Heart disease forced Joaquim Rodríguez into retirement: "It was time to say goodbye to the sport"

When Joaquim Rodríguez brought his stellar career to an end in 2016, it turns out it was because the Spaniard had received a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease as he has now revealed to 'La Marató'.

Thankfully, Purito as he's known has his condition under control thanks to regular medical checkups. “I already felt before the diagnosis that it was time to say goodbye to the sport," he told the Catalan tv programme. "But this helped me not to reconsider.”

Although he says he didn't reconsider, Rodriguez did initially reverse his retirement six years ago. After the Katusha rider called time on his career in 2016, Bahrain Merida, now Bahrain Victorious announced his arrival a short time later. However little over a month after the Bahrain teams announcement, Rodriguez decided against a return to the peloton.

Regarded as one of the best general classification riders of his generation, Rodriguez won the Tour of Catalonia twice, the Tour of the Basque Country and twice won the Tour of Lombardy. Purito also achieved podium finishes at all 3 Grand Tours, 1x Giro 1x Tour 3x Vuelta, however he would never manage to stand on the top step.