Another legend retires in 2025 - Viviani announces retirement after 90 professional wins
Olympic gold medallist and sprinting specialist Elia Viviani will retire from professional cycling at the end of this season, closing a 16-year career that yielded 90 victories, including nine Grand Tour stage wins.
The 36-year-old Italian becomes the third prominent sprinter to announce his retirement in 2025, following Alexander Kristoff and Arnaud Démare in stepping away from the professional peloton.
“It’s been 16 fantastic years. They flew by, but I had a great time and achieved everything I wanted. Today, I’m announcing the end of my career as a professional cyclist. Many thanks to everyone who has been part of this journey,” Viviani said on X.
Viviani’s professional journey began with Liquigas in 2010, where he quickly made his mark by winning a stage at the Tour of Turkey. During his five-year spell with Liquigas-Cannondale, he accumulated more than 30 victories, including a notable stage win at the Critérium du Dauphiné.
His career took a major step forward when he joined Team Sky in 2015, immediately winning stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia. But it was his subsequent move to Quick-Step that truly unlocked his potential as a world-class sprinter.
The 2018 season proved especially prolific, with Viviani dominating sprint finishes at the Giro d’Italia, where he took four stage wins, before adding three more at the Vuelta a España later that year.
His palmarès peaked in 2019 when he completed his set of Grand Tour victories by winning stage 4 of the Tour de France and claimed the European Road Race title in Alkmaar.
A move to Cofidis in 2020 coincided with a downturn in results, with Viviani failing to secure a single victory that year. His time with the French squad yielded just five wins before a brief return to INEOS Grenadiers also failed to reignite his earlier form.
Viviani’s final transfer brought him to Lotto, where he rediscovered flashes of his sprinting strength, most notably with a stage win at the Tour of Turkey. In 2025, during his final Grand Tour at the Vuelta a España, his best result was fourth place on the opening stage.
Beyond the road, Viviani built a remarkable track career, highlighted by Olympic gold in the Omnium at Rio 2016 and bronze in the same event at Tokyo 2020.
As the Italian sprinter hangs up his wheels, he leaves behind a legacy as one of his generation’s most versatile fast men, a rider equally at home on the track as in the heat of a Grand Tour sprint.
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