Tijmen Eising (BEAT Cycling) has ended his cycling career after suffering a heart attack following A bronze medal finish on Saturday at the Dutch Gravel Championships.
Speaking to RTV Drenthe from hospital, the 35-year-old said event staff had stopped a passing ambulance after event staff’s initial call to 112 was refused. Doctors subsequently found a blocked coronary artery, and Eising said he had sustained lasting heart damage and a tear in the artery.
Eising, who has also competed at the UCI Gravel World Championships, finished third in Rijssen on September 19. He had felt reasonably good during the race. He was satisfied with bronze, which he considered the best result available to him that day.
He initially expected the pressure in his chest after the finish to pass and went to doping control before having to sit down. First-aid staff called 112, but the emergency control centre decided an ambulance was unnecessary after asking health-related questions, in Eising’s account. The first-aid team disagreed.
“In the end I was lucky that an ambulance a street away was returning to the hospital without a patient on board,” Eising said. “They stopped that ambulance and, after making a heart tracing, we went to the hospital in Enschede with sirens sounding.”
His family had watched him race but had already left when the emergency developed. They turned back after learning what had happened.
Tijmen Eising’s team picture. Image credit: BEAT cycling
“When I heard in the ambulance that I had suffered a heart attack, I was very shocked,” he said.
Eising had experienced similar discomfort before the championships but had not sought help.
“Two weeks ago I also woke up once because of a pressing feeling in my chest. And I did nothing about it,” he said.
Hospital treatment and immediate retirement
Doctors cleared the coronary blockage during a procedure through Eising’s wrist. He said they did not insert a stent because the size needed for his enlarged heart and wide arteries was unavailable. He attributed their size to his years of training.
“Now we will first see whether we can solve it with medication,” he said. “I have suffered damage to my heart and a tear in my coronary artery.”
Eising had already intended to retire at the end of 2026. In a March interview with RTV Drenthe, he said he planned to keep riding recreationally after retirement, without the 20-hour training weeks. He also worked in mortgages and insurance alongside racing.
The heart attack brings that final season to an immediate end. Eising won the inaugural Dutch gravel title in 2021 and regained it in 2024. His career also included the junior cyclo-cross world title in 2009.
Eising is not the first professional cyclist whose career has been disrupted by a cardiac emergency. Wesley Kreder suffered a heart attack at home in 2023, which ended his season, though Cofidis said at the time that his long-term racing future was uncertain. Sonny Colbrelli retired after collapsing at the 2022 Volta a Catalunya; his team said the cause was an unstable heart rhythm.
Eising said he expected to remain in hospital in Enschede through Friday, September 25.
