{"id":183471,"date":"2021-05-10T09:20:38","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T09:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=183471"},"modified":"2021-05-10T09:21:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T09:21:02","slug":"the-sometimes-unbearable-stress-of-professional-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2021\/05\/10\/the-sometimes-unbearable-stress-of-professional-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"The (Sometimes) Unbearable Stress of Professional Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

When 2017 Giro d\u2019Italia and world time trial champion Tom Dumoulin said in January that he was suspending his racing career, the shock was felt across the cycling world. Just days earlier, his Jumbo-Visma team had released an interview in which the 30-year-old Dutchman said that he was looking forward to racing in the cobblestone classics this season.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nIn a video also released by his team, Dumoulin tried to explain. “I have felt for quite some time, months, maybe even a year actually, that it is very difficult for me to know how to find my way as Tom Dumoulin<\/a> the cyclist,” he said. “With the pressure that comes with it, the expectations of different parties. I really want to do very well for a lot of people, but that has made me forget myself a little in the past year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

This move was not unprecedented. In 2019, the German sprinter Marcel Kittel, winner of 14 Tour de France stages,<\/a> also stepped away from the sport, saying: \u201cIt was for me a long decision process where I raised a lot of question about how and where I want to go as a person and athlete and what is really important to me. I love cycling and my passion for this beautiful sport is never gone but I also know what it requires from me and what I need to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was at first meant to be a break in his career,<\/a> but three months later Kittel announced his permanent retirement<\/a> from the sport. He was 31 years old.<\/p>\n

For amateur racers and devoted fans of the sport, it may come as a shock when successful riders simply stop riding at the peak of their careers, citing feelings that are at best not very clear and which people not walking in their shoes may not understand.<\/p>\n

\"Marcel<\/a>
Kittel never came back to cycling. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To perhaps better understand the pressures and stress that high-performance cyclists are under, Cycling Weekly recently interviewed<\/a> 21-year-old Th\u00e9o Nonnez, the 2016 winner of the French youth road race championship, who was in his third year with the Groupama-FDJ continental team when on April 12 of this year he called it quits.<\/p>\n

“I had come to a point when I could not do it anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt bad about not respecting the contract, but I would have felt like [I was] taking the guys for idiots going there and pretending everything was all right. This sport is so hard when you\u2019re at 100 per cent, so when you\u2019re not, it\u2019s not even an option.\u201d<\/p>\n

In announcing his decision, Groupama-FDJ Continentale said Nonnez was leaving the sport \u201cafter suffering from severe mental health problems<\/a> due to the stress of training.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BZWZR0fh7NV\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link<\/p>\n

But the move was certainly more complicated than that. Nonnez said that he had thought long and hard before deciding to walk away from the sport \u2013 and he did not regret it. He noted that some people might call his condition burnout, but this was too simple an explanation. \u201cIt\u2019s rather an addition of many things that got me to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps, like Kittel and Dumoulin, it was a relief for him to finally express what he was feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had entered a vicious cycle and I didn\u2019t dare talk about how I felt,\u201d he said. \u201cI realize that I did the right thing [by] coming out of my silence because I don\u2019t know what would have happened if I had remained quiet any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

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"Des cas comme moi, il y en a de plus en plus" : le cycliste Th\u00e9o Nonnez brise le tabou de la d\u00e9pression chez les sportifs de haut niveauhttps:\/\/t.co\/e8jsNTuMSF<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/obmwdyYDMu<\/a><\/p>\n

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) April 18, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n