Tom Dumoulin, who was the revelation of the 2015 Vuelta a España, has announced that he will be present at the start of the 2016 Giro d'Italia. The Dutch rider appears to be a perfect match for the first three-week race of the year with its three time trial stages. He added that the Olympic time trial is his mostimportant goal.

Interviewed by Cyclingnews during the Giant-Alpecin team presentation in Berlin, he explained his new status: "If you do a good GC ride once, it’s very tempting to become a GC rider and always go for GC in Grand Tours but my main goals are actually the time trial in Rio and the time trials in the Giro, so it’s going to be more of a time trial year than a GC year."

"We knew that Rio would be the focus, the main goal, so we looked at what we could do. Normally two weeks after a Grand Tour, I’m going quite well so the Tour would have been an option. But on the other hand, I always react really well to altitude camps and training in general – look at the Vuelta, I only did six weeks of training before and I was in great shape," Dumoulin said. "In the end, we went for the Giro because it starts in Holland and it’s a beautiful course for me with the two time trials, so there’s a chance to wear the pink jersey early on. How we approach things after the Giro is not completely certain yet, but probably it’s going to be training and the Tour of Poland."

He will start the Giro d'Italia without any big GC goal.. "We’ll see after nine days how the GC is formed or where I’m at. It’s not the focus to go there for GC from the start, but what do you do if you’re still in GC after nine days? It’s a bit the like the Vuelta: we don’t have a plan yet, but it would be a waste to then sit up and do nothing," Dumoulin said.

During the meeting, he has announced his schedule for the 2016 season. He will start in February at the Tour of Oman before heading to Paris-Nice. According to Cyclingnews, he will be present at Milan-San Remo, the Volta a Catalunya and at home at the Amstel Gold Race. In order to prepare for the Giro, he will then head to an altitude training camp. "I didn’t want to do all of the Ardennes Classics because I’ve focused three or four years on being good there and it never worked out. Maybe it’s not my time of year."

After the Giro, he will turn his attention to Rio. He is still undecided about a possible participation in the Tour.