"I started thinking about it and I could not find a good reason to go to another team. I do not know what more they can offer compared to my current team," Tom Dumoulin told NOS. And so he has his extended his contract with Giant-Alpecin for two seasons. 

The old contract of the 24-year old Dutchman still runs for another season but Dumoulin will now spend the next three years in black and white. The Dutchman had a breakthrough as a GC rider in 2015 and did not escape the attention of big teams like Team Sky and Etixx-QuickStep. In recent weeks, those teams have shown interest in Dumoulin.

Dumoulin himself was hardly concerned with the news. "Anyway, I had a contract for one season and transfers are not really prevalent in cycling, so I was not really very active on the transfer market."

He feels good in the team for which he raced since 2012. "And I make great progress every year," said Dumoulin. A result of his emergence as a GC rider is that Giant-Alpecin is looking for riders that can support him.

During the Vuelta team the team was especially vulnerable in the mountains. "We must do better in the coming years, but it's not like we went shopping and immediately attracted five new riders. Now we have some strong riders like Laurens ten Dam."

The team that will support Dumoulin in the mountains consists of riders like Simon Geschke, Georg Preidler and now Ten Dam. Other new signings are Sam Oomen and Sindre Skjøstad Lunke but they are still too young to be of great value in 2016. "Every year we will look at what is still needed."

Dumoulin's and Warren Barguil's GC potential doesn't mean sprinting is of secondary importance. "Marcel Kittel is now leaving the team. But we still have some very strong sprinters," Dumoulin said.

John Degenkolb is still there and Nikias Arndt and Ramon Sinkeldam are also fast. "We have worked for years on building a super sprint train. We did that so well that it would be a shame to throw it away and go in a completely different direction. Sprints will always be a part of this team."