"When I thought about it, I really wanted to keep racing” - Larry Warbasse shuts down thoughts of retirement to keep career alive with Tudor
Cycling
Things looked very uncertain a few weeks ago for experienced American Larry Warbasse. After over a decade in the World Tour, the 34-year-old was nearing the 2025 season contractless. Thankfully though, Tudor Pro Cycling Team have come in and given the former American champ a one-year deal.
“I’d been waiting to hear from one or two teams, but nothing happened,” Warbasse recalls of his time spent searching for a contract, in conversation with Velo, explaining how a phone call from an unknown Swiss number changed everything. “I thought, ‘Okay, maybe I should pick this up.’ He (Raphael Meyer, the general manager of Tudor Pro Cycling Team) asked if I was still available for next year. When I said yes, he told me they had decided to add a 30th rider to their roster."
Thankfully for the former Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale man, the rider they were searching for was him. “They needed someone with experience, someone who could handle a heavy race schedule. It felt like he was describing me,” Warbasse explains, admitted his delight to bring an end to his uncertainty. “When I was younger, it was harder to deal with. Unfortunately I’ve had a lot of experience with that, so now I’m used to it. If I had to stop, I could still be proud of the career that I had. I still got to live my dream. It really wasn’t my choice, but when I thought about it, I really wanted to keep racing.”
“We were not planning on adding a final rider,” Meyer himself adds to Velo. “We had 29 and we thought we had closed the roster. But last year [2024] we knew we ended the season with a lot of tired bodies, so we started to think we could use another strong, experienced rider. Larry wasn’t the first choice, but I do remember that he emailed me. And when we started to think about it, he made the perfect fit for us.”
“We have Marc Hirschi and Julian Alaphillipe, who will be there fighting for the win in some of the biggest races, so I know I can play a critical role in those moments,” Warbasse adds. “I would love to be able to do the Tour de France if I could because I still haven’t done it. So if the team gets invited, I would really love to do that.”
“If I could contribute to a big win for one of the leaders of the team this year, like a big, big race, that would be cool. And yeah, I’d also like to try to win a race myself," the American concludes. “I think that would a nice cherry on the top of my career. I want to reach my full potential for this season. I want to be the best I can be and keep improving, and also just have fun. Because if you’re not having fun, pro cycling is just too hard.”
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- She is the strongest and the strongest don't need no tactics. As soon as the road rises, she comes to the front and drops everybodyabstractengineer10-01-2025
- I feel like he is past his peakabstractengineer10-01-2025
- Its the curse of a French rider on a french teamabstractengineer10-01-2025
- This guy is making a very stupid decision. His agent should have brought him superior offers. He is going to play 2nd fiddle to Remco and then wonder why he isn't at the TDF or missing all GTs in a season.abstractengineer10-01-2025
- Hirschi and Alaphilippe on Cancellara's team, honestly sounds like a great choice if they manage to play the game the way Van der Poel did, a few years ago. They know where they need to be at the end of next year, in terms of points, so now it's just a question of being there. I'm not sure Alaphilippe will play the role he dreams of, and his jerky movements on the bike continue to annoy me, but I truly wish him and the team the best of luck in reaching their goal. It makes for better racing when teams like Tudor (he still refers to it as a "project," love that) are fighting to get into the World Tour.RidesHills09-01-2025
- Nice to see him with a sense of humor about the wins. That's actually a really good sign of how he's feeling, most of the time.RidesHills09-01-2025
- He’s good at messing up his WCs ;-)Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- so, tom could dedicate himself to CX all year, every year and probably never beat mathieu in a cyclocross world championship, barring a crash or injury or whatever. does pidcock have that kind of advantage over van der poel in XCO, or is that a gap mvdp can close even at this latter stage of mathieu’s career?OCexile09-01-2025
- Yes, I also think teams should start re-evaluating their TdF commitments according to rider goals. As long as a rider doesn’t have any realistic chance of sone form of glory, don’t force them just to end up with a forgettable result, give someone else on the team the experience and chance to prove themselves and let your better rider focus on goals they CAN aim for. You really get the feeling some riders are being forced to pretend they can achieve something when they know they haven’t got a hope.Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- It’s very difficult to say now since he’s hardly ever raced over the last 5-6 years. Had he continued when he was good at it he’d most definitely have won it at some point, the type of course playing a decisive role. But business dictated he should focus more on road racing. Much as he tries, you can’t be everywhere at once and win it all and there are only so many years to a career.Mistermaumau09-01-2025