunweb's team thinks that Tuesday will be a cautious start." It can be risky. " take full advantage of it the day after the day of rest, especially because two more difficult steps follow, but it will be three very difficult days, but I'm looking forward to it. "
Sky
L & # 39; Last year, there were few fireworks in the Tour's mountain stages, because the high rate of Team Sky's eventual final winner Chris Froome made the attacks almost impossible
. strong team with two good leaders (Froome and Thomas, ed.) They can check again, "says Dumoulin. "But in the end everything depends on the legs of the leaders."
The Limburger has every confidence in his own team, which, due to the failure of Michael Matthews, must miss an important link. "
" On paper, Sky has absolutely a stronger team than us, but I think we can go very far, beyond what people think, "says Dumoulin. "We've already shown it twice at the Giro, and I'm sure we'll be able to do it again at the Tour."
The peloton exceeds 158 kilometers between Tuesday and Tuesday. and Le Grand-Bornand an outdoor category mountain, three of the first category and one of the fourth category for the wheels. The starting point is at 13:35, the arrival is scheduled between 17:45 and 18:15.
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