Tom Dumoulin focused on the Tour de France Yellow Jersey
Tom Dumoulin will target the Yellow Jersey after being named as Team Sunweb's captain for the race with Michael Matthews targeting another Green Jersey
For the first time in his career the Dutchman will race for the general classification title at back-to-back Grand Tours, Dumoulin having finished second at the Giro d'Italia.
Dumoulin was denied successive Giro titles last month after a shock performance from Chris Froome, the Team Sky rider producing a astounding solo break in stage 19 that effectively secured the title.
The winner of the 2017 Giro d'Italia will captain the team at the Tour de France without any big expectations. "I am very proud of what we’ve already achieved at the Giro and I consider any result that we can take at the Tour de France a bonus for this season," Dumoulin said "My season so far has been focused on the Giro and the team purposely waited to the make the decision about the Tour until after the Giro had finished."
"After a good Giro, we’ve chosen to go to the Tour with a GC focus, to learn without a specific result in mind. Doing two consecutive grand tours for a GC will be a new experience for me and the team, and will give us some valuable insights for the future."
Michael Matthews, who can also try to improve from the result he aceived in the 2017 edition of the race. "Last year we had a perfect Tour de France with four stage wins and two jerseys," the Australian said.
"Taking the green jersey to Paris was a dream come true for me. This year my primary focus will be to support the team’s GC objective and in the uphill sprint stages, I will be the team’s designated rider for the finale."
The team also has the aim of showing why it took the victory at the team time trial World Championships in the stage that will be dedicated to this discipline. "As the world champions, the TTT is a stage that we have already highlighted and we will look for a solid result there," explained coach Tom Veelers. "We’ve never been to the Tour de France with a GC focus and it will be a completely new experience for us and a long-term challenge that we are looking forward to."
Team Sunweb for the 2018 Tour de France (7th to 28th of July):
Søren Kragh Andersen
Nikias Arndt
Phil Bauhaus
Roy Curvers
Laurens ten Dam
Tom Dumoulin
Simon Geschke
Chad Haga
Wilco Kelderman
Michael Matthews
Mike Teunissen
Edward Theuns