In the final showdown to an intense three weeks of racing, Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin (NED) secures the overall victory at the 100th anniversary edition of the Giro d’Italia, Team Sunweb’s first Grand Tour general classification win.
Team Sunweb made history today in what is a huge step, becoming the first German team to win the general classification at the Giro d’Italia. An incredible three week long fight from the entire team landed Dumoulin in a perfect position ahead of today’s individual time trial in Milan, with just 53 seconds separating Team Sunweb’s Dutch time trial champion from the Maglia Rosa. When Dumoulin arrived at the second check point, he was the virtual Maglia Rosa and was able to continue perfectly powering to glory on his Giant Trinity Advanced SL, winning the Giro d’Italia by 31 seconds. With a long term vision in mind the team have helped to grow Dumoulin into the rider he is today, Team Sunweb continue to do the same with their current and future German talents, with the aim of progressing to this level in the future.
An emotional Dumoulin said of his win: “This is incredible, I can’t believe it. Beforehand I knew that I needed to stay calm but I almost couldn’t. I am happy for myself but also happy that so many special people around me were able to share this moment with me and to have the team up on the podium with me really topped it all. It’s been a great atmosphere with the team over the past few weeks and I can’t thank the team enough for all that they have done. All of our hard work has paid off and I couldn’t be more thrilled.”
Team Sunweb’s Giro d’Italia coach Luke Roberts (AUS) added: “With everyone so tired we knew that today would be really unpredictable, but within the first few kilometres I knew that this was going to be a good time trial for Tom. To finish off these three weeks with a win is brilliant. We’ve had some ups and downs but the whole team have done an amazing job and their incredible efforts have been rewarded.”
Team Sunweb CEO Iwan Spekenbrink (NED) said: “From everyone that has been involved with the team from its beginning to everyone that joined later on, this comes as a huge reward for everybody’s hard work and dedication. We all share one united goal and each and every person works tirelessly towards it, always on the basis of new and challenging ideas to keep growing our team and setting higher goals. I am so proud of the team and Tom, as well as everybody behind the scenes who has made this possible. This really is a brilliant achievement for the entire Team Sunweb family.”
Photo Credit: ‘© Cor Vos | Team Sunweb
