Kittel retires from pro cycling

[Sagan97]

We'll sure miss him!
89 professional wins, 14 of them in Tour de France.

[JoJoJo]

(08-23-2019, 04:33 PM)Sagan97 Wrote:  We'll sure miss him!
89 professional wins, 14 of them in Tour de France.

no German has more than that on TdF
once so unstoppable he wasn't the same after joining Katusha ...

[BRMatt]

Great rider and from all appearances a nice fellow.

It may seem like he's retiring "young", but the trend of riders competing into their late 30s (or early 40s like Chris Horner, Davide Rebellin and now Valverde) is a relatively new one.

Remember that Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault both retired in their early 30s. Mexican star Raul Alcala retired before 30 (although recent reports have him returning to racing in his 50s to burn up the roads again). Greg LeMond retired, not altogether voluntarily, at 34.

Part of why riders are competing later now has to do with the fact that they are not pressed into tough schedules of racing at a young age. There never used to be U-23 or U-25 racing.

Also, riders are racing so many fewer days than they used to. For an example of how much riders used to race, read David Walsh's biography of Sean Kelly from the 1980s. He gives an account of Kelly's post Tour de France criterium schedule that involved long drives through the night from village to village in northern Europe. There was less money in the sport then, and even top stars like Kelly had to race often to earn financial bonuses.

This is all probably for the better. We may bemoan specialization (although it's great to see riders like Sagan and Alaphillippe who seem to do everything well), but it's healthier for the riders, and it may work to reduce the amount of doping in the sport if riders don't have to compete constantly. Although to be cynical perhaps, some riders are competing later because they've interrupted their careers serving doping bans.

[Zviedrs]

Very nice article about Kittel on Medium by Javier Angulo Guirao: Now that Kittel retires, who will be the next rider to reach 100 pro wins?

   
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