Tom Dumoulin's preparation for the Giro d'Italia was meticulously planned. Two training camps, in Colombia and on Mount Teide, were key landmarks on the long road to tackle the three-week race. Data were analyzed and parsed. Strategies were discussed and evaluated.

Then, on stage 4, halfway up Mount Etna, all plans went up in smoke. Dumoulin was pulled away from the overall contending group. Ten meters on the steepest part of the climb became ten minutes by the time they reached the barren summit. What to do.

As Dumoulin lined up at Diamante, the start of stage 7 on Friday morning, he still seemed to have no firm idea of how he would approach the remaining stages of the Giro. Asked if he might try his luck in the break on the rugged road through the southern Apennines to Potenza, he insisted that he would not.

But halfway up Monte Sirino, Dumoulin caught up with his teammate Kane Bouwman and the day's breakaway, which still had more than 120 km of racing left. How they got there, he did not ask himself. After months of planning, he improvised to bring Jumbo Visma a stage win.

On the final climb up Potenza, Dumoulin was distanced from a four-man breakaway group, but with 3km to go, he made a vindictive push and held off Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) to push Bouman out and win the climb sprint!

"I'm not sure I'm going to win this race.

"Damn, that was good," said Dumoulin, hugging Bouman before the finish. Meanwhile, on the Jumbo Visma bus in Viale Mediterraneo, Dumoulin's recovery was celebrated as much as Bouman's victory.

"It wasn't planned, but all of a sudden I was in there," Dumoulin said. 'I was actually protecting Coen's escape. He was escaping with four other riders, and they started jumping behind him, so I jumped with them. Suddenly there was a gap and I found myself in the breakaway. It wasn't planned, but I'm really glad I got in."

On the final climb up La Serrata, Dumoulin made several attempts to break away alone, but was then caught by Bouwman, who fell off and pulled away from the lead group. As the finale in Potenza approached, Dumoulin served Bouman.

"We worked with each other a little bit, but in the finals I felt we were a little less strong.

"He is very fast. We did a few training camps together and we went to Colombia together. He's very fast and I had a good feeling with him.

"He is one of the most deserving riders in this group. I knew he was the fastest, so my first goal was to bring him into the sprint race."

Dumoulin finished in fourth place, 19 seconds behind Bouman. The Maglia Rosa group passed the same point in less than three minutes, so Dumoulin moved up 12 places in the overall standings. He is now 32nd overall, 5:40 behind pink jersey Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) and less than 4 minutes behind Simon Yates (Bike Exchange-Jayco).

If Dumoulin's Sicilian travails were just an off-day, he might move up further in the race to challenge Brockhaus on Sunday, but he quickly dismissed the idea of harboring overall class ambitions in this race.

"GC is not my place. I made up some time today, but I'm at my limit," Dumoulin said. But even with the legs I had today, I won't be able to finish in the top three." But I'm feeling better and I know I still have two more weeks of great racing ahead of me. I always want to give my best in Italy. I was very disappointed after the Etna stage. Now I have to take it one day at a time.

Asked if he has regained confidence, Dumoulin smiled: "At least I am very happy now. It reminds me of what he said in Budapest the night before the race. A happy man has a long way to go. There is still distance left in his Giro.