{"id":425970,"date":"2026-02-14T21:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425970\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T21:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:12:17","slug":"tom-dumoulin-can-understand-simon-yates-decision-to-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425970\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Dumoulin can understand Simon Yates’ decision to retire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Team Visma | Lease a Bike<\/a> is not in a good spot at the moment. 2025 Giro d’Italia winner Simon Yates<\/a> suddenly retired at the start of the season. Jonas Vingegaard’s coach, Tim Heemskerk, also quit with immediate effect. Cian Uijtdebroeks terminated his contract early to join Movistar<\/a> and injuries continue to set back Visma’s key riders.”My first reaction is: striking,” fellow former Giro d’Italia winner Tom Dumoulin<\/a> whose career ended with Visma in 2022 said on the podcast In De Waaier<\/a>. However, the Dutchman doesn’t want to speculate too much. “I’m not in the thick of it, none of us are, and none of us know what’s going on within the team. I try to stay away from speculation a little bit. It is striking, though.”<\/p>\n

In any case, he finds the case of Simon Yates quite worrying. “He’s still at training camp in December, and in January, he decides: figure it out, I’m quitting. You don’t do that when you’re having a blast. If you’re cycling with complete joy and you’re having a great time in the team, you don’t do that. Apparently, there’s something they have triggered in him.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Maybe there’s truth to the most common explanation that Yates simply ticked off the last big box in his career and lost motivation, but it’s not something that happens every day: “Maybe that played a part for him. In the sense of: I’m quitting, because if you like it, but not enough to live that monk’s life every day…”<\/p>\n

No need to go far for examples of when being a professional cyclist is not much fun.<\/p>\n

There’s the training camp in the Sierra Nevada, where Visma team has to stay indoors due to bad weather<\/a>. “They can’t do anything about that, but it’s truly a monk’s life you live. They’re there for three weeks at training camp in the snow, riding those rollers for hours every day and then weighing your food. I like it more now. I’m more comfortable here,” the Dutchman laughs.<\/p>\n

The former world time trial champion doesn’t want to draw conclusions too soon. “I can’t really explain it from the outside. I also don’t know if one thing is connected to the other. Tim Heemskerk’s departure could have a completely different cause than Simon Yates’s retirement. I don’t think we should judge that too much. It is striking, though.”<\/p>\n

\"Simon<\/p>\n

Simon Yates completed a chapter in his career and life at the 2025 Giro d’Italia<\/p>\n

Is Visma at a crossroads?<\/p>\n

“Well, no, because I still think Visma | Lease a Bike is leading in many areas within cycling. The way they approach their sport, their performance, their approach to coaching – it’s really excellent and unparalleled in modern cycling,” he continues, praising the team.<\/p>\n

Yet, the Dutchman sees the focus on enjoyment perhaps fading a bit. “Of course it’s about winning and performing, but if someone doesn’t enjoy it and doesn’t get the best out of themselves, you can write nutrition plans until you weigh ounces, but then you’re not going to get the most out of a rider.”<\/p>\n

When Zonneveld asks if that’s a problem for Visma | Lease a Bike alone, or for cycling as a whole, Dumoulin is adamant: “I think it’s for all of cycling, but Visma is the first, because they’re also leading the way with that data-driven approach. That doesn’t suit some personality types as well,” concludes the former Giro winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team Visma | Lease a Bike is not in a good spot at the moment. 2025 Giro d’Italia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,110531,101,36242,115977,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-425970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-simon-yates","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike","12":"tag-tom-dumoulin","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}