Former Giro winner Tom Dumoulin on the lonely side of pro cycling: 'I wouldn't recommend it to anyone'

Tom Dumoulin has been retired for a while now, but he still has compelling stories to tell about his career. That career brought great success — but also no small amount of loneliness. The former Giro d'Italia winner gives a candid account of what that felt like.

Dumoulin has touched on this before, but returned to it in an interview with Sportnieuws: "I had some very difficult years — certainly the final years of my career." Those were his years at Visma, where the freedom afforded to riders did not appear to be particularly generous. "Roles and responsibilities were fixed," explained the new race director of the Amstel Gold Race.

"That is not a bad thing in itself, but at a certain point it became so structured and rigid that it limited my freedom of movement and even began to feel suffocating. I felt like I had to surrender my freedom and autonomy," the former Giro winner said. The result was a series of intensely lonely moments.

Ironically, it is the times spent with teammates that stand out most when he looks back on the highlights of his career. Like the period when he was part of Marcel Kittel's sprint train. "Those guys, I still see and speak to now. All those years we did that together created such a bond."

A prime example was the 2017 Giro, which Dumoulin won. His highlight of that race? Standing on the podium to celebrate the overall victory with his team. "That was incredible, and it is something I will never forget for the rest of my life." Again, a collective moment.

That collective feeling was not always present in Dumoulin's career. "In the later years, I experienced being at the top as very lonely. And that was largely down to me. I didn't know how to conduct myself with all the parties who had a stake in my career," he recalled.

"The team wanted something, sponsors wanted something, fans wanted something, the media wanted something, the Netherlands wanted something. Nobody wished me harm — but taken together, I felt so many people wanted something from me. And because I wanted to do right by everyone, I ended up feeling like I wasn't doing right by myself. That created a feeling of loneliness in those years."

As an elite athlete at the very top of the sport, he experienced it all — both the isolation and the togetherness. "I wouldn't recommend it to anyone," Dumoulin said firmly. "I know it is far more enjoyable to be at the top together. But it can also be lonely."