Tom Dumoulin won the extremely difficult closing time trial at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, his first win of this season.
 

Putting in a huge effort, Dumoulin set the fastest time in today’s extremely challenging time trial. It was a close call, as time differences were very small. Runner-up was Joaqium Rodriquez (Katusha) with only 4 seconds difference.

During the previous stages at the six-day race in Northern Spain Dumoulin saved his energy with one aim, to get a good results in the time trial, and he did. The time trial was the final stage of the six-day race in northern Spain.

A very happy Dumoulin said: "It was a difficult time trial with two very hard climbs in the second part. The first part was mostly descent. The irregularity of today’s course fits me well.

"This morning during the recon we decided to start with my Giant Trinity TT bike and change to the Giant TCR road bike along the route, which was the best decision.<

"I am very happy but surprised as well that I can compete on this level and even stay ahead of all the climbers. I didn’t start with a clear target to go for a good GC here, as we knew that a finish in the top 10 GC is very unlikely. That is pretty much the reason we didn’t waste too much energy in the past stages to really go for it in today’s time trial, which fits my upcoming classics ambitions, too.

"I felt better every day this past week and I am heading towards next week’s Amstel Gold Race with a lot of confidence."

Coach Aike Visbeek reacted delighted: “This time trial was extremely hard, as it went up and down constantly. All week we have worked toward today, so Tom saved his legs during the previous two stages.

“This was a great performance, and I am very happy. We saw him improving every day; his form is really good at the moment. One of the reasons he was able to win today is because he really paced his effort well over the 18.3km route.”