Peter Sagan, a three-time world champion and Tour de France winner, will retire from cycling’s World Tour at the end of this season.
The 33-year-old Slovakian will continue to compete and hopes to win gold in mountain biking at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Between 2012 and 2019, Sagan won seven green points jerseys at the Tour de France, as well as three rainbow jerseys for winning the Road World Championships.
“This will be my final year on the World Tour,” he said.
“I’ll do some minor road races to get to the Olympics, and then we’ll see what happens.”
Sagan, known for his explosive speed and power in sprints and one-day races, only missed out on the Tour’s green jersey in 2017 after a dramatic crash that saw him disqualified after Mark Cavendish was taken to the hospital.
The news comes as a surprise for one of cycling’s most visible and well-paid riders, but Sagan has only won one stage in a major race in the previous three seasons.
Sagan, who is also known for entertaining fans on the bike by performing wheelies on mountain stages where he was not expected to win, attempted to win Olympic gold in mountain biking in Rio in 2016, but finished 35th.
Tom Pidcock of the United Kingdom won mountain bike gold in Tokyo in 2021.
Sagan has won 12 Tour de France stages as well as several one-day races, including the’monuments’ Paris-Roubaix in 2018 and Tour of Flanders in 2016.