Tom Dumoulin got the cycling Twitter world rife with rumours yesterday evening after announcing a personal press conference for this afternoon. Theories from a transfer to CCC in order to continue riding Giant bikes to him taking a sabbatical as he becomes a father circulated but it turned out to be nothing of the sort.
Instead, the Dutch rider announced that he would be launching his very own cycling race to increase youth participation in cycling in his native Limburg region.
The race will be eponymous, called the Tour de Dumoulin, and will pit people of all ages in separate races in and around his Maastricht home on 6th October 2019, the weekend after next year's UCI World Championships set to be held in Yorkshire.
Announcing the new race, Dumoulin spoke as to why he had decided to give back to cycling in his hometown.
'I have noticed in recent years how cycling has gained enormous popularity in the Netherlands. Yet I have seen that it has not really ensured that the amount of people actively cycling has also grown,' Dumoulin said.
'When I am training here, it frustrates me that I do not see more people cycling than a few years ago.
'It will mainly be a day to stimulate the youth to go cycling, but it is actually to get everyone, including the elderly, in motion.'
While cycling in the Netherlands has never been unpopular, far outweighing the UK for example, the positive profile of Dumoulin has helped lead a resurgence in the nation's interest in the professional sport.
The 2017 Giro d'Italia champion became the first Dutchman since Joop Zoetemelk in 1980 to secure a Grand Tour and has since become a national hero in the process.
Dumoulin has also lent his name to the Tom Dumoulin Bike Park in Sittard, a closed road cycling circuit open to the community and used in the annual Hammer Series Limburg race.