The Road Captain Samuel Dumoulin

- Edward Pickering

When he won stage one of the Tour du Haut Var back in February, Samuel Dumoulin punched the air, directed his bike around a lazy curve which started just after the finish line using just his hips, and shouted a primal yell.

“It was the rage I have to win,” he explained to Procycling at the press conference, which consisted of Dumoulin sitting on a plastic chair under a gazebo while a very small handful of journalists crouched at his feet.

He’s quite intense, Samuel Dumoulin. A compact, chippy Lyonnais with a heavy, brooding brow. In riding style, he’s punchy, though he’s a lot less scrappy off the bike – he saves the shouting for when he wins. He’s been a constant and visible presence in the peloton for years – he turned pro in 2002 and did a small lap of the French teams – two seasons with Jean Delatour, four with Ag2r, five with Cofidis and since then five, plus at least one more, back with Ag2r. He’s been happy in his teams – Jean Delatour was a ragtag outfit of experienced old hands and young riders, while he’s developed very close relationships with the Ag2r manager Vincent Lavenu, then with Eric Boyer at Cofidis, for whom he won a stage of the Tour de France in 2008. When Cofidis got rid of Boyer, Dumoulin turned back to Lavenu, with whom he’s developed into the Ag2r team’s captain. In matters of tactics and race knowledge, even the DSs occasionally defer to Dumoulin’s vast experience, looking to him for advice.