Enjoying a well-deserved offseason rest, Giant-Alpecin’s Tom Dumoulin has had plenty of questions to answer about his future, after a great showing in the Vuelta a Espana. The 24 year old Dutchman sat down with VeloNews to discuss 2016 goals.

One question he hasn’t had to answer too often is would he have produced what he did in the Vuelta in the Tour de France is he hadn’t crashed out? 

“I don’t think so. I think my weight was a bit lower at the Vuelta than at the Tour, and my form was a bit better too. If you look at the first [Tour] time trial in Utrecht, I don’t think I would have done that better with Vuelta shape. But my climbing and my recovery were a bit better at the Vuelta. It was never the plan to race for GC at the Tour. But it wasn’t the plan at the Vuelta, either. So, you never know.”

Dumoulin and his team were surprised at what he could do in the Vuelta, with many drawing comparisons to Bradley Wiggins. He says that while sixth overall wasn’t what he wanted going into the penultimate stage, he has obtained vital experience and knowledge from the Vuelta, which he can use in the future.

“The Vuelta was quite a surprise to me. The idea in this part of my career is to finish a grand tour every year to just make me stronger. That was the idea for the Vuelta. I prepared well. I went to altitude again, and I trained pretty hard. But I went to the Vuelta without any expectations. I just wanted to show myself and show the world that I worked hard after my crash and that I was still motivated for the last part of the season.”

“Now I know I can do it. I know how I trained before the Vuelta, how to watch my weight. There are things I learned for the future. It made me a wiser man, that Vuelta.”

Dumoulin’s downfall was that he lacked climbing support in the Vuelta. Lawson Craddock was the only climber on the team and he was very young and after three weeks of supporting Dumoulin, he was tiring in the last week. Dumoulin says his team have promised climbing support to help Dumoulin and Warren Barguil. They don’t seem to have provided it for 2016, as the only climber to arrive that wasn’t a neo-pro was Laurens Ten Dam, but Dumoulin has signed a deal until the end of 2018 and is not putting pressure on himself to win a Grand Tour in 2016.

“They said they will. Already before this Vuelta that was the plan. In the future, the team will have a goal of keeping the sprint and lead-out but also looking at support for me and Warren Barguil. He almost did a top 10 at the tour, and I did top 10 at the Vuelta. We are both young; we’ll continue to develop. The team sees that. They acknowledge that we need a bit more support in the mountains.”

“But I won’t always target the general classification. I’m starting to get really comfortable with this time-trial trick. I know how to be aerodynamic, where to push the power on the course, where to take my recovery. I know how to take the corners. I’m getting better.”