Former Team | Visma Lease a Bike rider Robert Gesnik reflects on the heartbreak and accident that shaped his career: "The pain never goes away"

Dutch veteran Robert Gesink was one of the longest serving members of the peloton before he waved goodbye after the Vuelta a Espana this year. He rode with Team | Visma Lease a Bike from it’s early days back in 2007, and played a role in the teaming becoming one of the most dominant forces in the sport. The 38 year old recently caught up with RIDE Magazine to talk about some of the pivotal moments of his career.

Gesink recognises the 2010 Tour de France as the turning point in his career, after he finished 5th in the GC and seemed set for greatness. But over the next 12 months, tragedy struck after his father died in an accident at the Bart Brentjens Challenge.

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“Of course there were times when I hated the bike,” he looks back on the darkest page of his private life. “After my father died, I started training extremely hard out of hatred and anger towards everything and everyone. I came out of the winter very strong. I won the Tour of Oman with a vengeance, came second in the Tirreno and third in the Basque Country. After that it was all over.”

"I had burned myself out pretty much,” he revealed. “It was over and I ended up in a serious dip. I actually didn't give myself time to process everything. Although that pain never goes away. The bike has given me a lot, but unfortunately also taken a lot away from me sometimes."

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Gesink also spoke about the freak accident that derailed his cycling career back in 2011, when he crashed on cobblestones whilst training for the 2011 World Championships. “Looking back, I divide my career into two parts. Before and after the broken leg. This fracture limited my performance after 2011 to a large extent.

“My growth as a stage racer stopped there. For a top athlete, who goes for the results at the highest level, such a broken leg is very limiting. Until that fall, you could see that I was performing better and better. After that fall, everything became a lot more difficult.

“After the operation I had to start from scratch with my leg,” he continued, revealing the true extent of his injury. “Literally learn to walk and cycle again. After that I always cycled with two different legs in terms of strength. There were many complaints, pain, which again led to the necessary position changes on the bike. Actually, that fracture was the beginning of a lot of misery. Although almost every rider has his story and fortunately I have shown some very nice things on the bike afterwards.”