Knee injury forces Olivier to quit pro cycling
Daan Olivier is forced to immediately end his professional cycling career. The 26-year-old Dutchman has been suffering from a knee injury since a crash last year, which was exacerbated by top-level sport. In a blog on Daan’s and this site, the Team Jumbo-Visma rider tells how he has experienced the past period and how he faces the future.
“Since the Ruta del Sol I felt that the injury moved towards a stage of performance impairing”, Olivier writes. “Already the first day of the Tour of the Basque Country, I felt that the injury got even worse. Now I have come to a point of realization that the past couple of months I have been fighting a losing battle. The injury got worse and I am not feeling rewarded for all the efforts I have put in. It feels hard and unreal that I am forced to abandon not only the Basque Country race, but the race of Professional Cycling. It feels like a dream has fallen to pieces. Cycling has brought me a lot. Those experiences I will never forget, and I am more than grateful that I have been privileged to live this life for almost 11 years.”
Olivier in the colours of the team
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Olivier showed that he was ready to turn pro when he was a rider of the Rabobank Continental Team. In 2014 and 2015 he joined Team Giant-Shimano (Alpecin). After a short break, he joined the current Team Jumbo-Visma in 2017. That year, he finished the Vuelta a España.
Team Jumbo-Visma thank Daan for his team spirit and the nice cooperation and wish him the best of luck in his social career.
Read his whole story here.
