At the end of July 2022, Tom Dumoulin competed for the last time in a professional race at the Clasica San Sebastian. He came off his bike prematurely at the classic one-day race in the Basque Country. "The tank is empty, the legs feel heavy and the training sessions are not working as I had hoped," the Dutchman explained on Instagram when he announced his immediate retirement from professional cycling a few days later.
The beginnings of Tom Dumoulin
At the beginning of June this year, the then 31-year-old had already announced that he would be hanging up his bike after this season. His last big goal was the World Championships in Australia, which he did not tackle after all. Nevertheless, the man from Maastricht can look back on a glorious career that began in 2011 with the Rabobank Continental Team.
In 2012, Dumoulin switched to the Argos-Shimano team, for which he won the Criterium International time trial for the first time in 2014 (under the name Giant-Shimano). Dumoulin subsequently attracted attention with time trial victories at the Dutch championships and the Eneco Tour. Most cycling fans had him on their radar after the 2014 World Championships and his bronze medal in the individual time trial behind Bradley Wiggins and Tony Martin.
Stopped just before the Vuelta victory
Dumoulin made his first major appearance in a three-week national tour at the Vuelta a Espana in 2015. On stage 9, he took the overall leader's red jersey for the first time in a mountain finish, which he relinquished a short time later but reclaimed in the individual time trial on stage 17. Dumoulin was already on the verge of winning the Vuelta, but it was only on the penultimate day that Fabio Aru took the red jersey off him again.
In 2016, Dumoulin secured the pink jersey in the opening time trial of the Giro d'Italia in the Netherlands and won two stages at the Tour de France - including the tough mountain finish in Andorra Arcalis. Shortly after the Tour of France, the Dutchman won a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Only Fabian Cancellara was stronger that day.
Giro d'Italia 2017: Dumoulin wins despite setbacks
In 2017, Dumoulin crowned his career with overall victory at the Giro d'Italia, where he also won two stages. Before the 16th stage, Dumoulin was already almost three minutes ahead of Nairo Quintana in the overall standings, but after the man in the pink jersey was plagued by stomach problems on the way to Bormio and involuntarily had to relieve himself en route, he lost more than two minutes of his lead that day and lost the pink jersey to Quintana at the mountain finish in Piancavallo three days before the end of the tour.
But Dumoulin was once again able to rely on his strength in the battle against the clock. Before the final stage, the then Sunweb pro was still in fourth place overall. Over the 29.3 kilometres between Monza and Milan, he turned a 53-second deficit on Quintana into a 31-second lead and was crowned the first Dutch overall winner of the Giro d'Italia. Dumoulin also had an outstanding 2017 at the World Championships in Oslo. After triumphing in the team time trial, he also won the gold medal in the individual time trial a few days later.
Second at Giro & Tour in one year
In 2018, Dumoulin was once again in a promising position at the Giro. After stage 18, only 28 seconds separated him from Simon Yates, who was leading at the time. The Brit collapsed the following day. However, it was not Dumoulin who inherited the pink jersey, but Chris Froome. The four-time Tour de France winner followed up his attack on the Colle delle Finestre with a historic 80-kilometre solo, leaving Dumoulin in second place at the end of the Giro.
A few weeks later, the Dutchman was once again denied access to the top step of the podium by a Sky pro. At the Tour de France, Dumoulin rode to second place behind Geraint Thomas with a stage win in the individual time trial on the penultimate stage.
Switch to Jumbo-Visma
Shortly before the end of the season, Dumoulin put down another marker with silver in the team and individual time trial and a fourth place in the road race at the World Championships in Innsbruck.
In 2019, he set off again to win the Giro d'Italia, but had to abandon after stage 5. This led to a break with Team Sunweb. Dumoulin joined Team Jumbo-Visma for the 2020 season. However, he was unable to build on his great times there. He finished seventh in the 2020 Tour de France in the service of Primoz Roglc and abandoned the Vuelta around a month later after just seven stages. At the beginning of 2021, Dumoulin announced that he wanted to take a break from cycling, from which he returned in June 2021 at the Tour de Suisse. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, he once again took silver in the individual time trial behind Primoz Roglic.
Tom Dumoulin's greatest successes
- 1x overall winner of the Giro d'Italia (2017)
- 1x 2nd place overall in the Tour de France (2018)
- 1x 2nd place overall in the Giro d'Italia (2018)
- 3 stage wins at the Tour de France (2018 & 2016)
- 4 stage wins at the Giro d'Italia (2018, 2017 & 2016)
- 2 stage wins at the Vuelta a Espana (2015)
- 1x world champion in the individual time trial (2017)
- 1x world champion in the team time trial (2017)
- 2x silver in the individual time trial at the Olympic Games (2021 & 2016)
- 1x silver in the individual time trial at the World Championships (2018)
- 1x overall winner of the BinckBank Tour (2017)
- 2 stage wins at the Tour de Suisse (2015)
Teams of Tom Dumoulin
- 2011 Rabobank Continental Team
- 2012 Argos-Shimano
- 2013 Team Argos-Shimano
- 2014 Team Giant-Shimano
- 2015 Team Giant-Alpecin
- 2016 Team Giant-Alpecin
- 2017 Team Sunweb
- 2018 Team Sunweb
- 2019 Team Sunweb
- 2020 Team Jumbo-Visma
- 2021 Team Jumbo-Visma
- 2022 Jumbo-Visma
