10 great cyclists who will retire this year and not compete in 2023

The next season will be marked by the absence of the big names that until this year gave cycling its glory days. Some are permanently off the bike due to their old age and others are the result of various physical or personal problems.

If for one reason or another, the certainty now is that Alejandro Valverde, Davide Rebellin, Philippe Gilbert, Vincenzo Nibali, Richie Porte, Tom Dumoulin, Sonny Colbrelli, Niki Terpstra, Giovanni Visconti and Ilnur Zakarin they won’t be competing with the international cycling elite in 2023, where it’s easier to add better-known names at the end of the year.

ALEJANDRO VALVERDE

At 42 years old, the Murcian cyclist decided to retire after one of the most successful careers in national and international cycling. ‘El Bala’, who will continue to be associated with the Movistar team, will stop being a professional cyclist on December 31 after a season in which he competed for 78 days, during which he achieved two victories, in which he had again become one of the foundations of telephone training, and where it became famous with classics such as Il Lombardía, Flecha Wallona or Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Not all cyclists can boast a long and successful career, after he made his debut in 2002 in the range of Kelme-Costa Blanca and his 133 victories as a professional, of which the 2018 World Championship stands out- only, his five victories in the Walloon Fleche, his four in Liège-Bastogne-Liège or his Vuelta a España

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DAVID REBELLIN

The grandfather of the peloton decided this year that the time had come to get off the bike at 51 years old. Unlike, for example, Alejandro Valverde, the Italian cyclist from San Bonifacio has not competed in the cycling elite for a long time. This last season he competed for only 18 days, with the best result achieved in the Adriatica Ionica Race (11th in the third stage), and he will leave it after being in position 1339 in the season ranking and achieved throughout his broad professional. career, which began in 1992, none other and none less, 61 victories as a professional, of which three in the Flecha Wallona,​​​​one in the Clásica de San Sebastián or the Amstel Gold Race stand out.

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PHILIPPE GILBERT

With only one victory this season, in the 4 Days of Dunkerque -a strange name for six stages of the race-, the Belgian Philippe Gilbert decided to leave it on December 31 at the age of 40. Number 155 in the ranking, the one from Verviers, member of the Lotto-Soudal ranks, debuted in 2002 in the ranks of La Française des Jeux in 2022 and jumped to the World Tour, the highest division of international cycling, in 2009 with Silence-Lotto. After 20 seasons, Gilbert achieved a total of 80 victories, with the 2012 Road World Championships standing out, his four wins at the Amstel Gold Race, his two at the Giro de Lombardia, Paris-Tours, as one of the few cyclist able to win four cycling monuments

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VINCENZO NIBALI

The Shark of Messina (37 years old), one of the seven cyclists in the world who managed to win three great cycling tours, will stop being a professional cyclist on December 31, although he will continue to be associated. in cycling as a technical advisor and ambassador of the new team Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, which is a partial successor to the South African Qhubeka and will have 23 riders. Winner of one Vuelta (2010), one Tour de France (2014) and two Giro d’Italia (2013 and 2016), Nibali also won two Tirreno-Adriatico (2012, 2013) and two Giro di Lombardia (2015 and 2018) ) as the most relevant results, to which should be added the Milan-San Remo of 2018 where he gave a lesson on how to descend, to add a total of 52 professional wins since his debut in 2005 with Fassa Bortolo

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RICHIE PORTE

After a gray campaign, where again luck was not on his side, Australian Richie Porte decided it was time for him to step aside at the age of 37. He made his debut in 2008 in the ranking of the Praties and made the leap to the World Tour in 2010 with Saxo Bank. The Ineos-Grenadiers rider since 2021 has his last victory dated September 7, 2021 in the Tour of Great Britain time trial, where it was his 33rd victory as a professional. 3rd in the 2020 Tour de France, Porte is a rider whose luck is sometimes hard to come by, but that hasn’t stopped him from winning his country’s Tour Down Under twice, Paris-Nice, or once the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, the Tour d’Romandía and the Critérium del Dauphiné.

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TOM DUMOULIN

Undoubtedly, one of the great disappointments of cycling in recent years. After winning the Giro d’Italia in 2017, snatching the victory from Nairo Quintana at the last minute, and after coming 2nd the following year again in the Giro and the Tour, the Dutch rider seems called to do great things, to become the benchmark in the peloton, but as a result of the withdrawal from the 2019 Giro everything fell apart. His mind was never the same again, and although he got the occasional outstanding result, he never again, until this season, at the age of 31, he decided to leave it permanently after a strange threat and after retiring from the Clásica de San Sebastián. World time trial champion in 2017 and also double Olympic runner-up in the time trial, the ‘butterfly from Maastricht’ is an excellent runner, capable of performing well on all terrains, until cycling becomes a test for him and his head said. stop.

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SONNY COLBRELLI

After starring in one of the great scares of the season at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, when at the end of the second stage he suffered a cardiac arrest, the Italian Sonny Colbrelli (32 years old) decided to stop cycling after the recommendation of doctors. . He made his debut in 2010 in the range of Colnago-CSF Inox and in these 12 years he achieved 34 professional wins and after signing 2021 to frame, with victories in the Italian Road Championship, in the European Road Championship or in an Epic Paris-Roubaix. This season he only ran six days, with a 2nd place in the Omloop and the unfortunate, but at the same time lucky, presence in the Volta.

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NIKI TERPSTRA

The Dutchman (38 years old) represents better than anyone how much it costs to achieve a victory in cycling, because a cyclist of the stature of Niki Terpstra has not been able to raise his arms to victory since he will be proclaimed world time trial champion in 2018. The member of TotalEnergies will leave him with 22 victories as a professional and after a gray year in which he occupied the 776th position in the ranking. Winner of Through Flanders twice, and once of Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders and the E3 Harelbeke, the rider from Beverwijk has become one of the cyclists with a classic soul who always has to be considered, As if not he was accompanied by the results, and this 2022 he will complete a total of 8,224 kilometers in 45 days of competition

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GIOVANNI VISCONTI

He debuted in the Domina Vacanze range in 2005 and will retire from active cycling on December 31 of this year, after achieving a total of 36 victories as a professional. Although his last seasons have not been so brilliant, Giovanni Visconti (39 years old) has not won since the fourth stage of the Tour of Slovenia in 2019 and became a member of the UCI Pro Team Bardiani, when he spent several campaign at the top. division of international cycling, World Tour, defending the colors of the Movistar team, he did it for five seasons, and of Bahrain Merida.

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ILNUR ZAKARIN

“I have officially announced the end of my sports career. I am 20 years of competitions, with successes and obstacles, successes and failures. Now I’m ready to move on. This is a new phase and a new beginning. I am starting a new phase in my life, and will always be linked to sport. I created the Inex Club for cycling enthusiasts, which offers many opportunities, and I will give everything.” With these words, Russian cyclist Ilnur Zakarin (33 years old) announced his retirement from cycling this year. Third in the 2017 Vuelta and winner of a stage in the Tour and the Giro, among other outstanding results, he announced his farewell after the exclusion of the Russian team Gazprom from all competitions after the investment of Russian army in Ukraine.