As the year draws to a close, it’s time to pay homage to some of the riders we’ll never get to see race again, as they settle into retirement.
Among those bidding farewell this year are cult heroes, specialists who were among the best ever at one specific role, and, in Mark Cavendish, a rider who was one of the best ever full stop.
While he and Grace Brown ended their careers on a high, others faded as they advanced in age, but we shouldn’t forget their past glories and what made them so special. We’ve picked out 12 retirees and one highlight from the career of each that saw them at the peak of their powers.
Mark Cavendish
Stage 21, Tour de France 2012
Such is the extent of his achievements and the force of his personality, that there will surely be volumes of books written about Mark Cavendish, whose career is impossible to summarise in just a few sentences. How to pick just one win from a career total in excess of 150 wins?
Those books are likely to be illustrated by the image of him winning on the Champs-Élysées at the end of the 2012 Tour de France, the win which remains his most iconic — resplendent in the rainbow jersey he won at the Worlds the year before, and riding his favourite stage of his favourite race, while at the very peak of his powers (this was his 23rd stage win in just five Tours), it encapsulated so much of what made his career so special.
Grace Brown
Liège–Bastogne–Liège 2024
Contrasting with the other retirees, Grace Brown bows out of the sport not with her powers having faded, but in the ascendancy. The Australian was always a one of the peloton’s most entertaining riders, animating races with her trademark long distance solo attacks that were so hard to contain, but it was only in 2024 that she rose to the very elite of the peloton, winning Olympic time trial gold, World time trial gold and Liège–Bastogne–Liège to give her career a fairytale sendoff.
Grace Brown (right) won amongst and elite group of riders in Liège (Billy Ceusters/ASO)
Of those wins, the way she boldly got ahead of the race early in the latter, and still had the legs to better to take victory in a small group sprint against supposedly fresher, stronger riders, will live longest in the memory — especially remembering how close she’d come to winning previous editions with runner-up finishes in both 2022 and 2020.
Thomas De Gendt
Stage eight, Tour de France 2019
So good was Thomas De Gendt at getting into and masterminding early breakaways that we should expect victories in a similar vein to be known as ‘doing a De Gent’ for years to come. He won this way in all three Grand Tours, as well as at five of the ‘Big Seven’ WorldTour stages (including five alone at Volta a Catalunya), on some of the most iconic landmarks in cycling, including Mont Ventoux and Passo Dello Stelvio.
The latter was his breakthrough win, and perhaps his most spectacular, but came at the early time in his career when he was still riding as a GC hopeful. Instead, the victory that best represented what the Belgian would become was at the 2019 Tour de France, when, over the course of a long, gruelling day in the Massif Central he one by one dropped rode the rest of the four-man break of his wheel, and implausibly held off the charging peloton to take victory, showcasing the grit, aggression and determination that made him a cult hero among cycling fans.
Rigoberto Urán
Stage nine, Tour de France 2017
While for some riders, runner-up finishes at the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Olympic Games might constitute a career of near misses, for Rigoberto Urán they reflect a man who punched above his weight and achieved far more than he had any right to. His racing style was all about careful calculation and intelligent use of energy, and he was never one to draw attention to himself, but one moment in the spotlight during his career-best performance to finish second behind Chris Froome at the 2017 Tour de France saw him outsprint a group of elite GC favourites in the Alps to claim his only Tour stage win.
Urán (right) put in a career-best performance at the Tour in 2017 (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
Urán’s results were only part of what he will be remembered for. He was universally loved by teammates wherever he went, and ushered in the golden generation of Colombian talent, with a difficult backstory that illustrated just how hard it could be to make it from that nation’s troubled history.
Coryn Lobecki
Tour of Flanders 2017
Enough time has passed since Coryn Lobecki was winning regularly that it’s easy to forget how great she was in her pomp. The American was one of the quickest sprinters in the peloton, amassing 20 wins throughout her career, but at the same time so much more — as demonstrated by her victory at the 2017 Tour of Flanders, the crowning achievement of her career.
Coming at the end of a stellar spring campaign that had already seen her win Trofeo Alfredo Binda, she defied the odds that day to stay in contention over the Muur-Kapelmuur, Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg, and (with help from her Sunweb teammate Ellen Van Dijk) managed to bring back riders as strong as Annemiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen and ultimately sprint for victory.
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Stage 17, Tour de France 2011
It’d be unfair to say that Edvald Boasson Hagen’s career was one of unfulfilled expectations. Though he never fully matured into the all-conquering superstar that the mild-mannered Norwegian was burdened with becoming as a young man, no career that produced 81 wins (a total ProCyclingStats calculates puts him 41st on the all-time list) can be deemed anything other than a major success.
Those victories are mostly made up of sprints, be it in large peloton or smaller groups, but the one that stands out as indicative of the all-round ability that made Boasson Hagen such a thrilling rider was stage 17 of the 2011 Tour de France, when he managed to outclimb recognised mountain men Bauke Mollema and Sylvain Chavanel, then use his sublime descending skills to solo to victory in Pinerolo.
Michael Mørkøv
Stage 13, Tour de France 2021
Not many riders can lay claim to being the best in the world at something, let alone the best of all-time, but when it comes to leading out sprints, Michael Mørkøv may have that distinction. Having initially made a name for himself as a tireless breakaway specialist, he later rebranded into a lead-out specialist, and the rest was history.
Mørkøv was key to Mark Cavendish's resurgence at the 2021 Tour (Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
He was the common denominator during Quick-Step’s era of sprinting supremacy between 2019 - 2022, leading out each of Elia Viviani, Sam Bennett, Mark Cavendish and Fabio Jakobsen to hauls of stage wins at the Tour de France, and earned such a reputation that Cavendish sort him out specifically when joining Astana. He was present for both Cavendish’s record breaking 35th Tour win this year, as well as his record-equalling 34th success three years earlier, for which Mørkøv produced a leadout so good that he even managed to finish ahead of all the sprinters in second-place.
Christine Majerus
Boels Ladies Tour 2019
One of the unsung women of the peloton, Christine Majerus has been a part of the indomitable SD Worx / Boels-Dolmans machine for 11 years before retiring at the end of this season. In that time she has been part of countless winning line-ups, hugely respected within the team as a road captain par excellence, and a fine domestique capable of protecting her leaders on all terrain. A selfless servant to the team, opportunities to ride for herself were rare, but she did manage to win a World Tour GC race at the 2019 Boels Ladies Tour.
Robert Gesink
Stage 14, Vuelta a España 2016
Robert Gesink’s career was one of two phases. He started out as a hugely promising young GC rider, bursting onto the scene as an exciting gangly climber, and going on to register a couple of top fives finishes overall at both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. Then, as his powers diminished a little, he successfully rebranded as a climbing domestique and road captain for the Jumbo-Visma he spent the entirety of his career at; and though he never a WorldTour stage race himself, he was invaluable part of all four of the team’s Vuelta a España triumphs between 2019 - 2023. Sometime during the transition between these two phases, he achieved the individual biggest win of his career — a breakaway victory atop the Col d’Aubisque on the queen stage of the 2016 Vuelta.
Audrey Cordon-Ragot
Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden 2022
Given the unfortunate problems Audrey Cordon-Ragot has had to overcome in recent years, from the stroke that forced her out of racing in 2022 to the subsequent contract disputes, it testifies to her resolve that she continued racing for this long.
Cordon-Ragot was a powerful ambassador for women's cycling during her career (Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
The Frenchwoman was a quality rider, as evidenced by her 21 career victories, among them multiple national titles, and a WorldTour victory at the 2022 Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden when her aggressive racing was posthumously awarded with victory after Marianne Vos was demoted. But above all she was a great ambassador for the sport, promoting better opportunities and salaries for women in cycling, and will no doubt continue to be so post-retirement.
Domenico Pozzovivo
Stage three, Giro del Trentino 2012
One of the most enduring riders in the peloton, Domenico Pozzovivo at last bowed out of the sport at the age of 41. The Giro d’Italia was the race he was most synonymous with, and he has the honour of boasting the most appearances at that race with 18, among them seven top 10 finishes. A typically consistent rider who could always be relied upon for a high GC finish, it was at the 2012 Giro del Trentino, rather than any of his Giro appearances, that he showcased the best of what he was capable of, capitalising on his distinctly pint-sized frame to fly up the ultra-steep Punta Veleno to take both the state victory and the overall classification.
Luke Rowe
Tour of Flanders 2016
Luke Rowe was the ultimate domestique and road captain, whose reliably calm demeanour and wise decision making made him an underappreciated but integral part of the Team Sky’s untouchable run of five successive Tour de France titles between 2015 - 2019. It shouldn't be forgotten that his selfless work in service came as a sacrifice of his own considerable personal talent, best demonstrated by the fifth-place he managed at the 2016 Tour of Flanders. His departure marks an end of an era from the Ineos / Sky team at which he has spent his whole career, as a relic of their past glories.
Cover image by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images
