Alex Dowsett announces retirement from pro road cycling - “My future is still going to be on two wheels"

Alex Dowsett will be retiring from professional road racing. The 33-year old has made the announcement on his Youtube channel, with Israel - Premier Tech simultaneously announcing it on their social media.

“I’m going to step out of the WorldTour, well step out of pro cycling, from now," the Briton has stated. "I understand a couple of months ago I said I wanted a couple more years. It’s worth talking about what’s changed since then". He explained how he had started the year with the goal of improving on his best level and achieving something greater than he has over his career, but has slowly began accepting his achievements, and gradually accepted the idea of a retirement.

"I feel it’s a very nice point to stop this chapter of my life and move forwards. I’m grateful I get to bring this to a close on my terms, it's my decision, nothing has been forced," he said. “Early in the year my manager and I tested the water with a future in pro-cycling, another couple of years, but when it was clear it was going to be another waiting game. I said to my manager lets just stop looking. I want to move on from this. I think since making that call I've become more and more excited about the future," Dowsett explained.

Having emerged as a talented time-trialist in the early 2010's, he has turned into one of Great Britain's best specialists over the last decade, taking six national titles on the individual time-trial, aswell as two wins at the Giro d'Italia, inbetween several others he's taken throughout his career. Over the last few years as a new generation emerged, he found himself with results below what he had reached in his peak, and decided it was the right time to move on.

His future is not yet decided, with the possibility of gravel racing or a job in a World Tour structure such as Tom Dumoulin remaining as two cards on the table. “My future is still going to be on two wheels, this isn’t a retirement from cycling. This is a retirement from the WorldTour," he concluded.