After strong performance at the 2015 Vuelta a España, Tom Dumoulin discloses power data
Following his seemingly tireless performance at the 2015 Vuelta a España, Tom Dumoulin, the mighty Netherlands rider who managed to hold his own on the tour's grueling mountain stages, has voluntarily disclosed his power data.
Following his seemingly tireless performance at the 2015 Vuelta a España, Tom Dumoulin, the mighty Netherlands rider who managed to hold his own on the tour’s grueling mountain stages, has voluntarily disclosed his power data.
The decision, Dumoulin said, comes without any prompting — simply a desire for transparency.
During the Vuelta, the Dutch rider turned heads with his strength in holding off riders like Joaquim Rodriquez and Fabio Aru, a tenacity that only lapsed in the second to last stage of the competition when he lost the leader’s jersey to Aru. Despite slipping to sixth place in general classification as a result, the 24-year-old Giant-Alpecin cyclist nonetheless found himself the race’s breakout rider. Having been taken out of the Tour de France shortly before the Vuelta, his stated strategy going into competition in Spain — to take his time, getting back into shape slowly — made his performance all the more impressive.
Perhaps knowing that, Dumoulin’s disclosure of his power data seems like a way of putting a pre-emptive pin in any controversy resulting from his Vuelta performance. It’s common, after all, for a strong ride on a hard course to immediately elicit claims of doping, something that can stalk a cyclist through the rest of the season — as Chris Froome knows all too well. As Dumoulin told reporters, though, he simply can’t see why the hard numbers on his power shouldn’t be public knowledge.
“I know of no good reason not to share my data,” he said “It’s only the data from my time trial that I’d rather not make public; it can reveal other things about my aerodynamics. The rest everyone should know.”
Early in the race, day two’s road stage, where Dumoulin climbed to the finish in second place at Caminito del Rey, saw him crank out 459.6 watts in just over eight minutes and average 6.6 watts per kilogram. The stage 6 Sierra de Cazorla climb — a notably similar one — saw him dramatically burst through that ceiling in his power, with his chase of Esteban Chaves producing 7 watts. For much of the Vuelta’s remainder, Dumoulin hovered just below 6 watts per kilogram. His climb to the Puerto de Cotos finish, whose results saw him finally lose the red jersey to Aru, represented the lowest numbers of his power at the Vuelta, when he recorded 5.2 watts per kilogram.
The data, coach Adrian Helmantel said, shows Dumoulin still below the threshold set by his own training — despite his jaw-dropping performance at the Vuelta. Ultimately, he added, the data simply shows his astounding development as an athlete, with his competition in Spain surprising his own team as well.
“We can look at Tom’s development with the figures that we have,” Helmantel said, “and that we share with others. We did not initially expect him to participate for the overall win in the Vuelta but it is not strange that it happened. In the winter we asked ourselves when Tom would be able to win a Grand Tour. His performance data showed that he is capable of that.”
