Dutch ex-cyclist Tom Dumoulin sees his marriage end in addition to his cycling career. He says so in an interview with NRC. “If you had told me this five months ago, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
“I’m getting a divorce,” says 31-year-old Dumoulin in a farewell interview with the Dutch newspaper. “We decided that last week.” The ex-cyclist did not see the end of his marriage coming, he says. “If you had told me this five months ago, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Since 2018 he was married to Thanee van Hulst. They were together for thirteen years.
In June, he announced that he was going to retire from cycling. “I always hoped that I wouldn’t become one of those cyclists who got divorced after his career ended. But unfortunately that is the case.’
Despite the end of his career and marriage, Dumoulin says in the interview that he is happier than ever. “I start with a completely blank page, and where I’m going, I have no idea. I’d like to leave it that way, because it feels nice.’
However, he does not rule out the possibility of a more difficult period to come. “Maybe there will come a time when it will be sad and painful. And there may be.’
Top sport
Dumoulin is one of the most successful Dutch cyclists ever. He won stages in all the Grand Tours. In 2017 he won the Giro. That year he also became world time trial champion. Why he stopped? “The fire is out,” he says in the interview. ‘I no longer have the constant need to push myself to the limit. I want to be different in life, to be better for myself. And for the people around me. Connect more.’
It was never his dream to become a professional cyclist, he rolled into it. ‘Top sport is very beautiful, but you also have to be a bit crazy in your head to keep it up for a long time,’ he says. ‘I think that almost every top athlete at the highest level has a screw loose.’
Dumoulin currently travels a lot. He does not rule out the possibility of returning to the cycling world as a ‘coach or consultant’. “But I’m staying away from a professional team for a while.”
