Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) proved that he had continued his progess when he was the best of the rest behind the four giants Adriano Malori, Fabian Cancellara, Bradley Wiggins, and Tony Martin in today's Tirreno-Adriatico. The Dutchman was pleased with the result which proves that he has the ability to recover in hard stage races.

Tom Dumoulin has finished the closing individual time trial of Tirreno-Adriatico in fifth place just 19-seconds down at the end of the fast 9.1km course. Dumoulin held the leader’s hot-seat for a short period early in the day, having covered the flat route in just under 52kmh, but was soon surpassed by others  including eventual stage winner Adriano Malori (Movistar) who finished in a time of 10’13″.

“Today’s result makes up for a bit of a disappointing week for me personally,” said Dumoulin after the stage. “In the beginning of the week I wasn’t feeling great, and I was pretty tired. But I seem to have to have the capability to recover during a stage race and the result today shows that I had the power back in my legs.

“Even during the time trial I didn’t feel that strong but I was going pretty well, and having such a smooth bike like the Giant helps too. I prefer the course to be a bit more technical, and up and down, but whatever the route, the best time triallists will usually be there or thereabouts.”

Coach, Aike Visbeek said:

“The course was not very technical today and Tom divided it really well, going fast in the second part. Looking at the results he is in really good company and is still young so has time to continue progressing. Tobias [Ludvigsson, 19th] wasn’t feeling great this morning and didn’t go as he hoped but it has been a hard week and it falls at the end of a heavy period of racing.

“In terms of the race in general, we had our fair share of bad luck throughout the week with Marcel’s [Kittl] crash and Roy’s [Curvers] puncture on the first sprint stage, then Roy coming down on stage 3. But the teamwork was really good and everybody should come out of this in better shape both physically and mentally.”