Tom Dumoulin promised to make one last push for glory as he announced he will retire from cycling at the end of the season.

Jumbo-Visma rider Dumoulin won the Giro d'Italia in 2017 and followed up with success at the individual event of the World Time Trial Championships in the same year.

The Dutchman is also a four-time national time trial champion, while he has claimed three stages at the Tour de France, two at the Vuelta a Espana and four at the Giro.

Dumoulin, alongside his Giro success, finished second at the 2018 Tour de France and has two time trial Olympic silver medals to his name.

The 31-year-old featured at this season's Giro but has confirmed this campaign will be his last as he looks for a new challenge.

"I decided that 2022 will be my last year as a professional cyclist," Dumoulin wrote on Instagram.

"In 2020 I had a very difficult year and at the end of that year I got overtrained and burned out. At the end of 2020, beginning of 2021, I was only a shadow of myself and thus decided at the time to take [a] break away from cycling to think about my future.

"But despite how good it occasionally still was: many times, and especially this year, it has been a frustrating path, at which my body felt tired and still does feel tired. As soon as the load in training or races gets higher, I suffer fatigue, aches, and injuries instead of improving.

"The effort in training did often not lead to the desired performances. For a while now there has been a disbalance between my 100 per cent dedication, everything that I do and sacrifice for my sport, and what I subsequently get out of it in return.

"With a lot of patience and a very cautious approach, I'm convinced that I could get back to my full potential on the bike. But that would be a long and patient road, with no guarantees on success. I choose not to take that road, but to quit my active cycling instead and to take a new and unknown path.

"I especially look forward to the World Championships in Australia where I hope to get the best out of myself in the time trial one last time."

Koen Bouwman hailed the work of Jumba-Visma team-mate Tom Dumoulin after securing his first Grand Tour victory on stage seven of the Giro D'Italia.

The maglia rosa of Juanpe Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) and blue jersey of Lennard Kamna (Bora-Hansgrohe) led the early stages of the 196km race to Potenza on Friday.

Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) then took charge through the 30km incline of Monte Sirino, the longest climb in the race, but the expertise Dumoulin and Bouwman came to the forefront from there on in.

Bouwman won the largely uncontested intermediate sprint before Dumoulin did much of the defensive work to keep Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) and Bauke Mollema (Trek–Segafredo) at bay.

Dumoulin, who finished fourth to boost his general classification hopes, could be seen mirroring Bouwman's celebration as he crossed the finish line, with Mollema beating Formolo to second place.

Victory also marked Jumbo-Visma's first stage win at the Giro in three years, and Bouwman highlighted Dumoulin's efforts.

"It's unbelievable, I can't believe it," Bouwman told reporters. "It was such a hard day. We were in the final with four riders and two of us. Tom did a superb job in the last 2km.

"I was feeling good all day. One time on the climb I was in trouble but I came back and actually I was confident for the sprint.

"It was steep but when I started to sprint I felt so much power left. I looked behind with 50 metres to go and saw I had a big gap – perfect."

Meanwhile, Lopez retained the maglia rosa for another day and maintained his 38-second lead over Kamna after finishing safely in the peloton.

FLYING DUTCHMEN

For the first time in history, the Netherlands had three riders – Bouwman, Dumoulin and Mollema – in the top four places in a stage of the Giro d'Italia.

STAGE RESULT  

1. Koen Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma) 5:12:30
2. Bauke Mollema (Trek–Segafredo) +0:02
3. Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) same time
4. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) +0:19
5. Davide Villella (Cofidis) +2:25

CLASSIFICATION STANDINGS   

General Classification  

1. Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) 28:39:05
2. Lennard Kaemna (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:38
3. Rein Taaramae (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) +0:58

Points Classification

1. Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) 147
2. Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) 94
3. Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) 78

King of the Mountains  

1. Koen Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma) 68
2. Lennard Kaemna (Bora-Hansgrohe) 43 
3. Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) 27

Having taken a five-month break in January, Tom Dumoulin cannot wait to get back into cycling action for the Netherlands as he lines up as one of the favourites in Tokyo.

Dumoulin took an indefinite break from cycling at the start of 2021 to understand his motivations for the sport, but the three-time Tour de France stage winner returned in June and will represent his country at the Games.

Usually a time-trial specialist, Dumoulin will compete in the combined road race and time trial as he looks to become only the second cyclist to win both events at a single Games.

The only cyclist to achieve this feat before is Dumoulin's compatriot Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel, who won both events at the Olympic Games Sydney 2000.

"I'm glad to be back. I had a couple of good weeks in June and the condition improved gradually. The most important thing is that I had fun on the bike again, and I took pleasure in working towards a goal again," the 2017 Giro d'Italia general classification winner said.

"I really want to go for it in the road race. It's a super-beautiful course and the heat normally suits me. I mainly prepared for the time trial, because that's my main goal, but that full gas on Saturday does not have to affect my [performance in the] time trial on Wednesday."

The Netherlands and Italy have won a joint-record nine cycling gold medals at the Games and Dumoulin believes he and his team-mates have another good chance of success on Saturday.

"We have Bauke Mollema as target man and that's logic. We have got a strong team, but not really a team to control the race.

"Dylan Van Baarle, Wilco Kelderman and me, we have free roles and the three of us hope to go a long way, but we will support Bauke wherever necessary.

"Yoeri Havik who combines the road race with track cycling [at Tokyo 2020], joins us to support the team in the first 100 kilometres."