Tom Dumoulin raced to fourth at the Dutch National Time Trial Championships, 49″ behind winner Wilco Kelderman.

Being defending champion, he came to the Dutch Nationals with a lot of confidence after a very strong performance at the Tour de Suisse last week, where he won the prologue and the closing time trial.

With an average speed of more than 50.5km/h, Dumoulin raced to fourth on the 54km course around Emmen, 4″ too short for a podium finish and 49″ behind winner Wilco Kelderman (Team LottoNL-Jumbo).

After his time trial, Dumoulin said: “I was not fully recovered from last week’s Tour de Suisse, but hoped that 95% would be enough for the win. Unfortunately, that was not the case as the level turned out to be too high to take the beautiful jersey home.

“I set my pace using my power meter but the first intermediate already showed that my time wasn’t great so I had to accelerate, which I was not capable of. After the altitude training camp I directly went to the Tour de Suisse, where I dug deep and fought for my GC position every day. For now, I will focus on my recovery and take my rest.

"Regarding my ambitions for the prologue of the Tour, nothing is lost. My expectations are no less high. I have a good season in the time trials behind me and hope to be able to show myself Utrecht. The motto now is rest, rest, rest.

"I won't do the road race as that is totally unwise. I have to digest the altitude training and the Tour of Switzerland and then I hope to have my normal shape in Utrecht.

Coach Adriaan Helmantel added: “The others showed that 100% was necessary for the victory and the level was really high.

“Tour de Suisse was really demanding for Tom. Now we will have the time to recover, as it was a good decision to not start in Sunday’s road race.”