![\"Koen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/koenbouwman-694d1d91748c6.jpg@webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“In the evening after dinner, everything came straight back up. The next day I had a fever, diarrhea, everything you can think of. There was just no way I could start. That was really disappointing. In the Tour of the Alps I had felt like my old self for the first time, so I went to the Giro with quite a bit of confidence. Then it\u2019s painful to have to abandon in stage eight.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
No Tour de France but La Vuelta doesn’t go as planned\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jayco believed in Bouwman’s strengths and so he was then inserted in the shortlist for the Tour de France. But his return to racing was rushed and he was honest that he didn’t have the level to be present: \u201cAfter that I tried to pick things up again, but I went to the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 with just two training sessions in my legs. That wasn\u2019t ideal. The Tour was still an option because the selection was announced late and Michael Matthews was still dealing with issues, but with that condition, I had no business being there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The summer came about and he found some consistency again, but then at the Tour de Pologne he fell ill again. \u201cAfter an altitude camp I felt really good. Then in the Tour de Pologne it went wrong again, with a high fever and basically all the symptoms of Covid. I tested negative every time, but it was far from ideal”.<\/p>\n
However as luck would have it, he would still be selected to the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a despite his issues. “Because of that illness I missed out on the Vuelta selection, which was a real blow. In the end, Jasha S\u00fctterlin dropped out, and I still got to go to Spain.\u201d However it ended in the same way as the Giro.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was throwing up all day, fever\u2026 I did ride the team time trial, but completely empty: no food, not even a warm-up. In the evening I still couldn\u2019t eat anything. I tried again the next day, but after three hours I was completely empty.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Koen Bouwman racing during Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge 2025 for Team Jayco AlUla<\/p>\n
Visma, Tour and retirement<\/p>\n
Hence it was a very rough first season away from Visma, where he also won a stage of the Criterium du Dauphin\u00e9, the GC of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, and the KOM (alongside the two stage wins) at the 2022 edition. \u201cYou make the decision to leave Visma, even though it\u2019s a really great team. But later on, you don\u2019t want to say: maybe there could have been a nice win in a big race. At Visma, I wasn\u2019t good enough to really ride for my own chances there,” he explains.<\/p>\n
He’s got seven Giro editions behind him, and four Vueltas. But no Tour de France yet. \u201cI\u2019ve always said I\u2019d love to ride the Tour one day. But I\u2019m realistic enough, especially after last season, to know that I have to prove myself, and that it won\u2019t just happen overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, next season brings further pressure, as he enters contract year. “If I have another season like this one, that obviously won’t help. In the past I\u2019ve shown good things, and within the team it\u2019s been repeated several times that the talent is still there \u2013 that doesn\u2019t just disappear. That fire is still burning. I just hope I\u2019m spared a bit more bad luck this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
But retirement looms in the distance, and he doesn’t exclude it to be something that he may choose in the upcoming years. \u201cI still love cycling just as much as I did as a junior. If in three years\u2019 time I feel like it\u2019s breaking me, then I\u2019ll stop. As long as I\u2019m a professional cyclist, I\u2019ll give it 100 percent. But if it\u2019s gone, or I don\u2019t want it anymore, then I also have to be honest with myself.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “In the evening after dinner, everything came straight back up. The next day I had a fever,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,201402,85,51866,165035],"class_list":{"0":"post-372493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-koen-bouwman","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-team-jayco-alula","14":"tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}