CANAZEI, Italy (VN) — Bob Jungels, 24, plans to develop into a grand tour contender over the next few years in the style of Tom Dumoulin or Bradley Wiggins.
The Luxemburger leads the young rider classification by 2:25 minutes over Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) with five stages to race in the Giro. The white jersey and much more appears possible.
“What Tom has missed a bit is chasing GC results in the third week of a grand tour,” Dumoulin’s coach at team Sunweb, Aike Visbeek told VeloNews. “Bob did it last year and is going to do it this year. So in that case, he’s a little ahead of Tom’s development. Everything adds up, there are many small boxes to tick before you are with the best GC guys.”
Last year, Quick-Step’s Jungels placed sixth overall after wearing the pink jersey in the Giro d’Italia. He also took home the white jersey of best young rider. In the Giro this year, he sits eighth at 4:35.
Success is not limited to the Giro d’Italia, either, he already placed 27th in the Tour de France as a 22-year-old.
The idea is that Jungels can keep working on time trialling and lose some kilos to improve his power-to-weight ratio. The six-foot-two cyclist now weighs 158 pounds. Dumoulin, and Wiggins before, followed this same plan to success.
“They are for sure the type of riders I’m looking up to, for sure,” Jungels said. “They have the same style of racing like me, or me like them, it’s just at the moment they are faster uphill.
“I’m just tying to make it through this last week now, to learn. It’s hard to say what changes I need to make, you can change your body, but you can’t change your nature.”
Jungels won the stage into Bergamo Sunday by attacking when the stage went through the upper city and sprinting ahead of a small group into the center.
“We will see what comes next in this Giro,” Quick-Step sports director, Rik Van Slycke said. “We will try to save the white jersey, but if Bob has a bad day in the mountains then you know it can go very fast, losing three to four minutes in a climb.
“Maybe it’s possible for him to become a grand tour leader. He has to make some progress in some parts, also he’s still young. After a few years, I think it might be possible. You have to ask to him what his direction is, but if you do something well, you try to get better in that and make it your speciality. Then it will be in that direction.”
“I’ve been in the pink already, a couple of days in the white jerseys,” added Jungels. “I don’t think I need to change much [to develop into a grand tour contender].”
The Luxembourg country counts only 500,000 inhabitants but counts four Tour de France winners François Faber in 1909, Nicolas Frantz in 1927 and 1928, Charly Gaul in 1958 and Andy Schleck in 2010.
“I know the story of those champions,” added Jungels. “I began this path when I saw Andy Schleck fighting for the 2007 Giro, finishing second.”
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