“I was knocked out and broke my nose” - Grieving Arvid De Kleijn reveals teenage attack as 2026 absence is explained
Cycling
Arvid De Kleijn should have been deep into his season by now. Instead, the Tudor Pro Cycling Team sprinter reaches mid-May still waiting for his first race day of 2026, after a start to the year shaped by family upheaval, grief and a shocking attack while out training.
The 32-year-old Dutchman has not pinned on a number since the 2025 Tour de Langkawi, where he ended last season with two stage victories. A return at the Giro d’Italia was briefly possible, but De Kleijn’s absence now has a far more personal explanation than form, selection or fitness alone.
Speaking in conversation with De Telegraaf, De Kleijn detailed a brutal sequence of events away from the peloton. His daughter Fye was born on the 6th of January, his father died the following month after a terminal illness, and his preparations were later disrupted further when he was assaulted by a group of teenagers near Paaspop in Schijndel.
For a rider whose role is built around timing, rhythm and high-speed certainty, 2026 has begun with anything but control.
Fatherhood, grief and a season put on hold
De Kleijn had been due to join a Tudor training camp early in the year, but that plan changed almost immediately after the birth of his daughter. His wife Celine was struggling physically in the days after giving birth, leaving De Kleijn to take on the care at home.
“Celine couldn’t get out of bed for a long time, so it mainly came down to me,” he said. Tudor understood the situation, and De Kleijn stayed home rather than travel. “In the end, I didn’t go, because I had to look after both girls for ten days.”
At the same time, his father’s health was worsening. De Kleijn said his father had not been expected to make it to Christmas 2025, but held on long enough to experience the birth of his granddaughter. “He actually wasn’t supposed to make Christmas 2025, but he kept going,” said De Kleijn. “That is beautiful. My father has always been a big, strong man.”
The decline came quickly in February. De Kleijn did not dress up the pain of that final period, but he also described a farewell that brought the family some peace. “In that final period, you don’t want it all to drag on, because then the process of suffering is long and intense,” he said. “The way it happened has given everyone in the family peace, and together we look back on a beautiful farewell.”
That would already have been enough to explain a delayed start to the year. But De Kleijn’s troubled build-up did not end there.
Arvid De Kleijn at the UAE Tour
“I was knocked out and broke my nose”
While training near Paaspop in Brabant, De Kleijn passed a group of around ten teenagers. He said the group used the illness that had killed his father as an insult. “I was training and hadn’t really thought about the fact it was Paaspop,” he said. “I rode past a group of ten boys aged around 15, 16, 17. They insulted me using the disease my father died from.”
De Kleijn turned around to challenge them over what they had said. By his account, the exchange quickly became impossible to manage. “They had been drinking and maybe had taken more as well, so there really was no conversation to be had with them,” he said. “When I decided to ride away, they started touching me. One of them was standing behind me on the right on a fatbike and suddenly lashed out.”
The blow left him unconscious. “I was knocked out and broke my nose,” De Kleijn said.
Nine of the ten boys were later stopped, according to De Kleijn, although he said the person who struck him was not among them. The case is still ongoing. “Unfortunately, the process will take a while yet, but I’m glad they won’t just get away with it,” he said.
De Kleijn’s frustration was not limited to the physical injury. After everything his family had gone through, the nature of the abuse hit hard. “It is mainly sad that you increasingly see that this generation no longer has respect for fellow human beings,” he said.
De Kleijn finally ready to race again
The result is one of the more unusual absences in the early 2026 peloton. De Kleijn has not simply been waiting for condition to return. He has been dealing with a new-born at home, the death of his father and the aftermath of a violent incident that left him with a broken nose.
Now, at last, the Tudor sprinter is set to restart. His season is expected to begin at Rund um Koln on Sunday, giving him a first chance to move from explanation back into competition. “I’m really looking forward to racing again,” he said.
For De Kleijn, Rund um Koln now marks more than a season debut. After months defined by events far beyond his control, it offers a return to the part of life that finally looks familiar again: racing.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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