“It’s time to say enough, with a smile and the right serenity” – One of cycling's veterans has no regrets ending career at 39

The small town of Buja, located in the northeast of Italy, very close to the frontier with Slovenia, became the center of emotion and nostalgia as Alessandro De Marchi officially said goodbye to professional cycling.

“Now I’ll tell you something you might not expect,” De Marchi said to bici.pro when asked about the most unforgettable moment of his career. “One of the memories I hold dearest is my birthday. I was born on May 19, and May always means the Giro d’Italia. In 2018, during the stage on the Zoncolan, my fans, the Red Passion, were waiting for me. I stopped, they sang ‘Happy Birthday,’ I drank a beer with them, and then I rode to the finish. That’s one of the moments that will remain forever in my memory.”

De Marchi reflected on the time he took the decision to retire. “It’s time to say enough,” he confessed. “It came with a smile and the right serenity. It wasn’t a shock, I had already communicated it before, and that was important for me. Maybe not everyone understood my decision, but I needed to be honest first with myself and then with those who followed me. It was a slow process that reached its peak last winter, and then I gradually shared it with those closest to me, with the team, and with the rest of the cycling world.”

De Marchi’s farewell also marked the beginning of a new chapter. Starting next year, he will join Team Jayco AlUla as a sports director, continuing to share his experience and work closely with young riders.

“The idea of doing something for the kids came later in the summer, when we thought about how to celebrate,” he said. “I remembered how I started, and we thought it would be nice to recreate that same feeling. I don’t know if my sons will become cyclists, but I’m happy they love the bicycle. The important thing is that they find their own way to express themselves.”

Throughout the day, De Marchi often spoke about his unbreakable bond with his hometown and the surrounding mountains, which saw him climb them countless times.

“You know that I’ve always left these mountains, but in a way, never completely,” he reflected. “Now I look at them with different eyes, and they’ll continue to be the place I can’t and don’t want to give up. I want to stay here, even if my life in cycling continues from the other side of the barricade. The first effect of retirement? I can drink a few more beers and be less strict with myself.”

De Marchi’s final race, the Veneto Classic, that took place the last day of the 2025 season, was filled with symbolism as he rode through a corridor of bicycles held upright by fellow riders, a very recent trend that honors those who are retiring.

“It was beautiful,” he said. “It's become a sort of tradition and it was something I looked forward to. You leave your world as a rider and in the meantime you hope to have left something behind. The desire to follow your instincts , to continue doing the things you love. Obviously in this job you are always forced to respond to different needs, those of the team, the world around you.”

“Instead, perhaps, to continue to enjoy and be happy with this type of work, you have to be able to stay true to the momentum that led you to choose cycling. It won't be easy, we know how cycling goes, but I would like to have managed to get this message across to those closest to me.”

Known for his outspoken honesty, De Marchi also addressed his past reflections on cycling’s silence about world issues, particularly regarding Israel and the war in Gaza. “Maybe sometimes I could have been lighter,” he admitted. “But those who know me well know that I also have moments when I look for that lightness.”