World champions, Olympic medallists and a Tour de France winner – these are the riders retiring in 2025

More than 50 pros are hanging up their bikes this year, chapeau to them all

A collage of Alexander Kristoff, Ellen van Dijk, Geraint Thomas and Marta Cavalli
Alexander Kristoff, Ellen van Dijk, Geraint Thomas and Marta Cavalli (l-r) are part of the Class of '25
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli's 'Time to Say Goodbye' – 'Con te partirò' in Italian – is one of the best-selling singles of all time. You've almost certainly heard it, even if it was only when he performed it to Leicester City fans in 2016, the year the team won the Premier League, remember?

For a song about the sadness of farewells, it was a dreary choice, perhaps, to soundtrack such an uplifting moment. I've since found it playing on loop in my head, as the cycling world bids adieu to a generation of world, Olympic, and Grand Tour champions who are retiring this year.

Geraint Thomas

Geraint Thomas on stage after his final race

(Image credit: Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com)

What more is there to say about Geraint Thomas? A double Olympic track champion, winner of the 2018 Tour de France, and a widely recognised top bloke, the Welshman is the highest profile member of the Class of '25.

Having come through the British Cycling Academy, Thomas joined his first pro team, Barloworld, in 2007, but it was with Team Sky, and its successor Ineos Grenadiers, that he made his name, part of the squad for 16 seasons. He is now expected to remain with the team in a senior management role.

Fittingly, the 39-year-old chose his home stage race, September's Tour of Britain Men, as his last. My colleague Adam Becket was among the crowds that gathered at Cardiff Castle to wave goodbye to the Welshman. He wrote on the day: "The celebrations will continue into the rainy Cardiff night, a 'few beers with the boys' promised. Thomas has ridden off, but his achievements remain. Diolch."

Ellen van Dijk

Ellen van Dijk at the road world championships

(Image credit: Getty Images)

It often goes unnoticed quite how successful Ellen van Dijk's career has been. Over two decades, the Dutchwoman has won a staggering 70 times, including five elite European titles, a Tour of Flanders, and three world time trial championships.

Van Dijk is one of a few former world champions leaving the women's peloton this year; earlier in the season, her Lidl-Trek team-mate and 2015 road world champion Lizzie Deignan, as well as compatriot Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, winner in 2017, both too called it a day.

Best known for her time trialling abilities – "that's my big passion and my big love" – Van Dijk also retires as a former world record holder on the track, having broken the UCI Hour Record in 2022.

Marta Cavalli

Marta Cavalli riding for Picnic PostNL

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Cycling fans will remember Marta Cavalli as 2022's Queen of Spring. That year, with no prior WorldTour wins to her name, she prevailed at Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne, also scoring top-sixes at Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Since then, though, the former Italian road champion's career has been rocked by injuries. She abandoned the 2022 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift after being struck at high-speed by another rider, and in 2024, crashed at an early-season training camp, before being hit by a car driver in July. She only raced five days that year for FDJ-SUEZ.

Joining Picnic PostNL in 2025 did not give Cavalli the impetus she hoped. "The last few years have been very difficult due to continuous ups and downs," the 27-year-old wrote on Instagram.

"After a year with peace of mind I can say I don’t feel part of this world anymore and it’s time to say goodbye to the group because here my work is done."

Rafał Majka

Rafal Majka at Il Lombardia

(Image credit: Getty Images)

"To all the young talents coming up. This is the ONE you should look up to," wrote Tadej Pogačar on Instagram ahead of his team-mate Rafał Majka's retirement at this year's Il Lombardia.

For the past five years, Majka has served as a loyal mountain domestique at UAE Team Emirates, but was once a Grand Tour rider in his own right. In 2015, he finished on the podium at the Vuelta a España, his best Giro d'Italia placing is fifth (2016), and he has won the Tour's mountains classification twice, plus three stages for good measure.

This year was Majka's 15th as a pro, having stepped up with Saxo Bank in 2011.

The sprint kings

Alexander Kristoff and Elia Viviani shaking hands

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The sprinting Hall of Fame seems to have an unusually high number of inductees this year.

Among them are a generation's worth of Grand Tour stage winners: Alexander Kristoff, Arnaud Démare, Elia Viviani, Caleb Ewan and Giacomo Nizzolo.

It would take too long to list the hundreds of wins they've amassed between them, so I'll give you a headline result from each: Kristoff earned the first yellow jersey with his opening stage win at the 2020 Tour de France; Démare won Milan-San Remo in 2016; Elia Viviani is a former Olympic champion in the omnium; Caleb Ewan won on the Champs-Élysées at the Tour in 2019; and Nizzolo was European champion in 2020.

Three of the retiring fastmen also came commendably close to breaking a century of pro victories: Kristoff (98), Démare (97) and Viviani (90).

Retiring male pros

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Rider

Nationality

Team at retirement

Age at retirement

Pierre Latour

France

TotalEnergies

32

Kristian Sbaragli

Italy

Team Solution Tech - Vini Fantini

35

Geoffrey Bouchard

France

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale

33

Louis Meintjes

South Africa

Intermarché-Wanty

33

Anthony Perez

France

Cofidis

34

Omar Fraile

Spain

Ineos Grenadiers

35

Daniel McLay

Great Britain

Visma-Lease a Bike

33

Tim Declercq

Belgium

Lidl-Trek

36

Geraint Thomas

Great Britain

Ineos Grenadiers

39

Gianluca Brambilla

Italy

Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team

38

Alessandro De Marchi

Italy

Jayco AlUla

39

Anthony Delaplace

France

Arkéa-B&B Hotels

36

Rafał Majka

Poland

UAE Team Emirates-XRG

36

Pieter Serry

Belgium

Soudal Quick-Step

37

Adrien Petit

France

Intermarché-Wanty

35

Geoffrey Soupe

France

TotalEnergies

37

Giacomo Nizzolo

Italy

Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team

36

Salvatore Puccio

Italy

Ineos Grenadiers

36

Alexander Kristoff

Norway

Uno-X Mobility

38

Arnaud Démare

France

Arkéa-B&B Hotels

34

Elia Viviani

Italy

Lotto

36

Jonathan Castroviejo

Spain

Ineos Grenadiers

38

Loïc Vliegen

Belgium

Wagner Bazin WB

32

Simone Petilli

Italy

Intermarché-Wanty

32

Michael Woods

Canada

Israel-Premier Tech

39

Ryan Gibbons

South Africa

Lidl-Trek

31

Alex Colman

Belgium

Team Flanders-Baloise

27

Ide Schelling

Netherlands

XDS Astana

27

Martijn Budding

Netherlands

Unibet Tietema Rockets

30

Eddy Finé

France

Cofidis

27

Romain Bardet

France

Picnic PostNL

34

Caleb Ewan

Australia

Ineos Grenadiers

30

Lars van den Berg

Netherlands

Groupama-FDJ

26

Retiring female pros

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Rider

Nationality

Team at retirement

Age at retirement

Sarah Roy

Australia

EF Education-Oatly

39

Eugénie Duval

France

FDJ-SUEZ

32

Anna Trevisi

Italy

Liv AlUla Jayco

33

Ane Santesteban

Spain

Laboral Kutxa - Fundación Euskadi

35

Maria Giulia Confalonieri

Italy

Uno-X Mobility

32

Ellen van Dijk

Netherlands

Lidl-Trek

38

Eugenia Bujak

Slovenia

Cofidis

36

Valerie Demey

Belgium

VolkerWessels

31

Elizabeth Holden

Great Britain

UAE Team ADQ

28

Marta Cavalli

Italy

Picnic PostNL

27

Tereza Neumanova

Czech Republic

UAE Team ADQ

27

Coline Raby

France

St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93 WE

22

Carlijn Achtereekte

Netherlands

Visma-Lease a Bike

35

Ségolène Thomas

France

St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93 WE

27

Lotta Henttala

Finland

EF Education-Oatly

36

Elizabeth Deignan

Great Britain

Lidl-Trek

36

Ella Simpson

France

St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93 WE

22

Megan Armitage

Ireland

EF Education-Oatly

28

Chantal van den Broek-Blaak

Netherlands

SD Worx-Protime

35

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Tom Davidson
Senior News and Features Writer

Tom joined Cycling Weekly as a news and features writer in the summer of 2022, having previously contributed as a freelancer. He is fluent in French and Spanish, and holds a master's degree in International Journalism. Since 2020, he has been the host of The TT Podcast, offering race analysis and rider interviews.

An enthusiastic cyclist himself, Tom likes it most when the road goes uphill, and actively seeks out double-figure gradients on his rides. His best result is 28th in a hill-climb competition, albeit out of 40 entrants.

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