The penultimate French rider to have worn the yellow jersey, Tony Gallopin will leave the professional peloton at the end of the year, at the age of 35, he announced on Monday.
“After 16 years in the peloton, it is time for me to announce that I will hang up the bike at the end of this season”, indicates on social networks the road captain of the Lidl-Trek team at the Tour de France.
“My last race will be Paris-Tours (October 8, editor’s note), he explains in a press release from his team. It’s a special race for me, as a child I went to see stars like Jacky Durand or Richard Virenque there and in 2008, I won the hopes race. That’s why I want to end up there.”
With a stage victory in Oyonnax and a day in yellow two days later between Mulhouse and the Planche des Belles Filles, the 2014 Tour de France marked the peak of the career of the Essonnien, also winner of the Clasica San- Sebastian the previous year.
Versatile rider, comfortable on all terrains, the former adventurer, who notably passed through Lotto or AG2R and comes from a family of professional cyclists, is currently competing in his eleventh Grande Boucle.
“Retirement, I was already thinking about it last winter. Everything was more difficult in training”, describes Tony Gallopin.
He was ranked close to the top-10 in the Vuelta 2018, the only big tour he ran with ambitions for the general classification, while pocketing a stage victory at Pozo Alcon in Andalusia.
