"I have decided to leave professional cycling with immediate effect," he wrote on his Twitter account.

Dumoulin, 31, announced at the beginning of June that he would end his activity as a professional cyclist at the end of the season and said he was "impatient" to participate in the World Championships next month in Australia.

He finally decided to speed things up.

Chrono specialist, big rider, comfortable in the mountains, the Jumbo-Visma rider, silver medalist in the time trial last year at the Tokyo Olympics, had already put his professional career for the first time brackets at the start of 2021.

A few months later, he had regained his place in the peloton and had won the silver medal in the time trial at the Tokyo Games, a status of Olympic vice-champion which he had already obtained in the same discipline five years earlier at the Rio Games.

This year, his start to the season was not at the level of his record.

Aligned in the spring at the start of the Giro d'Italia, he abandoned in the 14th stage without ever having seemed able to join the fight for the general classification.

He was not in the Jumbo squad on the Tour de France which largely contributed to the final victory of Dane Jonas Vingegaard.

"I can not stand it anymore"

At the beginning of June, Dumoulin announced that he would retire at the end of the year by postponing his ambitions to a final world championship in the time trial, his favorite exercise.

"When the load of training or competitions increases, I start to suffer from fatigue, aches and injuries instead of improving. Too often, training has not led to the desired performance", he explained then. .

Closing his professional career "with a bang" on September 18 during the time trial of the World Championships in Wollongong, Australia, was on the "list of (s) desires", he wrote Monday.

"But I observe that I can't take it anymore. The tank is empty, the legs are heavy and the training sessions are not working as I hoped", he adds.

"Even if my farewell will not take the turn I hoped for, I look back on my career with incredible pride", continues the runner.

Dumoulin had turned professional in 2013 in the Argos team, which became Giant then Sunweb (now DSM) in 2013 before joining the main Dutch team, Jumbo, in 2020.

Second in the Tour de France in 2018, behind the Welshman Geraint Thomas, he has three stage victories in the Great Loop, including two against the clock.

© 2022 AFP