Tom Dumoulin of Jumbo Visma, one of the three team leaders along with Steven Kruijswijk and Primoz Roglic for this year's Tour de France, told Dutch media that he is unlikely to compete in the national and world championship time trials to concentrate on the Tour. media.

The 29-year-old told NOS.nl on Monday that neither the Dutch championships, which take place the week before the start of the Tour, nor the world championship TT scheduled for the final day of the Tour, fit into this year's shortened race program.

"We have a very busy program with the high altitude training camp and other races," explained the three-time Dutch time trial champion.

"Between the Criterium du Dauphiné (August 12-16) and the Tour (August 29-September 20), I will be in France, as it is impossible to return to the Netherlands for the national championships.

As reported last month, Dumoulin will concentrate on his racing program in France until the Tour de France, when he and the Tour team will be based in Tignes for training camps in the French Alps in July and August.

He also denied the possibility of ending the Tour early for the World Championship time trial, if it is scheduled for September 20, the last day of the Tour, and told Wielerflits.nl (opens in new tab) late last month that due to a conflict with the Tour, Dumoulin He reiterated his Jumbo Visma team's comments about not allowing him to join the national team.

"The individual time trial at the World Championships was always held on a Wednesday," said the winner of the 2017 event, while the road race usually takes place four days later. Moving it to Sunday [a week earlier than the road race] was already a strange move." Under the circumstances, it would be very easy to overturn it. But for now, the UCI is sticking to Sunday."

Dumoulin said he would try to finish the Tour "even if I have a bad leg and can't join the overall contenders."

"Hopefully, one of the three leaders of the team will still be there.

He said he sees the Tour's only time trial (a 36-km individual TT on the final day of the race with a finish uphill at La Planche des Belle Fils) as a stage where he wants to shine, regardless of whether he is still in contention for the overall.

"That time trial is perfect for me," Dumoulin said. The first 30km is a bit "French flat" (undulating) and the last 7km hits La Planche. It's very similar to the 2017 World Championship TT course in Bergen (Norway), where I became world champion.

"Hopefully, though, I'll be competing for GC in the Tour. But then I would have to arrive in Paris on Sunday completely exhausted and run the World Championships time trial on tired legs," he said, envisioning a scenario where the race moves to Wednesday. Athletes not participating in the Tour would have no such problem."