The 2026 season is set to see a few dozen top riders retiring from the sport. Over the upcoming two months, more will be revealed, but as of the 13th of October there have been 25 World Tour and ProTeam riders ending their career this year including Nairo Quintana, Julian Alaphilippe and Simon Yates.
Two names from the World Tour have done so back at the start of the year. Nine months after, Simon Yates' retirement from the sport already feels like a distant memory, but marked the world of cycling in early January - as well as Team Visma | Lease a Bike.
Simon Clarke of NSN Cycling Team ended his career at the Australian World Tour races, the last of his career. Ever since, 14 more riders have announced the end of their career at the very top level of the sport. Many of them are big names.
Nairo Quintana has brought to an illustrious career to an end, racing his final year with Movistar. Throughout his career he has won the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España; as well as rivalling Chris Froome on several Tours de France.
Former Grand Tour winner Nairo Quintana ends his career in 2026
Pello Bilbao and Damiano Caruso, two veterans and Grand Tour specialists, end their career at Bahrain - Victorious at ages 36 and 39, having put out out some of the best performances of their careers in recent years.
Visma are also losing Steven Kruijswijk whom, at age 39, concluded a career spent only in the Dutch team. He is a former Tour de France podium finisher. Bauke Mollema of Lidl-Trek is a former Il Lombardia winner, ending his career on the very race that has marked his career.
Another monument winner calling it a day it Bob Jungels, winner of the 2018 Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He and Ben Swift both end their careers at Netcompany INEOS.
Likewise Max Walscheid and Jacopo Mosca join Bauke Mollema at ending their career at Lidl-Trek; Uno-X Mobility sees the end of Magnus Cort Nielsen and Jonas Hvideberg's career; NSN Cycling Team have both Alexey Lutsenko and Guillaume Boivin retire. Luka Mezgec of Team Jayco AlUla and Jasper de Buyst are the other two names to end their career.
World Tour riders retiring
| Nr. | Rider | Team at retirement date | Age at retirement | Retirement date |
| 1 | BILBAO Pello | Bahrain - Victorious | 36y + 309d | 2026-12-31 |
| 2 | BOIVIN Guillaume | NSN Cycling Team | 37y + 220d | 2026-12-31 |
| 3 | DE BUYST Jasper | Lotto Intermarché | 33y + 37d | 2026-12-31 |
| 4 | CARUSO Damiano | Bahrain - Victorious | 39y + 80d | 2026-12-31 |
| 5 | CORT Magnus | Uno-X Mobility | 33y + 349d | 2026-12-31 |
| 6 | HVIDEBERG Jonas Hem | Uno-X Mobility | 27y + 325d | 2026-12-31 |
| 7 | JUNGELS Bob | Netcompany INEOS | 34y + 100d | 2026-12-31 |
| 8 | KRUIJSWIJK Steven | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 39y + 207d | 2026-12-31 |
| 9 | LUTSENKO Alexey | NSN Cycling Team | 34y + 115d | 2026-12-31 |
| 10 | MEZGEC Luka | Team Jayco AlUla | 38y + 187d | 2026-12-31 |
| 11 | MOLLEMA Bauke | Lidl - Trek | 40y + 35d | 2026-12-31 |
| 12 | QUINTANA Nairo | Movistar Team | 36y + 330d | 2026-12-31 |
| 13 | SWIFT Ben | Netcompany INEOS | 39y + 56d | 2026-12-31 |
| 14 | WALSCHEID Max | Lidl - Trek | 33y + 201d | 2026-12-31 |
| 15 | CLARKE Simon | NSN Cycling Team | 39y + 198d | 2026-02-01 |
| 16 | YATES Simon | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 33y + 153d | 2026-01-07 |
At ProTeam level there are nine riders to end their career this year, as of the 13th of October. Julian Alaphilippe is the only one to have finished his career mid-season, in the weeks following the Tour de France - his final race as a pro.
The list includes very prominent names such as Ion Izagirre who has won a stage in every single Grand Tour; Grand Tour stage winners David de la Cruz and Jesús Herrada; Giro and Vuelta KOM jersey winner Geoffrey Bouchard as well.
Damien Howson of Pinarello and former World Tour member will also call it a career; as will Unibet Rose Rockets' Odd Christian Eiking and TotalEnergies duo Lorrenzo Manzin and Fabien Grellier.
ProTeam riders retiring
| Nr. | Rider | Team at retirement date | Age at retirement | Retirement date |
| 1 | BOUCHARD Geoffrey | TotalEnergies | 34y + 274d | 2026-12-31 |
| 2 | DE LA CRUZ David | Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team | 37y + 239d | 2026-12-31 |
| 3 | EIKING Odd Christian | Unibet Rose Rockets | 32y + 3d | 2026-12-31 |
| 4 | GRELLIER Fabien | TotalEnergies | 32y + 61d | 2026-12-31 |
| 5 | HERRADA Jesús | Burgos Burpellet BH | 36y + 158d | 2026-12-31 |
| 6 | HOWSON Damien | Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team | 34y + 140d | 2026-12-31 |
| 7 | IZAGIRRE Ion | Cofidis | 37y + 330d | 2026-12-31 |
| 8 | MANZIN Lorrenzo | TotalEnergies | 32y + 158d | 2026-12-31 |
| 9 | ALAPHILIPPE Julian | Tudor Pro Cycling Team | 34y + 71d | 2026-08-21 |
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- It is easy to celebrate those who won the grand tours and the monuments. and the world championships. What I notice more are the ones who were at the world tour and kept going on the pro tour level for that little bit longer, still wanting to ride after their bodies had aged, after their teams no longer needed them. It is good to see the domestiques. as well. Congratulations to all these folks on an impressive career, no matter the wins. Cycling is a team sport, and it’s the ones we don’t see much of that allow the leaders to stand out and win the accolades.RidesHills14-10-2026
- Biestrebos is a real sprinting talent. Initially it was thought that he'd be a classics domestíque but his sprinting has improved dramatically over the course of the year. He's the only thing going well with Picnic now and for that reason it is likely that he'll leave
Rafionain-Glas14-10-2026 - well this one definitely makes my STUPIDEST ARTICLES OF 2026 list. chapeau…OCexile14-10-2026
- Cyclocross is nothing without stars like MVDP, WVA, Pidcock... etc. Out of all cycling disciplines, road racing is the most popular discipline in professional cycling, especially in terms of global prestige, major-event audiences, and the historical status of its greatest riders. People that don't follow cycling as a sport have heard of Merckx, Hinault, Pantani, Armstrong, Remco, Vingegaard, MvDP, Van Aert, Pogačar etc. So if we're talking about professional cycling and the sport's most famous athletes, road racing is the clear number one. Road cycling's greatest champions are judged across such a wide scale. E.g. - Pogačar can win the Tour de France and then go after Paris–Roubaix and other prestigious one day races. These races also have a wide range of versatility: cobbles, gravel, punchy, hilly, TT. This versatility is a huge part of why road racing is No.1 in cycling. Maybe Sven Nys is a dutch cycling "legend"... but that's where it starts and ends. Ad acta.PogiSloFans14-10-2026
- “at some point those guys will turn their backs on OUR sport”? after dedicating so much of their lives to cyclocross and in mathieu’s case winning more world championships than anyone, it would seem to me like they’ve earned the right for it to be always be THEIR sport, too, even after they retire from it.OCexile14-10-2026
- It takes two to tango. Riders also have a say. Maybe they didn't see any opportunities on a stacked team such as Visma's? Who knows, but could be a multitude of reasons why deals fall through.Pogboom14-10-2026
- Eventually Pogi will get older and slower. Father Time will favor the young. The question is whether he can beat Pogi before Pogi decides to retire. You never know... Pogi may retire after winning paris-roubaix :)b3tlla14-10-2026
- i think he can continue to race for maybe another 2 years till he drops out of podium contention. With his TT and his follow the leader in the Mountains,he should not need too many teammates too.abstractengineer14-10-2026
- Aren't they still shopping around for a main sponsor for next year?wrsty14-10-2026
- How broke is visma now? wtf they cant even fight moviestar and decathlon for riders and lose both their mid targets based on their budget and they cant even get those? Crazy...:/miguel13-10-2026
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