Tom Dumoulin decides to skip Vuelta a España to avoid physical and mental fatigue after Giro win

Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) will not travel to the Vuelta a España next month, instead solely focussing on the World Championships in Bergen at the end of September.

After winning the Giro d'Italia in May, Dumoulin raced at the Tour de Suisse and Hammer Series before enjoying some time off the bike at the beginning of July.

The Dutchman explained in a statement  that the plan had initially been for him to travel to the Vuelta a España to ride in support of Wilco Kelderman, but that he would now skip the race to avoid burning himself out ahead of the World Championships.

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"I will primarily focus on the World Championships in Bergen. Especially on the individual TT, but I hope to do well on the TTT and the road race as well. And as you may have noticed at my calendar, no Vuelta!" Dumoulin wrote on Facebook.

"It was also on my mind and the team's to go there to help Wilco fight for GC and to hunt for stages myself and prepare for the Worlds at the same time.

"But then winning the Giro happened... Very cool, but crazy times followed and after my holiday in the beginning of July me and the team started to doubt if I physically and mentally had it in me to do a super busy program and a second Grand Tour (altitude camp, San Sebastian, Eneco, Vuelta) and to be at my best shape at the Worlds after that."

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Dumoulin explained that he didn't want to risk a hard end to his season which could leave him going into the winter with a "bad feeling".

Instead the Team Sunweb rider will travel to the Clasica San Sebastian and the BinckBank Tour (formerly the Eneco Tour) as had been initially planned, before travelling to Canada for the GP Montreal and the GP Quebec ahead of the World Championships