Ben Hermans has ended his skilled biking profession and retired from the game at 38 years previous after not extending his time at Cofidis or discovering a brand new crew for the 2025 season.
The Belgian puncheur loved a 16-year profession within the professional peloton which noticed him take 19 wins, together with total victories on the Tour of Oman and Arctic Race of Norway and one-day wins at De Brabantse Pijl and the Giro dell’Appennino.
Hermans began his profession with the Belgian crew Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator in 2009, earlier than becoming a member of the WorldTour with RadioShack and happening to trip for BMC, Israel-Premier Tech and at last Cofidis. Now that he is hanging up his wheels, he is not fairly certain what’s going to come subsequent.
“It will take some getting used to, particularly the primary few months,” Hermans advised Het Belang Van Limburg after asserting his retirement.
“I have already got some concepts about what I wish to do sooner or later, however these plans will not be actually concrete but. I actually will not rush into something.”
Cofidis need to grasp onto their place within the WorldTour subsequent yr with a vastly modified roster and workers setup that features 12 new signings. Hermans was one in every of 5 riders from Cofidis’ 2024 squad who had been left and not using a crew for subsequent season after not extending their contracts, with the futures of Axel Mariault, Alexis Gougeard, Kenny Elissonde and Christophe Noppe nonetheless left unknown.
He joins Simon Geschke and Gorka Izagirre as retirees from final season’s squad, whereas Cofidis’ common rider age falls from 31 to 27 in 2025.
Despite nonetheless seeing himself as one of many strongest within the crew, Hermans may see the writing on the wall when it got here to his future earlier within the winter and had already accepted that 2024 may very well be the top of his profession.
“I knew from September that I’d not get a brand new contract with Cofidis. But actually? I had felt that coming,” Hermans advised WielerFlits. “I knew that I needed to search for one other crew and that this search wouldn’t be straightforward due to my age and calls for.
“I can settle for ending my profession now. Last yr I actually wasn’t accomplished with it, as a result of I had a nasty crash and couldn’t actually show myself on the finish of the season. Now I’ve been capable of trip my races. If that’s the best way it’s, that’s the best way it’s.”
Hermans rode his remaining professional race on October 20 on the Veneto Classic, eight days after racing his tenth Il Lombardia. He competed in 17 Monument Classics all through his 16 years within the peloton and rode seven Grand Tours, together with one look on the Tour de France in 2020.
