By Chad Haga

The only thing harder than winning a race is winning it a second time, which is exactly what we are attempting to do next month when we line up at the Giro d'Italia with defending champion Tom Dumoulin.

For the uninitiated, the Giro d’Italia is one of only three grand tours in cycling. The month of July is dominated by the more widely-known Tour de France while the final grand tour of the year is the Vuelta a Espana, and these step-siblings boast quite the rivalry (stemming from the rivalries between organizers), each hoping to draw the highest quality start-list and be the most exciting for spectators. 

“Which race is hardest?” is a subjective question, but the fact is that everyone arrives at the Giro fresh of mind and body, eager to leave it all on the road.

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Of the three grand tours, the Tour is the only one I lack in my collection, but the 101st Giro d’Italia will be my fourth lap of the country. My first Giro was in 2015. Astana choked the whole field into submission, the sole exception being Contador, who went on to win it; the rest of us were just along for the ride, but it was here that I fell in love with the race and the country’s enthusiasm for it. 

In the 2016 edition, I had the joy of riding in support of the maglia rosa when Tom wore it for much of the first week before leaving the race early. That effort was tiring enough in its own right but turned out to be merely a practice run for 2017.

Courtesy of © Team Sunweb

It feels like a dream, too fantastic to be believable: our team surrounding Tom and his beautiful "trofeo senza fine" atop the pink-carpeted podium beneath the towering spires of Milan’s duomo.

We started the race with the intention of developing Tom as a general classification rider in grand tours. He showed great potential in previous races, but this was his first focused attempt. As such, we were seen as underdogs and flew a bit below the radar, benefitting from the work done by other teams. Tom climbed as well as he time-trialed, and it soon became apparent that underestimating him was a mistake.

As we entered the third week of the race, Tom looked to be in the driver’s seat, but it turned out to be more like a playground carousel spinning faster and faster in an attempt to throw us off. As our team’s strength waned, it seemed as though our tenuous grip was at its limit; if Tom’s infamous bathroom stop at the base of the Stelvio pried one hand loose, then the mountain-top finishes of stages 19 and 20 freed a couple more fingers. Reclaiming the maglia rosa on the final day was only possible with the strength and prowess of a world-class time-trialist.

Having survived it all and come out on top by the skin of our teeth, we now need to do it again. It’s a daunting task, but the upside is that much went wrong in the 2017 race—easily identifiable points of improvement. We have learned from our tactical missteps, Tom has taken measures to avoid leaving his advantage in a roadside ditch, and his support in the high mountains will hopefully not be eliminated by a bizarre crash. The season thus far has been underwhelming, but everything seems to be coming together at just the right time to deliver a thrilling race between the biggest names in the sport. 

One thing we can be certain of, though, is that this year we’ll be on everyone’s radar.