Former top-10 finisher at Vuelta, Carl Frederik Hagen retires with no interesting offers on the table for 2025
Cycling
We won't see Carl Frederik Hagen in the professional peloton again in 2025. The 33-year-old Norwegian is ending his cycling career after not managing to find an "ideal" team for next season.
"It feels a bit strange and sad, and it is with a mix of fear and joy that I write and announce this," Hagen begins his message on Instagram. "2024 will be my last year as a professional cyclist. After twelve years as a full-time professional, I still have a lot of love for the sport. I love the sport life and staying fit. I am not tired."
"But I have certain values that are very important to me. I always told myself that if I were to continue cycling, I would have to have a good gut feeling and believe that I was in a place with good and safe people around me, where I could develop as a rider and a person. With the offers I received, I did not find a match and I did not have the right feeling. That is why I choose to say goodbye to the professional peloton and start a completely unknown future."
The absolute highlight of Hagen's career, and the one result everyone will remember, was the Norwegian's 8th place at the Vuelta a Espana in his professional debut season in 2019. Since then, Hagen never quite lived up to the expectations after this result. Although he was able to comeback from tough 2020-21 seasons, Hagen only settled down as a consistent top-25 finisher in general classifications of races who occasionally sneaked into the top-10.
As mentioned before, Hagen made a debut among pros with Lotto Dstny in 2019, after which he rode for Israel - Premier Tech and finally at Q36.5 Pro Cycling where his career comes to a wrap.
Read also
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Yes it is, 7.6% average, about 13% max.awp28-12-2024
- Puy de Dome was pretty steepvappaxbipmv28-12-2024
- I would pick billionaires next time.
ChoppyWarburton28-12-2024 - It is so awesome that Voit called attention to Voss' accomplishments. It is simply the fact of her remarkable ability that puts her in the class of Merckx
TRjens28-12-2024 - On the steeper stuff Jonas is a bit more efficient. He's dropped Tadej going back to the 2021 Tour on one occasion.awp28-12-2024
- i don’t care when he started doping. i really don’t even care THAT he started doping. and i certainly don’t care that he lied about doping. the history of cycling is chock-full of dopers, from charly gaul to merckx to kelly to contador and blah blah blah. and they ALL lied about it. but i really DO CARE that he treated everyone like AT BEST like expendable cogs in his winning machine, and at WORST like mortal enemies to be DESTROYED. it’s all that business that makes me dislike him. and i may be a suspicious and untrusting soul, but i really don’t trust that he’s changed in that way. that said, I’M certainly no one to give advice about moral virtue or from whom to seek it.OCexile28-12-2024
- Well said ! Kudos to you for bringing this up!frieders328-12-2024
- If he avoids losing any time to his competitors he would win every single race.Sweep28-12-2024
- He did nothing well without cheating. He was doping long before he entered professional cycling.Sweep28-12-2024
- "If he patted you on the back you would list it on your resume" - The World's Most Interesting Man.Sweep28-12-2024