CEO Iwan Spekenbrink and coach Marc Reef have expressed their satisfaction at how Giant-Alpecin performed at the Giro d'Italia.

CEO Iwan Spekenbrink said: “The Giro d’Italia has been a very successful race as it has allowed each individual rider to improve and we are satisfied that the team has evolved positively with each stage of the race.

“What we have seen is that our riders have progressed and made the next steps in their development – Nikias Arndt, Tom Dumoulin, Georg Preidler confirmed this. Their sporting results reflect their progress made during the Giro.

“By sticking to this elite sports Keep Challenging approach we are continually looking for improvement in all areas, in terms of science, training, tactical analysis, and equipment. We are not a team that simply goes from race to race but one that aims to meet the numerous challenges offered by this sport.”

Coach Marc Reef added: “This has been a very successful Giro d’Italia for the team. We can look back proudly on our performances, which included two stage victories and five podiums finishes.

“It started perfectly with Tom Dumoulin winning the opening time trial on home soil and also with Tobias Ludvigsson taking the white jersey. It was very special to defend the leader’s jersey for a long time and it was unfortunate that Dumoulin had to stop on stage 11.

“However the team spirit remained high and we went for every opportunity, remaining competitive during each stage and that worked out really well. Our sprint preparations improved day by day and on stage 17 we were very close to the victory with Nikias. But we kept on believing and it ended with a fantastic victory for Nikias to win his first Grand Tour stage. This was a great way to end a beautiful Giro d’Italia.

“We are really satisfied with the whole team and it was a great bonus to defend the maglia rosa jersey. It was an intense edition with a lot of memorable moments and our performances can be seen has a great achievement.”