Dario Cataldo has announced that he will retire from cycling at the end of this year after 18 seasons in the professional peloton.
The Lidl-Trek rider confirmed the news during an appearance on RAI television’s Processo alla Tappa show after the finish of stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia in Francavilla al Mare, which was won by his teammate Jonathan Milan.
Cataldo did not line out at this year’s Giro, but he availed of the race’s visit to his native Abruzzo on Wednesday to make public his decision to hang up his wheels at the end of the current campaign.
“This will be my last season as a professional after 18 years and well over 1,200 race days,” Cataldo said. “I’ll keep going until Lombardia, and all going well, that will be my last race. I’d love to have been on the Giro this year, but the team rightly picked the most in-form riders for the race.”
The 39-year-old raced the Giro thirteen times in his career, with his finest moment coming in 2019, when he claimed stage victory in Como. He had previously won a stage of the Vuelta a España atop Cuitu Negru in 2012.
All told, Cataldo won five victories across his professional career, but he was best known as a valued mountain domestique. He began his career with Liquigas in 2007 and he had spells at QuickStep, Sky, Astana and Movistar before joining Trek-Segafredo ahead of the 2022 season, where he linked up with his friend and fellow Abruzzese Giulio Ciccone.
Cataldo’s 2023 season was interrupted by a heavy crash at the Volta a Catalunya that left him with a broken femur, an injury that forced him to miss the Giro Grande Partenza in Abruzzo.
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