Dario Cataldo has introduced that he’ll retire from biking on the finish of this 12 months after 18 seasons within the skilled peloton.
The Lidl-Trek rider confirmed the information throughout an look on RAI tv’s Processo alla Tappa present after the end of stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia in Francavilla al Mare, which was gained by his teammate Jonathan Milan.
Cataldo didn’t line out at this 12 months’s Giro, however he availed of the race’s go to to his native Abruzzo on Wednesday to make public his choice to hold up his wheels on the finish of the present marketing campaign.
“This will likely be my final season as knowledgeable after 18 years and nicely over 1,200 race days,” Cataldo mentioned. “I’ll hold going till Lombardia, and all going nicely, that will likely be my final race. I’d like to have been on the Giro this 12 months, however the workforce rightly picked probably the most in-form riders for the race.”
The 39-year-old raced the Giro 13 occasions in his profession, together with his most interesting second coming in 2019, when he claimed stage victory in Como. He had beforehand gained a stage of the Vuelta a España atop Cuitu Negru in 2012.
All informed, Cataldo gained 5 victories throughout his skilled profession, however he was finest generally known as a valued mountain domestique. He started his profession with Liquigas in 2007 and he had spells at QuickStep, Sky, Astana and Movistar earlier than becoming a member of Trek-Segafredo forward of the 2022 season, the place he linked up together with his buddy and fellow Abruzzese Giulio Ciccone.
Cataldo’s 2023 season was interrupted by a heavy crash on the Volta a Catalunya that left him with a damaged femur, an damage that pressured him to overlook the Giro Grande Partenza in Abruzzo.
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