Pluimers had a day without “stones in the legs” after key support work for Storer: “He was pretty much done with it”

Pluimers seemed to have a sense of foresight when he looked ahead to stage 18 on Thursday before the start of stage 17 on Wednesday. “That’s going to be a special stage, and if I’ve got good legs, I might be able to try something. So far, I haven’t had my absolute best legs to really compete, but hopefully that’ll change on Thursday. They say it’ll be a sprint stage, but I’m expecting a breakaway to go for it.”

And so it happened. Pluimers was part of a large breakaway group of 34 riders, but with several top Giro sprinters also included, the group eventually split apart. Pluimers finished twelfth. A win wasn’t in the cards, but his legs are still going strong in what is the first third week of a Grand Tour in his career. “The main goal was to get through this Giro and finish it well, and so far that’s going great. People say you fly in the week after a Grand Tour, so I guess we’ll find out in the Tour of Maastricht, haha.”

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“I’m enjoying it, I’m getting through it well, and so far things are going smoothly,” was his conclusion. “They did tell us beforehand that at some point you’ll get tired, but also that there comes a point when you don’t get any more tired. That’s a good way to describe it. In the second week you really start to feel the fatigue and your legs hurt, but somehow your body manages to handle it, and it doesn’t get any worse.”

An amateur cyclist can hardly imagine what it’s like to ride a grand tour, but Pluimers explains: “It’s a bit strange, one day it feels like you have stones in your legs and every pedal stroke hurts. But on Tuesday, for example, my legs felt really smooth and fresh, so it really varies from day to day. After a long day you do feel the fatigue again, but I’ve never had the kind of legs I had after the Tour of Flanders.”

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After stage 18, Pluimers likely won’t be back in action until the final day in Rome. “When you arrive in Rome, you definitely want to sprint, so that’s a goal with Maikel.” On Friday and Saturday, however, Tudor hopes to defend Storer’s spot in the top ten. That journey has been full of ups and downs so far. “It’s a shame that almost all the time Michael has lost came from crashes. He fell during the time trial and lost a minute, lost more time in the Strade Bianche stage, and then crashed again on Tuesday.”

Storer himself said he hit the ground face-first in stage 16, and Pluimers was there. “Right before INEOS launched their attack on the second climb of the day, he crashed, and it took quite a big effort to get back. In the valley, he was really done for a moment, so I told him to forget about it and focus on what’s still to come. We’ve always said that the real race starts in the third week. That’s when minutes get thrown around.”

And so, after his crash on Tuesday, Storer went on the attack and finished seventh on the stage. A day later, he immediately lost over four minutes again. “He feels good, so I told him he needs to show that,” says Pluimers. “We don’t need to calm Michael down, but we also don’t need to give him a kick in the butt. He came here with a plan and ambition after winning the Tour of the Alps. He’s a special guy, but for this kind of work, he’s got the right motivation.”

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])