"Pin a number on me and the top athlete within comes out" - Tom Dumoulin reacts to impressive Amsterdam half-marathon time

Tom Dumoulin showed he has more than maintained a high level of fitness in retirement over the weekend just been. The former winner of the Giro d'Italia completed the Amsterdam half-marathon in the very impressive time of 1:10.04.

"A marathon in the future? That could well be the case, but there is no rush," Dumoulin has since told Het Nieuwsblad after news of his time went viral. "I'm just an amateur. I do this because I enjoy it. But I'm certainly happy with my time. I really couldn't have gone any faster. I really gave it everything I had. Pin a number on me and the top athlete within comes out."

Many have shared the opinion that Dumoulin may now be two-thirds of the way to being a top triathlete. Whilst this may be true, given the way he says he felt in the morning after the race though, it doesn't seem like Dumoulin shares those ambitions.  

"I suffered, especially the last five kilometres. At the end, I also had to do a lot of slaloming between the slower participants of the full marathon, but I enjoyed experiencing it. I think I also have a talent for running," he recalls. "I can't run two days in a row like real runners do. If I train twenty kilometers, I have to seriously recover and rest. Sometimes even a few days."

"With cycling you have no impact on the muscles and joints, with running they take a hit with every step," Dumoulin concludes. " After a tough mountain stage in a big tour I was tired, I suffered from tired muscles, but then I didn't have muscle pain. On Monday I really felt pain."