After difficult period, Arvid de Kleijn is also beaten up: "Had a broken nose"

Arvid de Kleijn has not yet raced for Tudor this season, but there are several reasons for this. The Dutch sprinter has been through a very turbulent period, during which he became a father, lost his own father, and was knocked out by a group of youngsters. "There is no longer any respect for fellow human beings," he says in an interview with De Telegraaf.

It happened in early April, the week before the Scheldeprijs. "The week before, I was training near St. Oedenrode. I hadn’t really thought about the fact that Paaspop was happening, but anyway, I rode past a group of about ten boys aged around 15, 16, 17. They insulted me with the disease my father died from. I then turned around and tried to talk to them."

"Why did they have to use that word to insult me and why were they acting that way? When I asked them to stop because my father died from that disease, things just got worse," De Kleijn explains. "They had probably been drinking and maybe more. It was really impossible to have a conversation, and when I decided to ride away, they started messing with me."

Broken nose
Things then got completely out of hand. "One of them on a fatbike behind me suddenly swung his arm, knocking me out. It turned out my nose was broken. It’s especially sad because you see more and more that this generation has no respect for others."

"Fortunately, there were bystanders who witnessed it and nine of those involved were stopped. They also helped me back on my feet. Unfortunately, the one who struck me left quickly and hasn’t been found yet. The legal process unfortunately will take a while, but I’m glad they won’t just get away with it."

It was a new low point for De Kleijn after an already very difficult period with major setbacks. For a brief moment, his life looked a bit more hopeful when, on January 6, he became a father for the first time to daughter Fye. "But it was not an easy delivery and Céline (his wife) could barely get out of bed for a long time. It mainly fell to me. I hardly managed to train."

All this happened during a period when his father Cees was seriously ill. "At the hospital, we were first told that the cancer was so advanced he wouldn’t make it to Christmas 2025, but he kept fighting. It’s nice that he was able to witness Fye’s birth to some extent." Earlier this year, his father passed away. "The way things happened, everyone in the family found peace and together we look back on a beautiful farewell."