Pierre Rolland announces retirement from pro cycling

The demise of B&B Hotels-KTM was a clear sign of bad news for a lot of the riders in the team, and one of the most prominent figures in French cycling Pierre Rolland has announced his retirement following the end of his current squad.

He had a contract for 2023 but as the French team collapsed under the weight of it's own ambitions, he found himself in a difficult position already in the middle of December. It had been rumoured recently that he could be in contact with TotalEnergies, but he denied it himself in a recent Twitter post. At 36 years of age, he has decided it's time to end his run in the peloton. 

Rolland started his career in 2007 with the Crédit Agricole team, setting himself as a climber. His major breakthrough came in 2011 when he helped the shocking Thomas Voeckler in his pursuit of the yellow jersey throughout half of the Tour de France, and eventually winning the final mountain stage into Alpe d'Huez, riding himself into the Top10 of the race. The following year, he won another high mountain stage at the Tour, both with Team Europcar.

He began to ride for himself that year and managed to build a lot of success at the Giro d'Italia, where he rode to a 4th place in the 2014 edition, and later took a stage win in 2017. Past the prime of his career he signed with the French team in 2019, and had his last big performance at the Critérium du Dauphiné where he won the KOM classification this year.