Tom Dumoulin has left the Jumbo-Visma training camp and will not race for an unspecified period as he takes an unpaid break from his time with the WorldTour outfit.
On yesterday the Dutch rider was announced as one of the planned team leaders for Jumbo-Visma at the Tour de France this year, alongside Primoz Roglic.
However, his sudden stepping away from the team, while he considers if he will race again, has come as a shock.
Dumoulin said he took the decision yesterday to step away
and that since then he feels happy and “like hundred kilos has slipped off my
shoulders”.
He added: I immediately woke up happy. It feels so good
that I finally took the decision to take some time for myself. That says
enough. I have been feeling for quite a while that it is very difficult for me
to know how to find my way as Tom Dumoulin the cyclist.”
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He said pressure and expectations came with the life he
had been leading until now, as a top flight pro cyclist.
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“I just want to do very well for very many people. I want
the team to be happy with me. I want the sponsors to be happy. I want my wife
and my family to be happy.
“And so I want to do well for everyone, but because of that I have forgotten myself a bit in the past year. What do I want? Do I still want to be a rider? And how?"
Dumoulin, who turned 30-years-old in November, won the
Giro d’Italia in 2017 and has won nine Grand Tour stages and the TT title at
the World Championships, in 2017.
He finished 2nd overall in the 2018 Tour de France, to
Geraint Thomas – and his win in the TT on the penultimate day of that event was
the last time he won a race, some 2½ years ago. He was also 2nd overall in the
Giro that year, to Chris Froome.
However, he has been dogged by setbacks – crashes and injuries - in recent years. He crashed out of the 2019 Giro and only briefly returned to racing that year before departing Team Sunweb and signing with Jumbo Visma for 2020.
He was 7th overall in the Tour last year, taking 2nd in
the TT on the penultimate day. He went on to abandon the Vuelta before the start
of stage 8 saying he felt he had felt tired even before the race.
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