This year, multiple world champions, Olympic champions, and Grand Tour winners are retiring from professional cycling. Data from ProCyclingStats (PCS) indicates that more than 50 riders from the men’s and women’s WorldTour and ProTour have decided to conclude their careers in 2025.
Retirement announcements have drawn varying levels of public attention. For instance, Geraint Thomas attracted thousands of fans at his farewell race during the Tour of Britain, while Alexander Kristoff ended his career with 98 professional victories, closing with a DNF at the Tour de Langkawi. Here, we highlight some of the notable riders stepping away—33 men and 19 women in total.
Geraint Thomas
What remains unsaid about Geraint Thomas? The Welshman is a two-time Olympic track champion, the 2018 Tour de France winner, a widely recognized top-tier rider, and the most prominent figure among this year’s retirees. Thomas began his career with the British Cycling Academy and joined his first professional team, Barloworld, in 2007. He truly rose to prominence with Team Sky, later renamed Ineos Grenadiers, where he spent 16 seasons. Reports confirm he will remain with the team in a senior management role after retirement. Notably, the 39-year-old chose the Tour of Britain Men in September to conclude his career with a final race in his homeland.
Ellen van Dijk
The success of Ellen van Dijk’s career is often underrated. Over more than two decades, the Dutch rider collected an impressive 70 victories, including five European elite championship titles, one Tour of Flanders win, and three world time trial championships. Van Dijk stands as one of the few former world champions retiring from the women’s peloton this year. Earlier this season, her Lidl-Trek teammate Lizzie Deignan, the 2015 road world champion, and fellow Dutch rider Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, the 2017 road world champion, also announced their retirements. Van Dijk is best known for her time trial prowess, describing it as her “greatest passion and true love.” She also retires as a former track world record holder, having broken the UCI Hour Record in 2022.
Marta Cavalli
Cycling fans will remember Marta Cavalli as the “Spring Queen” of 2022. That year, the previously unproven WorldTour rider won the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne, and placed in the top six at both Paris-Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. However, injuries have since plagued the career of the former Italian road champion. In 2022, she withdrew from the Tour de France Femmes after a high-speed crash with another rider. In 2024, she crashed during an early-season training camp and was later hit by a car in July, limiting her to just five race days with FDJ-SUEZ. After joining Picnic PostNL in 2025, Cavalli failed to deliver the expected results. The 27-year-old wrote on social media: “The past few years have been exceptionally tough, with constant ups and downs. After a year of reflection, I can say I no longer feel I belong in this world. It’s time to say goodbye to this team—my mission here is complete.”
Rafał Majka
Rafał Majka began his professional career in 2011 with Saxo Bank and 2025 marks his 15th season as a pro. Ahead of this year’s Il Lombardia, Tadej Pogačar wrote on social media: “To all the young emerging talents—this is the role model you should look up to.” Over the past five years, Majka served as a loyal climbing domestique with UAE Team Emirates, but he has also proven his own merits as a strong Grand Tour rider. He podiumed at the 2015 Vuelta a España, achieved his best Giro d’Italia result with fifth place in 2016, and earned the King of the Mountains title at the Tour de France twice, in addition to winning three stages.
The Sprint Kings
This year’s retirement group includes a remarkable number of sprinters worthy of a “hall of fame.” Among them are legends with multiple Grand Tour stage wins: Alexander Kristoff, Arnaud Démare, Elia Viviani, Caleb Ewan, and Giacomo Nizzolo. Their collective hundreds of victories are too extensive to list fully, so we highlight one signature achievement for each: Kristoff won Stage 1 of the 2020 Tour de France, taking the first yellow jersey; Démare triumphed at Milan-San Remo in 2016; Viviani is a former Olympic omnium champion; Ewan won on the Champs-Élysées at the 2019 Tour de France; and Nizzolo is the 2020 European road race champion. Among these elite retiring sprinters, three have win totals approaching 100: Kristoff (98 wins), Démare (97 wins), and Viviani (90 wins).
