A Dying Father, a New Baby, and a Violent Roadside Attack: Why Arvid de Kleijn Vanished

Arvid de Kleijn — the Dutch sprinter who’s won at Milano-Torino and Paris-Nice — all but disappeared from the peloton this season.

Now we know why.

The 32-year-old returns to racing Sunday at the 2026 Rund um Köln, and for the first time, he’s talking about why he left — his father’s death, the birth of his first child, and a violent roadside attack.

“It’s been an incredibly hard few months,” De Kleijn said.

It started in December, and it never really let up for the Tudor Pro Cycling rider.

“My dad had been battling cancer, and toward the end, things became very difficult for him and for all of us as a family,” he said Wednesday. “I needed to be there. I needed to stay close.”

At the same time, De Kleijn and his wife welcomed their first child, a daughter named Fye de Kleijn, on January 6, just weeks before his father died.

A death, a birth, and an attack

It was an emotional roller coaster, and he needed a break from the intensity of training and racing.

“It was beautiful news, of course. But becoming a father while preparing to lose my own dad, that was emotionally overwhelming,” he said ahead of his 2026 season debut.

“I was living between two extremes: joy and heartbreak at the exact same time.”

After his father died in February, he slowly began trying to rebuild himself and prepare for a return to competition.

Then he got punched in the face in a brutal attack that left him with a broken nose.

“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,” he said.

“I still don’t understand why it happened. More than the injuries, it left me shocked.”

Tudor Pro Cycling gave him the space he needed, and now he’s ready to race again.

Ready to race again

His return comes at a good time for Tudor Pro Cycling, which has only won twice this season.

He’ll start Sunday at the 2026 Rund um Köln, with Four Days of Dunkirk, Heistse Pijl, Brussels Cycling Classic, and Copenhagen Sprint to follow.

“I missed racing so much, the adrenaline of the sprint, the atmosphere within the team, all of it,” he said. “Recently, I’ve trained really well and I finally feel ready again.

“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.”

After all he’s been through, racing a bike will be the easy part.