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Teams & Riders Tom Dumoulin discussion thread

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Dumoulin should not have left Sunweb in the same manner Barguil should not have left. Everyone blames Sunweb for the Dumoulin knee issue but it was Dumoulin himself who wanted to ride the Tour and insisted he would be ready not the team
Yet the team took the brunt of the criticism

Sunweb dont need Dumoulin but he joined a team where he is 2nd fiddle behind Roglic while he was in a team that where he was the undisputed leader ..I could never see the sense in that decision

If at Sunweb he could have waited and rode the Giro and won...He would have had his Tour form and have more time to train and be not fatigued . Again I dont know why he didn't ride the Giro this year
 
Dumoulin should not have left Sunweb in the same manner Barguil should not have left. Everyone blames Sunweb for the Dumoulin knee issue but it was Dumoulin himself who wanted to ride the Tour and insisted he would be ready not the team
Yet the team took the brunt of the criticism

Sunweb dont need Dumoulin but he joined a team where he is 2nd fiddle behind Roglic while he was in a team that where he was the undisputed leader ..I could never see the sense in that decision

If at Sunweb he could have waited and rode the Giro and won...He would have had his Tour form and have more time to train and be not fatigued . Again I dont know why he didn't ride the Giro this year
There’s a whole load of what ifs in there, but yes, with every GT that goes by, Tom’s decision to up sticks and leave Sunweb for Jumbo seems to have negatively impacted his chances of another big win. Be it how well Sunweb’s riders have done in the interim, or how much competition he has for team leadership now, or just flat out getting beaten by a wunderkid at the Tour.
 
The idea behind switching teams to Jumbo was that, being back to his best, he would be their no. 1 rider. Not Roglic.

His shape at the Tour de France was quite promising actually. Dumoulin had just gotten back into race rhythm. Like I already feared some weeks ago, the load of racing between the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana simply was too much in short time. Especially for a guy who didn't race all that much before. Actually since fall 2018! Of course he's fatigued now. His engine is overcooked now, just when it was back going smoothly.

Jumbo really needs to hire back Erik Breukink! Their current sport directors and managers tactically ineptitude is blatant. Especially Addy Engels who's incompetence arguably cost 2 Giro d'Italia victories for the team. With Breukink as general manager, leading sports director respectively we are talking about the online time in the history of the team someone with tactical knowledge was calling the shots. Keep in mind that Breukink had a good link with Rasmussen as well so his would've been 2007 Tour de France victory and would've been 3rd place at the 2005 Tour de France fall into Breukink's purview!
 
Legendary domestique.

Gifting the ITT to his team leader already
I would’ve thought he’d at least stick around to see how he could do in the TT.

The thought did occur the other day, is he behind Jumbo’s move to Cervelo bikes? He was at Sunweb still when they switched from Giant, and Jumbo’s relationship with Bianchi this year has seemed to be “let’s adapt these to our purposes, but we’re not 100% happy with them.”
 
I would’ve thought he’d at least stick around to see how he could do in the TT.

The thought did occur the other day, is he behind Jumbo’s move to Cervelo bikes? He was at Sunweb still when they switched from Giant, and Jumbo’s relationship with Bianchi this year has seemed to be “let’s adapt these to our purposes, but we’re not 100% happy with them.”
I think Dumoulin in his current shape had no shot at that ITT anyway. I have no ideas about the bikes.
 
His season prep was hampered by that disease or whatnot. Not that strange that this season is over. Next year will be important though.
Yeah, he gets a pass on this year from me. I still maintain that at his best he should be an equal GC threat to Roglic. Don’t know exactly where he’s gone wrong and whether it’s fixable or a Schleckish decline due to an injury that changed his mechanics.
 
Yeah, he gets a pass on this year from me. I still maintain that at his best he should be an equal GC threat to Roglic. Don’t know exactly where he’s gone wrong and whether it’s fixable or a Schleckish decline due to an injury that changed his mechanics.
Yeah he should be equal. The last time they went head to head, on different teams, in a GT, Tom was unlucky to finish 2nd, in his 2nd GT of the year whereas Primoz faded to 4th. And Tom’s a year younger.

Hopefully he can come back to his old self after the injury if he gets a good winter break.
 
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Tom Dumoulin quits cycling temporarily. :eek: He takes unpaid leave for an unknown period of time.

 
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Tom Dumoulin is taking a break from cycling. Because he is appareantly unhappy as a cyclist for the past 2 years. He wants to find out what to do with his life after cycling and wants to decide whether it's worth staying a cyclist at all. So might just even be end of career...
Yeah, i wouldn't describe this as "taking a break" but more like "quitting indefinitely". Bummer, but on the other hand, not really surprised.
 
Tom Dumoulin is taking a break from cycling. Because he is appareantly unhappy as a cyclist for the past 2 years. He wants to find out what to do with his life after cycling and wants to decide whether it's worth staying a cyclist at all. So might just even be end of career...
I fear he won't come back from this tbh.

Yeah, i wouldn't describe this as "taking a break" but more like "quitting indefinitely". Bummer, but on the other hand, not really surprised.

I am surprised tbh. I thought he was through the worst of it.
 
From a logical perspective its a pretty bad decision when you consider that this season he has a golden opportunity to win the Tour but I hope that he can sort this out and choose what is better for him even if it is a decision that we won't like.
 
Form drops and you are under pressure to be a winner and not be a domestique but you are on a team with the talent of Roglic and Van Aert and you are playing second fiddle ...so you are under constant pressure esp from yourself to be the best but you cant quite get to it and then there are so many good riders since you last won

In his piece he talks very early about wining the Tourand what is expected of him by everyone but mostly it seems by himself

I said when he left Sunweb it was a mistake and now I think that is justified. You go from king of the castle to another Dom ...very hard to take

Takes time and patience to get back to the top .

I fear he may never by quitting now as he was out of racing already from May 2019 to Sept 2020 and didn't stay at the Vuelta

I hope I am wrong and he comes back but it will be very hard to
 
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What's that, no, I totally did not expect this, not now.
If anything I would think that the cancellations of more and more races and probably the Olympics might have played a role, too. So maybe the usual "treadmill" is a bit disrupted and the thought "what am I doing this for" gets more space. From a logical point of view I don't see any reason. If he's unhappy with his role he could switch teams. If he's unhappy with his condition, well, he's not old, there should be time and hope.
But I respect everyone who's asking themselves what they are doing all of that for... maybe it's also about private life, family, other interests, a general pursuit of sense in life which is not fulfilled right now... and if the physical state is not what you wish it to be, those questions probably appear easier or with more force.
 
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Wow, did not expect this. I mean we could see last year (especially in the behind the scenes documentaries at The Tour & Vuelta) that he wasn't happy (there was even a tearful breakdown moment in the Tour), but it seems so weird, sudden & not exactly planned considering he's also suddenly leaving the Jumbo training camp (and couldn't he just renegotiate his contract "down" & ride fewer races to get his form back or something like that if he's not comfortable with the pressure at the moment?).

And a big shout-out (lol actually) to the press relations people at Jumbo who yesterday (I even watched the video!) made Tom Dumoulin look like he was back, motivated & ready for this season's objectives... and are now making his "takes a break" announcement also seem totally normal & not at all out of the ordinary.

Smooth PR. ;)
 
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