“Dumoulin has been searching as a person and rider since the end of 2017”
My first reaction was: where does this come from? But yesterday I happened to watch Code Geel again, the documentary by Jumbo-Visma behind the scenes in the Tour.
In the light of what can be seen in that documentary, I am not surprised that Dumoulin made this decision.
I think Dumoulin explains this very calmly, mature and in good terms in his explanatory video. The expectations of a top driver are not to be underestimated at all.
Since the end of 2017, Tom Dumoulin has been a searching person and a seeking rider. He is no longer Tom Dumoulin, that boy from Maastricht who can cycle very well. No, suddenly after that Giro victory in 2017, he became the well-known Dutchman Tom Dumoulin. He’s become somebody else’s property, the whole nation.
Dumoulin was crowned the first Dutch Grand Prix winner since Joop Zoetemelk. That is something.
Tom Dumoulin won in 2017 de Giro.
Lingering injury and wailing in the Tour
In retrospect, the fact that Dumoulin left Team Sunweb in 2019 after all those successful years was also a sign that he had seen it there. He was looking for something new. But that happens to cyclists more often.
The last 3 years it has been mainly doom and gloom at Dumoulin. That lingering injury in 2019 left him sidelined for 14 months.
In the documentary Code Yellow you also saw in the first 12 days of the Tour a wailing and (at the buttocks) injured Tom Dumoulin, who was angry with himself and cried on the bus.
Dumoulin criticized his team mates in the race. “Tactically we are not driving well as if we have already won the Tour”, was his opinion. I found his criticism completely justified.
You could see from all those things that Dumoulin is someone who is looking for someone who has lost balance.
In the documentary Code Yellow you saw in the first 12 days of the Tour a wailing and injured Dumoulin, who was angry with himself and cried on the bus. He was a searching person who had lost balance.
Although I must add that Dumoulin proved in the Tour last year that the champion in him is anything but dead.
After his buttocks injury and the wailing he was able to recharge himself for the last time trial in such a way that he finished 2nd after Pogacar at La Planche des Belles Filles. Then you are mentally strong.
“Very clever that he made that decision”
Dumoulin also comes from a different environment than the race. His father works in the hospital in Maastricht. Maybe that also plays a role.
Dumoulin is well-read. Has he been feeling less well in that cycling environment for a long time? I do not know.
In his statement, Dumoulin also says that in recent years he has lived according to the expectations of others and not according to himself.
I think it’s very clever that he made that decision in a top sports world, in which he earns a lot.
That Dumoulin takes this step as a human being while he is worshiped at the highest level, I think is enormous.
