Is Tom Dumoulin considering a return? The former Giro winner reveals he misses the pain of the peloton: "That was the ultimate"
Cycling
Tom Dumoulin has been retired from professional cycling
since 2022, but the 34-year-old still finds himself drawn to the deep physical
and mental state that elite sport provided him.
Speaking on the Der Cor Podcast, the former Giro d'Italia
winner reflected on his continued love for pushing his limits, even after
stepping away from professional competition. Recently, he put that into
practice at the Egmond Half Marathon, completing the race in an impressive one
hour, eight minutes, and 42 seconds, despite not training intensively for it.
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"It's not for a certain result, I don't earn anything
from it either. I just think it's nice to get into that state of being where
there's nothing else to do than challenge yourself and push boundaries. When I
look back at the best moments of my career, those are the moments when I got
into a bizarre flow. For example, when I became world time trial champion. You
feel enormous pain, but you're in a kind of tunnel."
Dumoulin, who won three Tour de France stages, four
individual Giro d'Italia stages, and two Vuelta a España stages, in addition to
his 2017 Giro d'Italia overall victory, explained the almost addictive nature
of endurance sports.
"There is nothing else in the world but you and your
bike moving forward as fast as possible. That is your only goal in life at that
moment. When things were going extremely well, I didn't feel that pain very
much. But at other times my body kept saying: Tom, stop it. Every muscle fibre screamed to stop it."
The Dutchman described how he managed to push through the
physical and mental battles he faced during his career.
"Then I thought: the next bend is important, or: now I
have to keep up my pace on this climb. That's how I tried to distract myself
constantly. Sometimes almost so much that you got a new stream of thoughts,
which made that little voice that you had to stop stop. A wonderful feeling
when that succeeded, because you had defeated that little voice."
While he still enjoys moments of intense effort and physical
challenge, Dumoulin acknowledged that there are aspects of professional cycling
that he doesn’t miss.
"That was the ultimate, but there's also a lot I don't
miss about the sport. To beat that pain and get through that moment, you have
to do a lot of things that I didn't really want to do anymore."
Fin MajorCycling Journalist
Fin Major is a UK-based writer at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2024. He is the site’s main writer for FAQs and evergreen explainers and has written around 2,000 pieces for the platform. Alongside this work, he focuses on in-depth analysis and covers the biggest races on the calendar, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, providing clear context around performance trends, tactics, and key storylines.
In his reporting, Fin uses reputable data sources such as ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available. Outside of writing, Fin is an active cyclist, which supports his practical understanding of the sport and its demands.
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- Blah blah blah!frieders311-11-2026
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