Paris (AFP)
"I'm going to take a break for a while": Tom Dumoulin, the winner of the Giro 2017 and second in the Tour de France 2018, announced against all expectations on Saturday to suspend his career at 30, in a video posted on the website of his team Jumbo .
The Dutch rider, seventh in the last Tour de France where he played the role of luxury teammate of the Slovenian leader Primoz Roglic, stripped of the yellow jersey on the eve of the finish, explains that he "clearly needs time to think" in pointing to the weight of media and public pressure, "more difficult to manage than what" he expected.
"Who knows where this will take me? Anyway I'll talk a lot with people, think, walk my dog and find out what I want as a person, on the bike, and what I want to do with my life ", develops the 2017 world time trial champion in this video of more than eight minutes.
The announcement is all the more surprising given that Jumbo announced on Thursday the provisional program of his rider for the 2021 season. He had also participated in his team's training camps and said he was "very enthusiastic" at the idea of competing the Flandrian classics at the beginning of spring.
"The team fully supports me and gives me the time necessary for my reflection", assures Dumoulin who, before his resumption in August, had already known more than 400 days without a race, between left knee injury and the first part of the 2020 season turned upside down by the Covid-19.
Despite the content of the announcement, the tone of the interview is light.
Dumoulin, smiling, said he was relieved by his decision: "It's as if a hundred kilogram backpack had vanished from my shoulders."
According to Merijn Zeeman, Sporting Director of Jumbo, Tom Dumoulin's decision is the result of a long process.
"This is violent news, we will miss a very good rider for a while," he commented in a video also posted on the team's website.
"The human being takes precedence over the team. We've been talking about this for a long time and offered to help Tom. But the same question kept coming back to him and he decided to take a break to perk up. We support him. in this process, ”added Zeeman.
The Belgian Wout Van Aert is "not surprised" by the decision of his teammate in the Dutch team.
His decision to take a break "is a surprise to a lot of people but not really to me," Van Aert said on the sidelines of Hamme's cyclo-cross in Belgium, explaining that Dumoulin "was struggling mentally (...) after being long bothered by injuries ".
“In the team, we had noticed that Tom was having ups and downs, a kind of exhaustion. He needs time to recharge (his batteries). I hope his decision will allow him to come back stronger because he remains a great champion, "added the one who has just extended his contract with Jumbo.
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