"There's more than just cycling" - Taco van der Hoorn on valuable lesson learned during time out of cycling bubble

It took almost a year and half for Taco van der Hoorn to fully recover from the heavy concussion suffered at the Tour of Flanders. There were even doubts at a point whether he would make a comeback, but the breakaway specialist didn't take long to pull off another of his trademark solos to win the Elfstedenrace at the start of October.

While the situation now seems optimistic again, in an interview for RIDE Magazine Van der Hoorn returns to the times when things were much gloomier. "You step out of the bubble for a while. I did that very consciously," Van der Hoorn unveils about the first few months after his accident.

"I consciously followed nothing at all about cycling for a year, and I also watched very few races. Only the big races that you are curious about. Everything else around it, less. That's nice in itself, that you know: okay, there's more than just cycling."

The time off the bubble led him to a self-growth, to a certain degree. "Taco van der Hoorn himself is also more than a cyclist. That's a very important lesson, to be pulled out of it for a while. Then you realize which other things are very important. Now I'm back in that bubble and cycling is everything, but I'm also consciously trying to step out of it after the season. I'm on vacation and then it's also nice not to have to think: how am I going to tackle Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne or Paris-Roubaix properly?"

On another note, cycling also allowed Van der Hoorn to see many places around the world. Which experience has stuck with him the most? "China. I also really enjoyed being in Australia. It’s just like Western Europe, but with lots of weird animals and nice weather in the winter. China was a different culture. At one point, there were so many people at our hotel during the Tour of Guangxi who had never seen a Westerner before that you couldn’t walk down the street normally anymore. I often tend to go to places that aren’t that touristy, because then you see the real country. But that was very special."