Laurens ten Dam forced "to bring us Haribo and a bag of chips" to ensure Tom Dumoulin's win at the 2017 Giro
Cycling
Monte Grappa is one of the mythical climbs of Giro d'Italia, even if it's not always a decisive point of the race. The peloton will once again approach this mountain giant in Sunday's stage which made Laurens Ten Dam recall a funny anecdote from when the 2017 peloton contested a similar stage to the one awaiting tomorrow.
"That was the penultimate stage of 2017, where he was in a group with Bauke Mollema and Bob Jungels," he begins the story that centers around Tom Dumoulin in the Live Slow, Ride Fast podcast. "I was dropped on the Monte Grappa. That was just a brutal stage, but luckily Tom was able to limit the damage."
What was so special about the edition? "It was the first year that we worked with personal plates." Dumoulin, who was in the contention for overall victory, had just enough of these personal plates by the time third week arrived. With only final time trial ahead, he run out of patience.
"After the finish, he couldn't eat it anymore, because he got another bowl of couscous. He said: 'I can't eat this anymore, you know.'"
Ten Dam, afraid that the 4th overall Dumoulin could be throwing away a good chance to win the Giro, took charge of the situation and approached Aike Visbeek, then DS at Sunweb to find a solution. "We all tried to manage it a bit. I said: 'Aike, it doesn't matter what he eats, but he has to have calories! If he doesn't eat anything now, he won't eat anything tomorrow.' If you can't eat that, you might as well eat something bad."
As luck would have it, there was a pizzeria around the parking lot. "Aike said that a call was being made to the nutritionist in the Netherlands. I responded: 'I see a pizzeria there, just get eight pizzas. There had to be food in it, even if it was a bit more greasy. By the grace of God, he ended up with a bag of Haribo and a bag of chips.'"
Dinner the next day was again according to the nutritionist's plan, but with a sweet reward. "But afterwards there was a stack of pancakes baked for us, of which we could eat as many as possible."
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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