Giro d’Italia 2019: Simon Yates and Tom Dumoulin prioritise Italian race over Tour de France

The routes for the 2019 Giro and Tour were revealed in October

(Getty)

Simon Yates and Tom Dumoulin will return to the Giro d’Italia in 2019 to make amends after they were beaten to the Maglia Rosa by Chris Froome’s extraordinary attack on stage 19 of the race earlier this year.

Yates, who went on to win his first grand tour at the Vuelta a Espana in September, spent 13 days wearing pink with Dumoulin in closest attendance before Froome crushed them both with a now famous attack on the Colle delle Finestre.

The 26-year-old Yates could have switched his attention to the Tour de France, but has confirmed he will return to Italy where he still has unfinished business despite a route which is better suited to a rider like Dumoulin, who has chosen to prioritise the 2019 Giro owing to the Italian grand tour’s extensive time-trial kilometres.

Dumoulin finished on the podium in Paris and Rome this year (AFP/Getty Images)

The Giro and Tour routes were revealed in October, and while the Giro will be bookended by two individual time trials (ITTs) in addition to a third in the middle of the race, totalling 58.5km against the clock, the Tour offers only one 27km ITT alongside a 28km team time trial.

“I’m looking forward to returning to the Giro d’Italia next year. It’s a race I have great memories from this year but it was one which also left a bitter taste in my mouth so I want to go back to try to finish the job off,” Yates said.

“The Giro is always an extremely difficult race and next year, with three time trials, it’s maybe not perfectly suited to me but we will still give it a real go and see what we can achieve.”

Dumoulin finished on the podium at both the Giro and the Tour this year, and hinted in a video message on social media that he would take on both again, although the Giro is set to be the Team Sunweb rider’s priority as he chases a second grand tour triumph following his 2017 Giro win.

“After weeks of talking about it, we finally decided the main focus will be the Giro d’Italia in 2019,” said Dumoulin. “We had the Tour de France for a long time in our head but the Giro is such a nice course this year. I really love Italy, I love the course, and I love the race.

“Afterwards is very likely that I will do the Tour de France for GC, just like this year, but it’s still undecided.”