Update on the Dutchman’s injury
Tom Dumoulin suffered a knee injury after a crash in the 2019 Giro earlier this year. He didn’t recover in time for the Tour nor the Vuelta, but he should be ready for next season. A second operation was needed to clean the quadricep tendon of unhealthy tissue to make sure Dumoulin will be able to race at his previous level.
“The operation went very well,” Dumoulin said. “The only problem with tendon tissue is that it’s a badly vascularised tissue and that causes slow healing. I’ve been told that recovering from this injury is a fine balance between not doing enough training (which I haven’t really found what that means) and doing too much training (which I unfortunately found out a couple of times already). But it’s going in the right direction now.”
The yellow jersey of Jumbo-Visma will be awaiting him next season, and Dumoulin should team up with the likes of Primož Roglič and Steven Kruijswijk to bring the team some glory. One thing is for sure, he cannot wait to get back to racing.
“This whole year has been very demanding, physically and mentally, but at the same time very liberating and mind-opening. Missing out on being competitive at the highest level has made me appreciate even more what I had, and what I want in the next couple of years. I want to go back to do everything I can to be the best version of myself on the bike, to go back to winning races, to try and win another Grand Tour. I hopefully have another five or six, maybe more, good years in my legs,” Dumoulin said. “Let’s make the most of them!”
Fingers crossed!
