OlympicsTom Dumoulin was full of emotions after his silver medal in the olympic time trial. At the beginning of this year, the Dutchman did not want to cycle anymore, but he came back especially for the Olympic Games and only had to tolerate Primoz Roglic. He also came with clarity about his future.
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“It was a difficult road to get here. I was overtrained in the winter and ready to cycle”, Dumoulin recalled his feeling from early 2021. “But I decided to return, especially for this day. I had a goal and I am very proud,” said Dumoulin, who was handed silver. Silver with a gold trim: “It’s not gold, but I gave it my all and Primoz was great.”
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It was also the question beforehand whether the Olympic time trial was Dumoulin’s last stage. However, that is not the case. “I will continue and I will make it another great cycling year with a great program. Also with the World Cup,” said the silver medalist. “I have already let the team know that I would like to continue, because this way I like it very much.”
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National coach Koos Moerenhout was also emotional. Dumoulin and he fell into each other’s arms. “There was a lot of discharge. Tom didn’t say much, but we were both emotional. It’s about his career and life. He has been very deep and then he takes Tokyo as a trigger to give his career a nice push forward. Then you hope that happens. This is a fantastic culmination of the entire route here. You always fight for gold, but this is a very special silver medal. This is very cool and a very well deserved place,” said the national coach at the NOS.
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“It was very exciting,” Moerenhout said. “You can see that he is doing a perfect job and technically he cannot be caught making a mistake. It looks fast, but you have no reference. All the toppers were sitting on a handkerchief so you are in that last round with your buttocks squeezed. He did a fantastic job.”
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