Tom Dumoulin thinks cycling has become too scientifical: "I found cycling less enjoyable, partly because of this"

A decade ago, Argos-Shimano entered the WorldTour peloton with ambition to leave their mark in the peloton. During the AD Sports Festival in Rotterdam, Tom Dumoulin looked back on the Tour de France of 2013 during a special screening of the documentary 'Nieuwe Helden'.

The Dutch formation of Iwan Spekenbrink won no fewer than four stages with talented riders and showed the sceptical audience that success was also possible without doping. "We had the common goal to show that things could be done differently," said Dumoulin according to WielerFlits.

Debutant Dumoulin enjoyed the early years of his career most during his career. At the time, the Giro winner did not yet expect to reach the world top as a GC rider. "I wasn't working towards becoming a classification rider at all. I already rode good time trials, I think I finished ninth during that Tour in 2013. So I could time trial well and go uphill, but I was not yet among the better ones."

Even just a grand tour stage seemed like a distant dream then. "I hoped to win a stage in the Tour one day," the former world time trial champion continues. "But that I would later win the Giro d'Italia and come second in the Tour de France, I never dared to imagine."

According to Dumoulin, cycling has changed considerably since then. "We were very open-minded at the time. We were starting a new chapter in cycling. In fact, the wheel almost had to be reinvented. The doping past was just behind us then, now it is much further behind us. Although it will probably not be completely gone anytime soon," he indicates.

The former world time trial champion sees that the current cycling world is a lot more 'clinical' than it was back then. "We are now very well developed with data, with nutrition, all the dots and crosses of the i's and that makes things even faster than before. You can no longer win the Tour at the speeds of that time. During the last years that I cycled, I found cycling less enjoyable, partly because of this."