Former Giro champion Dumoulin to retire at end of season

BRUSSELS (AP) — Former Giro d’Italia champion Tom Dumoulin announced Friday that he will retire at the end of the season, saying the sacrifices he makes no longer bring the results he wants.

Dumoulin’s contract with the Jumbo-Visma team ends at the conclusion of this season. The Dutch cyclist returned to racing last year, six months after taking a break from the sport to consider his future following a burn-out.

The 31-year-old former time-trial world champion has been through a disappointing year and abandoned his most recent race, the Giro.

“I decided that 2022 will be my last year as a professional cyclist,” Dumoulin wrote on Instagram. “Many times, and especially this year, it has been a frustrating path, at which my body felt tired and still does feel tired. As soon as the load in training or races gets higher, I suffer fatigue, aches, and injuries instead of improving. The effort in training did often not lead to the desired performances.“

Dumoulin, a time-trial specialist who also won stages in all three Grand Tours, claimed the 2017 Giro and finished second in the Tour de France a year later. But he struggled with injuries in recent seasons and said when he announced his break from cycling that he also was weighed down by the pressure to perform.

He said Friday he believed he could have gotten back to his “full potential on the bike. But that would be a long and patient road, with no guarantees of success. I choose not to take that road, but to quit my active cycling instead and to take a new and unknown path.”

Dumoulin will now decide with his team on a program for the remainder of the season. He said he aims to compete at the road world championships in Australia later this year, with the hope that he will be able to “get the best out of (himself) in the time trial one last time.“

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