Tom Dumoulin says he's quite close to where he needs to be after returning to racing for the first time after taking a break from the sport.
Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) managed a very impressive 16th place in the opening time trial of the Tour de Suisse 2021, beating the likes of Luxembourg time trial champion Bob Jungels (Ag2r-Citroën) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix).
Speaking after the race, Dumoulin said: "It was good. I’m not at my best yet of course, but that was also not to be expected. I’m just happy to be back and to be racing again.
"I didn't really have any expectations or hopes in terms of results. Well, my only hope was I would not be in the second half of the bunch. But luckily I'm quite close. And this offers me some opportunities for the next week to improve."
>>> 'Maybe I'll chase the GC at Grand Tours again,' says Tom Dumoulin as he makes comeback at Tour de Suisse
The former time trial world champion said that he didn't have time to enjoy the ride as he was concentrating on the effort in the time trial, adding that he was nervous before and during the ride.
"It was good but not good enough yet. Especially the second half," Dumoulin said.
"I noticed that I missed some power to really pull through I think in the technical first half of the TT I was kind of okay, but then you notice in the second half that when you have these long straights and you really need the power I'm still lacking a little bit but that's okay."
Jumbo-Visma looks to be set to support Dumoulin and Sam Oomen for a potential hit out at the general classification, with Oomen being the likely leader while Mike Teunissen will target sprint opportunities.
The second stage of the Tour de Suisse is a standard profile for the race with lots of testing lumps towards the second half of the day between Neuhausen am Rheinfall to Lachen over 178km.
