'Tired' former Giro winner Dumoulin to retire at end of season / Photo: © AFP/File
'Tired' former Giro winner Dumoulin to retire at end of season
Olympic silver medallist and former Giro d'Italia winner Tom Dumoulin will retire from professional cycling at the end of this season, the Dutch cyclist announced on Friday.
"I decided that 2022 will be my last year as a professional cyclist," Dumoulin wrote on social media, saying 2020 "was a difficult year and I got overtrained and burned out."
The 31-year-old Dutchman said despite coming back from the burnout to win Olympic silver in July 2021, "my body felt tired and still feels tired."
"As soon as the load in training or races gets higher, I suffer from fatigue, aches and injuries instead of improving," he said on his Facebook page and Instagram account.
"The effort in training did often not lead to the desired performances," the Team Jumbo-Visma rider said.
"For a while now there has been a disbalance between my 100 percent dedication, everything I do and sacrifice for my sport and what I subsequently get out of it in return," Dumoulin added.
Known for his prolific time-trialing and climbing abilities, Dumoulin in 2016 won the Giro d'Italia.
One of his best performances came in 2018, when he finished runner-up to Geraint Thomas in the Tour de France.
V.Allen--TNT
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