After failing to win a time trial on home soil at the 2015 Tour and with a string of second places in 2016, Tom Dumoulin of Giant-Alpecin has tipped Fabian Cancellara to win the opening TT of the Giro on Friday in Holland.

Dumoulin was speaking this morning at his pre-Giro Grande Partenza press conference. He says he saw the Utrecht course from last year’s Tour six times and still didn’t win, so this time he will only view the course a few times.

“Sometimes I only see a course once and I can dream it - I know every corner exactly. In Utrecht, I saw it six times and I still didn’t really know it. It’s all about focus, so I thought I could spend the time better and just see it tomorrow and on the day itself. In Romandie, I only saw the time trial course in the morning of the time trial itself. I did it one time on the bike and one time in the car and I knew everything, so I’m not afraid that this course will be any trouble.”

Dumoulin says he will need to rely on his memory of the course as he doubt he will hear anything through his radio, thanks to the noise the Dutch fans will make if they are anything like they were in July 2015.

“Last year at the Tour it was amazing; I was riding through a wall of noise and I couldn’t hear anything on my radio. We had a whole plan worked with tactical information but I didn’t hear anything – it was just really special. It’s good weather in Holland and people are really excited so I probably won’t hear my radio again, so I’ll have to make sure I know everything.”