Koen Bouwman's Giro d'Italia "a stepping stone to the future"

Koen Bouwman had an extremely successful Giro d'Italia with two stage wins and the blue mountain jersey. He rode Jumbo-Visma's race into success after the overall classification ambitions did not come to light.

From the point of view of the outside world it gave him a new status, but according to himself not much has changed. "I am still the same cyclist as before. That doesn't change," he told WielerFlits .

"Of course, I've had three super nice weeks and who knows, maybe this is a stepping stone to the future. Maybe this is it too, no idea. In any case, they will never take this away from me again. Now we have to see what happens next, together with the team", Bouwman said. He indicates he feels comfortable at Jumbo-Visma. Since his good performance in the Giro he has often been asked if he should not go to another team, he says, but that seems to be out of the question for now.

"At this team, I feel so at home. They picked me up in the U23s when I wasn't the biggest talent. The steps I've made in recent years may not be giant steps, but it does result in the rider I've become now. And what I say: who knows what else is in store? For now, I'm super happy with the team and can't wish for anything else," he added.

Although from the outside everything seemed to be going smoothly for Bouwman, he too had to deal with difficulties during the Giro d'Italia. "I also had some problems with my back, which was really unfortunate. Otherwise, I might have been able to go for another stage win. But my back got better and better and I was able to keep going. That resulted in another win, you can't imagine," he concluded.