Belgian World Tour rider announces retirement at 29: "The end of a book, the end of a childhood dream"
CyclingSaturday, 03 January 2026 at 04:00
Kobe Goossens has announced the end of his professional cycling career at the age of 29, closing the chapter on a journey that saw him ride all three Grand Tours and claim two professional victories. The Belgian rider revealed his decision at the beginning of 2026, confirming that 2025 marked his final season in the peloton.
Goossens announced his decision and future plans in a message shared on Instagram. “2025 was the end of my career as a rider. The end of a book, the end of a childhood dream. 2026 will be the start of a new book,” he wrote, adding that his next chapter will be in the Belgian real estate sector.
The young puncheur was one of the riders affected by the merger between Intermarché - Wanty and Lotto, as he was not included in the plans of the newly formed Lotto-Intermarché structure.
The situation was quite ironic for Goossens, who had made his professional debut within the Lotto setup, first with the development team in 2018-2019 and then with the WorldTour squad in 2020-2021. After leaving Lotto, Goossens joined Intermarché-Wanty in 2022, where he spent the final four seasons of his career.
Goossens is another rider retiring before the age of 30
An overview of Goossens' career
It was with Intermarché-Wanty that Goossens enjoyed the most successful period of his career. At the start of the 2023 season, he claimed the only two professional victories of his career, winning the Trofeo Andratx and the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana back to back.
Over the course of his career, Goossens took part in all three Grand Tours: twice the Tour de France, once the Giro d’Italia and three times the Vuelta a España. Amongst his best results were a sixth place on a stage of the 2021 Giro d’Italia and a tenth place on a stage of the 2023 Vuelta.
His final season was heavily disrupted by illness. In 2025, Goossens raced only 19 days after falling sick during Paris-Nice. His final race of 2025 was at the Heistse Pijl on June 7 (he finished in 132th place), which ultimately became the last race of his professional career.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- cant take a trick this bloke.... am still hoping for a great Spring campaign for him.. ... good luck Wally .Davide03-01-2026
- agree alrightDavide03-01-2026
- ugh this sucks, poor Wout. I hope this doesn't set him back too far for his spring campaign. such a bummer, so sad for him.mij03-01-2026
- JV hasn't got the spark, he's a slow twitch guy 👍
leedorney02-01-2026 - I'm glad to see Remco feeling good. Last years was a disaster because of a life altering crash, he's lucky to still be on the bike and I'm happy he is.awp02-01-2026
- Think about UAE before Tadej, where would they be today if not for all the races Tadej has won? At the end of the day, if you are a great racer, you will move to a larger team that can help you win larger races or if you are winning many races, budgets generally increase. There are generally five great riders in every peloton, who with the right team support and a little luck can win almost any one day race or more than likely, any stage race. This is not new.awp02-01-2026
- He should set his sights no further than whatever race he is entered into at the moment. Cycling is a harsh sport, here one day and gone the next.awp02-01-2026
- It's pretty clear that Nibali doesn't watch MvdP racevappaxbipmv02-01-2026
- Perhaps the problem isn't Pogacar's tactics so much as MSR being a monument in the first place. It's a ridiculously long race where nothing happens till less than 30km to go, and the final two climbs aren't selective enough. "Tactics" is an armchair racer's pastime; in the real world, VDP was too strong for TP for the given course, and no amount of "tactics" was going to change that.LumbarDeniro02-01-2026
- If Mads won a monument I'd agree he deserves it but I'd give it to Jonasvappaxbipmv02-01-2026
Loading
Write a comment