Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) will return to racing at the Tour de Suisse in June, after taking a fourth-month break to reassess his career and desire for life as a professional rider.
The news was first reported by WielerFlits on Thursday morning and quickly confirmed by Jumbo-Visma.
"[He] has made this decision together with the team as he has recently found the joy in cycling again," read a short statement from the team.
The Tour de Suisse begins in Frauenfeld on Sunday, June 6, and appears to be the first step on a road leading to Tokyo.
Dumoulin is expected to ride the time trial and road race at the Dutch national championships - on June 16 and 20, respectively - in order to gain selection for the Olympic Games in Tokyo later in the summer.
"In Switzerland Dumoulin wants to regain the racing feeling," read the Jumbo-Visma statement. "After the Swiss stage race, the former world time trial champion will also appear at the start of the Dutch time trial and road championships. Dumoulin also has the ambition to go to the Olympic Games in Tokyo."
Jumbo-Visma have already confirmed that Dumoulin will not ride this year’s Tour de France, giving his place to emerging talent Jonas Vingegaard as they pursue overall victory with Primož Roglič.
The 2017 Giro d'Italia winner moved to Jumbo-Visma at the start of 2020 after a difficult final year at Team Sunweb. He came back from a serious knee injury that wrecked his 2019 campaign and supported Roglič to second place overall in last year's Tour de France. He finished seventh overall in Paris, although he pulled out of the Vuelta a España later in the season.
Dumoulin decided to pause his race career in January after a Jumbo-Visma training camp, saying at the time: "It feels so good that I finally took the decision to take some time for myself.
"I have been feeling for quite a while that it is very difficult for me to know how to find my way as Tom Dumoulin the cyclist - with the pressure that comes with it, with the expectations of different parties.
"I just want to do very well for very many people. I want the team to be happy with me. I want the sponsors to be happy. I want my wife and my family to be happy. And so I want to do well for everyone, but because of that I have forgotten myself a bit in the past year. What do I want? Do I still want to be a rider. And how?"
Dumoulin now seems to have found his answers and has been spotted training regularly in the Limburg hills near his home, notably on his time trial bike.
