Back to Racing: Arvid de Kleijn Reveals the Difficult Times Behind His Absence

For a few months, Dutch sprinter Arvid de Kleijn was nowhere to be seen. No races. No training camps. No laughter in the team bus. As the 32-year-old prepares to finally pin on a race number again this Sunday at Rund um Köln, he is opening up for the first time about a dark period of his life.

13.05.2026

Since December, Arvid had stepped away from cycling for personal reasons. Behind the silence was a storm of emotions. “It’s been an incredibly hard few months,” he says quietly. “My dad had been battling cancer, and toward the end, things became very difficult for him and for all of us as a family. I needed to be there. I needed to stay close.”

At the same time, life was asking him to embrace another powerful emotion. Arvid and his wife were preparing to welcome their first child. “It was beautiful news, of course. But becoming a father while preparing to lose my own dad… that was emotionally overwhelming. I was living between two extremes: joy and heartbreak at the exact same time.”

Despite these difficulties, Arvid never stopped training. After his father passed away in mid-February, Arvid slowly began rebuilding himself. But then, another traumatic moment changed everything again.

“During training, I was stopped by a group of young guys. They shouted at me and chased me. There was no way to reason with them, so I tried to leave. One of them punched me in the face several times.” The attack left him with a broken nose, but the emotional impact cut far deeper. “I still don’t understand why it happened. More than the injuries, it left me shocked.”

For months, Arvid chose silence. Speaking publicly was simply too difficult. But now, he says, he finally feels strong enough to return - both mentally and physically - to the sport he loves.

Since 2023, Tudor Pro Cycling Team has celebrated 13 victories with Arvid, making him the Team’s most successful rider. He delivered historic moments too: the Team’s first-ever victory at Milano–Torino in 2023 and its first WorldTour triumph at Paris–Nice in 2024.

Now, after months away from the team and the peloton, his motivation burns stronger than ever. “I missed racing so much, the adrenaline of the sprint, the atmosphere within the team, all of it. Recently, I’ve trained really well and I finally feel ready again.” Even with a delayed start to his season, his ambition remains unchanged: “I believe I can be competitive. I want to win again, for myself, for the team, and for everyone who stood by me during this period.”

Arvid will make his long-awaited return to competition this Sunday at Rund um Köln before continuing his season at Four Days of Dunkirk, Heistse Pijl, Brussels Cycling Classic and Copenhagen Sprint.