{"id":232950,"date":"2025-10-22T22:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T22:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/232950\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T22:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T22:31:07","slug":"maike-van-der-duin-faces-uncertain-road-to-recovery-after-long-battle-with-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/232950\/","title":{"rendered":"Maike van der Duin faces uncertain road to recovery after long battle with illness –"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maike van der Duin has spoken candidly about the health struggles that have kept her off the bike for much of the year, admitting she still has no clear timeline for a return to racing. The 23-year-old Dutch rider for Canyon SRAM zondacrypto, who won bronze at the Olympic Games, has been sidelined for several months with widespread inflammation and says her recovery remains unpredictable.<\/p>\n

Speaking to NOS, Van der Duin explained that she hopes to be fit enough to rejoin her team\u2019s training camp in January, though even that goal remains uncertain. \u201cI hope to be ready by then, but that says enough about where I am right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"MaikeMaike van Der Duin<\/p>\n

Her health problems began nearly two years ago, marked by unexplained weight gain and persistent fatigue. The issues followed a particularly difficult period in her life. \u201cIn the winter of 2024 I broke my ankle, and shortly afterwards I lost my father. When I started gaining weight, I thought it was just my body reacting to the stress of grief and recovery. In my mind, it was simple \u2013 if I was gaining weight, I must have been eating too much. I couldn\u2019t think clearly because I was so focused on making it to the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite what she described as an \u201cinhuman\u201d preparation period, Van der Duin managed to perform at the Games, but after the Vuelta Espa\u00f1a Femenina this year she finally admitted something was seriously wrong. \u201cAt that race I cried every day. I just couldn\u2019t move forward. I told the team that I didn\u2019t understand what was happening and needed to find out what was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further medical investigations revealed that the weight gain was not due to nutrition but to fluid retention at a cellular level \u2013 something that cannot simply be trained or sweated away. Van der Duin has since stepped back completely from structured training to focus on rest and recovery, though she has recently started doing some light rides again.<\/p>\n

\"PRF23<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s stabilised now,\u201d she explained. \u201cThe fluid still has to go, and that takes time. There\u2019s no end date to this recovery \u2013 it\u2019s not like a broken collarbone. Maybe I\u2019ll be fit in six months, maybe in two years. I honestly don\u2019t know. That\u2019s the most frustrating part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van der Duin will remain with Canyon SRAM zondacrypto for a fourth consecutive season in 2026. Despite her disrupted campaign this year, she still managed several strong results early in the season, including fifth in the team time trial at the Vuelta Espa\u00f1a Femenina and top-ten finishes at the Tour Down Under and Omloop van het Hageland.<\/p>\n

For now, her focus is on getting healthy again. While her trademark power and sprinting ability are on hold, Van der Duin\u2019s determination remains intact \u2013 even without a clear horizon yet in sight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maike van der Duin has spoken candidly about the health struggles that have kept her off the bike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82,110456,20364],"class_list":["post-232950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-van-der-duin","tag-womens-cycling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}