Nils Eekhoff's 2025 Struggles and Comeback

Down, up, down, down, down, up. That's how Nils Eekhoff describes his 2025 season. The classics specialist won his first semi-classic with Nokere Koerse. But during the big races he stayed at home, just like last summer when his teammates celebrated success in the Tour de France. Still, he draws strength from this year, he recently told the WielerFlits Podcast.

It was one of the worst crashes at the start of the year. While preparing for the sprint of the third stage in the AlUla Tour, Eekhoff was bent around a lamppost after a shoulder shove. He broke his jaw and several teeth. For weeks, he could only consume liquid food. But at his comeback in Nokere Koerse, he immediately won his first semi-classic. This was followed by a third place in the Bredene Koksijde Classic. The 27-year-old Dutchman then headed to the Tour of Catalonia, where he suffered a muscle tear.

Rare injury throws a wrench in the plans
The calf injury was so rare that he had to watch from the sidelines for over a month. And thus missed his beloved Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix as well. “That hurt a lot. That calf injury was many times worse and more frustrating than my crash in the AlUla Tour. At that time, I could work very purposefully at home, train. When you then come back at such a high level in Nokere Koerse, you get the feeling: ‘okay, now we’re going to push forward.’ But when you get stopped that way (by the muscle tear in my calf, ed.), it’s very frustrating.”

The months afterward also went tough for Eekhoff. "“It took a very long time before I really got the good feeling back after that muscle tear,” the Picnic PostNL rider tells us in our podcast. “It was inexplicable to me. I worked hard for it, but I just couldn’t find my rhythm. I felt good, but that didn’t show in the races. I could deliver a top performance, but afterwards I was drained. That stuck in my head.”

Not winning enough
After talks with sports director Pim Ligthart, Eekhoff accepted the situation. He had no influence over it. “I stopped stressing about it. If it was going to come, it would come. If not, then not. I kept training to stay busy. At some point, it got a bit easier, just enough so that I didn't keep running into a wall. That was in the training sessions after the Super 8 Classic. But you always need a result to get into a positive flow or calm.”

Eekhoff will certainly not let it get him down heading into 2026. “I always have the drive to get the best out of myself. I also really want to win, for myself and for the team. And I think I succeed too little. But well, it’s something I always strive for and want to fight for.”