[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/Auber93Cyclisme/status/947037838629056512

Flavien retires after his most successful season. If he didn't get a pro-contract after that, then he probably was never going to get one. He's off to join the family business.

[search]

also Manuel Bongiorno retires from cycling, at age 27. He was running without a salary in 2017 but can't afford to go on like this

(gt)

A contact with a great team seemed to be able to change the fate of Bongio's career, but for technical choices the possibility of an interesting engagement did not come to fruition. "In now I'm just so sorry. I feel like I can run another 15 years, but I have to deal with reality. There are no longer the conditions to go on, I have to take my responsibilities. I do not run for the money, but I can not spend my savings to compete. I have to think about my private life and my future. In the last few seasons I have put aside my dignity, starting again without economic gratification is not easy or even right. Quitting is a tough decision, it's like you're grieving. Anyone who knows me knows what the bike is for me. It is not just a job, but a religion to be professed with dedication and love. Cycling is the most beautiful world there is, but I can not feel the flame anymore. It makes me strange to imagine myself in another area, to think of a life without a bicycle seems to me absurd ".

http://www.tuttobiciweb.it/2017/12/30/107768/intervista-francesco-manuel-bongiorno-ciclismo-fine-carriera-tuttobiciweb

[Jimmythecuckoo]

https://twitter.com/TeamSunweb/status/939428571256360962

JimmyTheCuckoo will be distraught.

I have had some time to process the news and yes I am distraught.

From the 2009 Tour when my family shared a mountain side with his, I have followed his career with great interest.

There have been a couple of times he has been close to moving out of the shadows with a big win.

The chance to win a Giro mountain stage the closest.

He will be missed in this corner of the Cambridgeshire fens, that is for sure.

[search]

another (former) Sunweb rider retired at the end of January: Ruben Zepuntke

http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/duesseldorf/duesseldorfer-tour-hoffnung-beendet-ihre-karriere-aid-1.7358363

[LukasCPH]

another (former) Sunweb rider retired at the end of January: Ruben Zepuntke

Development Team Sunweb, that is. So contrary to what's suggested in the article, he never had a chance of making the Tour team last year.

Another reminder that you need more than talent or even hard work to 'make' it in pro cycling - there's a big amount of luck involved too.

All the best for his future endeavours!

[Leadbelly]

https://www.directvelo.com/actualite/65456/julien-loubet-raccroche

Loubet retires without turning a pedal in anger for Euskadi - Murias. "Family conditions" is the reason.

[search]

Il Piccolo Principe Damiano Cunego will retire midway during the 2018 season to focus on his studies. He hopes to be able to do a last Giro and retire afterwards - but his adventure could also end with the Tour of Japan instead

http://cyclingpro.net/spaziociclismo/continental/nippo-vini-fantini-cunego-sta-arrivando-momento-smettere-vorrei-farlo-al-giro-cominciato/

The Italian Championship in June will now be the final race, after Tour de Suisse and Tour of Japan

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/BORAhansgrohe/status/1010938731673673728

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/AquaBlueSport/status/1011612541972336640

Will AquaBlue have to hire another permanent rider to get back up to 16 or are the UCI flexible about that kinda thing?

[search]

Matt Brammeier... best known for winning the beer competition in the Ronde?

[Leadbelly]

.... and a spectacular crash.

[Carlo Algatrensig]

https://twitter.com/AquaBlueSport/status/1011612541972336640

Will AquaBlue have to hire another permanent rider to get back up to 16 or are the UCI flexible about that kinda thing?

I imagine although announcing his retirement if he stays registered with the team it would still be ok to meet the minimum rider requirement

[pastronef]

Matt Brammeier... best known for winning the beer competition in the Ronde?

and 4 Irish road nat champs in a row.
10 years as a pro, a comeback from a terrible crash, great teammate.
cheers Matt, good luck for the future

[LukasCPH]

I imagine although announcing his retirement if he stays registered with the team it would still be ok to meet the minimum rider requirement

Yes, this ought to be enough.
Or they could always give their DS Martyn Irvine a contract as a rider. Again.

[Claudio Cappuccino]

and 4 Irish road nat champs in a row.
10 years as a pro, a comeback from a terrible crash, great teammate.
cheers Matt, good luck for the future

Want he complaining about Nibali in that cancelled Giro stage?

[M Gee]

I am VERY surprised to be the first one to bring this news to the board:

Gerrans to retire. I haven't always cheered for you, but chapeau on a great career.

https://www.velonews.com/2018/08/news/simon-gerrans-to-retire-at-seasons-end_474089

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/Cyclingnewsfeed/status/1031252308091432961

Drumbo will be distraught......not.

[L'arri]

Not retired just yet but honcho Hilaire Van der Schueren is one of two Belgian DSs facing down the extraordinary possibility of forced retirement, at least in his fairly narrow definition of the role.

Once he turns 70, the veteran will no longer be allowed to drive a team car according to national law but, recognising that it would make his job impossible, he reckons that he's not about to give up the hot seat to a colleague.

"I'm not going to accept it," he says. "It's my decision whether or not I should still be in the car. My colleague at Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise Walter Planckaert is in the same boat. He's applied to the government for exceptional status. I hope something will come of it and that common sense will prevail. I'm too passionate to give up now. I'm not ready for retirement."

https://www.directvelo.com/actualite/68983/hilaire-van-der-schueren-trop-passionne-pour-arreter (FR)

[M Gee]

Not retired just yet but honcho Hilaire Van der Schueren is one of two Belgian DSs facing down the extraordinary possibility of forced retirement, at least in his fairly narrow definition of the role.

Once he turns 70, the veteran will no longer be allowed to drive a team car according to national law  . . .

Does Belgian national law prohibit everyone from driving after reaching age 70? Or is it just professional drivers?

[LukasCPH]

Not retired just yet but honcho Hilaire Van der Schueren is one of two Belgian DSs facing down the extraordinary possibility of forced retirement, at least in his fairly narrow definition of the role.

Once he turns 70, the veteran will no longer be allowed to drive a team car according to national law but, recognising that it would make his job impossible, he reckons that he's not about to give up the hot seat to a colleague.

Get someone else to drive the car and sit in the passenger seat, Hilaire!
Savio or Riis never drive the car themselves. They have people for that.

[L'arri]

Does Belgian national law prohibit everyone from driving after reaching age 70? Or is it just professional drivers?

An update on this: the max 70 years old for drivers is applied by section 2.2.035 B of the Belgian National Cycling Federation's own rules. This is an addendum to the UCI's own rules, which do not specify any such provision. A court hearing would need to be convened to overrule this.

Get someone else to drive the car and sit in the passenger seat, Hilaire!
Savio or Riis never drive the car themselves. They have people for that.

This is a good point but again, the rules state that only one DS is allowed per car, which means that anyone else in it must not occupy that role. If HVDS currently operates as DS, he will no longer be allowed to do so:

"Team cars shall carry a sports director who holds the appropriate licence, who shall be responsible for the vehicle. For vehicles of teams registered with the UCI, this sports director shall also be registered as such with the UCI."

Furthermore this is the only individual officially allowed to drive, pass food and equipment and talk to riders. A single mechanic is also allowed.

[LukasCPH]

Furthermore this is the only individual officially allowed to drive, pass food and equipment and talk to riders. A single mechanic is also allowed.

Officially being the key word here.

[Armchair Cyclist]

So the rules insist that there i somebody who breaks whatever the Belgian equivalent to driving with due care and attention laws is?

At risk of going off topic in a retirement thread, I have always thought it crazy that there is not one person driving and another directing operations in terms of the riders, handing out food and jackets, looking at race situation etc.  If a 1.5 tonne car is travelling next to a bunch of cyclists at 45 km/h, I'd prefer the driver to be looking at the road.

[rote_laterne]

So the rules insist that there i somebody who breaks whatever the Belgian equivalent to driving with due care and attention laws is?

At risk of going off topic in a retirement thread, I have always thought it crazy that there is not one person driving and another directing operations in terms of the riders, handing out food and jackets, looking at race situation etc.  If a 1.5 tonne car is travelling next to a bunch of cyclists at 45 km/h, I'd prefer the driver to be looking at the road.

This.

But I'm not sure the normal laws for driving a car apply to sporting events. Tort laws for grosslly negligent acts might be applicable.

[LukasCPH]

I'm not sure the normal laws for driving a car apply to sporting events.

Some teams have (more expensive) car insurance for sporting events on closed roads.
Other teams don't.

This suggests that you may be allowed to do things on closed roads that you couldn't do otherwise.
On the other hand, at British races, police is apparently very uncompromising on some specifically British traffic laws.

 

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/procyclingno/status/1041944376107315200

Adios Truls.

[t-72]

 

One of my favorite riders!

Best moment: 2016 World Championship Road Race in Doha, Quatar. He made it into the first group and kept it rolling all the way to the finish line. IF ONLY    Edvald Boasson Hagen could have done his part, Sagan wouldn't have 3 rainbows in his closet by now. This was however, not the fault of the young conti team rider that no-one knew until he suddenly was right there in the final with Boonen, Sagan, Matthews, Cavendish - all the great riders,  read this list and understand:


The year before he was a late addition to the Norwegian U23 team in Richmond (coming back from some injury if I recall) and he got the team's best results there. He also won the Norwegian TTT championship with / Anders Skaarseth ("for the rest of the race we just put Truls in front with the 55's and tried to follow as good as we could")

He also has some good results in the national gravel classic Birkebeineren, as in I think he acually won it one year, but he at least got a 2nd place, when he was only 18. He is also famous for crashes in Gylne Gutuer, as it happens, when it is caught on film like this:

This sector was afterwards named Truls Korsæths corner, and that I guess is the way he will be remembered, ironically   His stellar breakaway ride for in the slightly harder contested Strade Bianche 2017 (he lasted deep into the final) may quickly be forgotten.

Thanks, and good luck, Truls!

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/VitalConcept_CC/status/1048277758957277184

Tanguy Turgis has to retire at only 20.

[search]

Laurent Didier retires after next weekend's Japan Cup

https://www.wort.lu/de/sport/didier-beendet-karriere-5bc6c458182b657ad3b961a9

[Echoes]

I feel so sad for Tanguy. I started following him when he was aged 15 in the novice category which the French call "cadets". He had started racing at age 5 and iconised Philippe Gilbert in his Française des Jeux years.In the novices he was already way ahead of his time beating riders way older than him in cyclocross, which he loved so much more than road. Later in 2016 as I started following the late Michael Goolaerts, I noted that in a race that Michael won as a U23 rider, Tanguy was 4th, while still ... a junior rider. Now both had heart problems. Goolaerts passed away of cardiac arrest and Tanguy has had to retire for heart malfunction. Tanguy is the youngest post-war Paris-Roubaix finisher on a doomed edition when Michael is first rider to pass away on the said race. 

https://www.ouest-france.fr/sport/cyclisme/vital-concept/cyclisme-jerome-pineau-un-gamin-qui-brise-son-reve-6012785

"A Kid Whose Dream has been Broken", Says Pineau

"It's been a disaster for him but it's a real privilege that it has been detected on time and not to face a tragedy" relativise Jérôme Pineau, the Vital Concept manager.

His friend and teammate Justin Mottier of the Mayenne learned it from his boss:

I'm really baffled, thought it was hard. He was at the very start of his career. He was barely 20. He's probably the most promising rider in the team and cycling is all his life. He lives cycling, he eats cycling, he breathes cycling, he sleeps cycling. He's the boy I know who is most talking about cycling.

When not on a race, Tanguy is watching a cycling video tape (says the author of the article, I find it unusual that he still uses video tapes in the 21st century, lol).

Next year, Jimmy Turgis, the elder of the family, was to join Vital Concept and Tanguy was looking forward to wearing the same jersey.

Jérôme Pineau

He will bounce back very soon because he's scrappy. When he gets into something again, he'll do it all out. He's also the most passionate of all my riders, so it will be harder for him to accept. Besides losing all his dreams he's also worrying about his future because he could not consider retraining so fast.

Jérôme Mottier:

I don't know if it will be as DS but he will stay in cycling. I can see him as a TV commentator because he's very knowledgeable about the riders and cycling's history.

Pineau agrees:

In the years to come, I still see him in the cycling sport. We will back his retraining. Why not with us.

I'm not surprise that Tanguy is knowledgeable about cycling history because on http://www.memoire-du-cyclisme.eu/ one of the most active article poster is a certain Dominique Turgis. I guess they must be related. When I first learned about the Turgis brothers, I straight related them to that poster. That's why I felt so much sympathy for them. 

Here below was my first post about the brothers, 6 January 2014. So nice memories! 
http://velorooms.com/index.php?topic=3476.msg115736#msg115736