When Tom Dumoulin announced his decision to return to professional cycling following a five-month career hiatus, the target he had in mind was the time trial at the Tokyo Olympics.
After a winning a silver medal, which said had a "golden edge", the Dutchman can now look beyond, and has voiced his desire to continue competing.
Dumoulin ruled out a Grand Tour comeback at the Vuelta a España but described the World Championships in Belgium in September as a 'probability'. Either way, he insisted he was enjoying his job again.
Article continues belowIn the medal winners' press conference, Dumoulin was asked if he had 'something in mind for the future'.
"Yeah, that I'm continuing as a professional cyclist," he responded.
"I've enjoyed it the last couple of months, preparing for this again. I had a good time, focusing on this, doing all the training camps, doing Tour de Suisse and nationals. I was happy to be a cyclist again. That’s what I told my team also. I'm continuing. How exactly we do it, we still need to talk about with the team."
Dumoulin announced his decision to step away from the sport in January, shortly after being included in Jumbo-Visma's Tour de France squad in his second year at the Dutch team.
He opened up about the difficulties of being a top pro rider, notably the pressures and expectations, and noted he'd 'forgotten' himself in the previous year. After taking some time to work out what he wants from his career and life, it seems he has found some answers.
"For me, it was just a very enjoyable period, the last couple of months," he said. "I actually enjoyed my time away from professional cycling, but when I decided to come back and focus on this event, I also very much enjoyed preparing for it with a clear goal in mind, training hard, suffering at times. I definitely enjoyed that."
Dumoulin claimed the silver medal with a time of 56:05 on the rolling 44.2km course around the Fuji Speedway. It was a minute off the pace of gold medallist Primož Roglič but the best of the rest in what was otherwise a tight top five.
"This means the world to me," said Dumoulin, who also won time trial silver at the previous Games in Rio five years ago.
"It was my goal three months ago to go for a medal but I didn’t ride my bike a lot from January to May. In May I really started preparing, but it was a short period of time to come here. I knew it would be difficult but I knew was possible - for the time trial more than the road race. I set my goals and I succeeded, so I’m very happy."
Not that the glow of silver alone has convinced Dumoulin that he has a future in the sport.
"The result today didn't affect my decision," he insisted. "The decision has been made already the last couple of weeks."
