Tom Dumoulin will return to racing after taking a break from his cycling career, as he will ride the Tour de Suisse next month and then hopes to compete in the Tokyo Olympics.
The winner of the 2017 Giro d’Italia make the shock announcement that he would be leaving the peloton in January , as he left the Jumbo-Visma team training camp to take unpaid leave for an indefinite period.
Dumoulin’s departure came the day after his team announced he would be targeting the Tour de France and the Olympic Games, and it was unclear if he would ever return to racing.
But on Thursday (May 13), Dutch WorldTour squad Jumbo confirmed that the 30-year-old will return to racing at the Tour de Suisse in June, having “found the joy in cycling again.”
In a statement, the team said: “Tom Dumoulin will make his comeback in the professional peloton in the Tour de Suisse. The rider of Team Jumbo-Visma has made this decision together with the team as he has recently found the joy in cycling again. Last January Dumoulin decided to temporarily pause his career to reflect on his future.
“In Switzerland Dumoulin wants to regain the racing feeling. After the Swiss stage race, the former world time trial champion will also appear at the start of the Dutch time trial and road championships. Dumoulin also has the ambition to go to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.”
Dumoulin has battled through a tough few seasons, struggling with a lingering knee injury in 2019 and falling ill early in 2020.
Announcing his indefinite break, Dumoulin said he felt he had not felt himself for a year and wanted to take time away to decide if he wanted to continue his career.
He said at the time: “People have a lot of expectations for that. As a top athlete, your own expectations are already very difficult to manage.”
>>> Mikel Landa suffered multiple fractures in Giro d’Italia crash, team confirms
After initially keeping the door open for the former time trial world champion to ride the Tour de France, Jumbo-Visma confirmed last month that Dumoulin would not race the Tour, while the team said the most important thing “is that he’s happy in what he’s doing.”
The Tour de Suisse, which starts on June 6, will be Dumoulin’s first race since the 2020 Vuelta a España last October, which he abandoned on stage eight after struggling with fatigue following an intense period of racing.
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