{"id":1933367,"date":"2026-05-13T11:49:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1933367"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:49:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:49:28","slug":"a-dying-father-a-new-baby-and-a-violent-roadside-attack-why-arvid-de-kleijn-vanished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1933367","title":{"rendered":"A Dying Father, a New Baby, and a Violent Roadside Attack: Why Arvid de Kleijn Vanished"},"content":{"rendered":"
Arvid de Kleijn \u2014 the Dutch sprinter who\u2019s won at Milano-Torino and Paris-Nice \u2014 all but disappeared from the peloton this season.<\/p>\n
Now we know why.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old returns to racing Sunday at the 2026 Rund um K\u00f6ln, and for the first time, he\u2019s talking about why he left \u2014 his father\u2019s death, the birth of his first child, and a violent roadside attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an incredibly hard few months,\u201d De Kleijn said.<\/p>\n
It started in December, and it never really let up for the Tudor Pro Cycling rider.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad had been battling cancer, and toward the end, things became very difficult for him and for all of us as a family,\u201d he said Wednesday. \u201cI needed to be there. I needed to stay close.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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A death, a birth, and an attack<\/h2>\nDe Kleijn returns after a brutal period off the bike. <\/span> (Photo: Tudor Pro Cycling\/Special to Velo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
It was an emotional roller coaster, and he needed a break from the intensity of training and racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was beautiful news, of course. But becoming a father while preparing to lose my own dad, that was emotionally overwhelming,\u201d he said ahead of his 2026 season debut.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI was living between two extremes: joy and heartbreak at the exact same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his father died in February, he slowly began trying to rebuild himself and prepare for a return to competition.<\/p>\n
Then he got punched in the face in a brutal attack that left him with a broken nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still don\u2019t understand why it happened. More than the injuries, it left me shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tudor Pro Cycling gave him the space he needed, and now he\u2019s ready to race again.<\/p>\n
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Ready to race again<\/h2>\n
His return comes at a good time for Tudor Pro Cycling, which has only won twice this season.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll start Sunday at the 2026 Rund um K\u00f6ln, with Four Days of Dunkirk, Heistse Pijl, Brussels Cycling Classic, and Copenhagen Sprint to follow.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI missed racing so much, the adrenaline of the sprint, the atmosphere within the team, all of it,\u201d he said. \u201cRecently, I\u2019ve trained really well and I finally feel ready again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
After all he\u2019s been through, racing a bike will be the easy part.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/dearvid.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated May 13, 2026 05:50AM Arvid de Kleijn \u2014 the Dutch sprinter who\u2019s won at Milano-Torino and Paris-Nice \u2014 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 K\u00f6ln, and for the first time, he\u2019s talking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1933367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1933367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1933367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1933367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1933367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Arvid](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4a40fd_260057dbb70c4203b09926ca893701c8mv2-720x480.jpeg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")