There's arguably only one thing that all bike riders have in common when the moment comes that they retire: it's about pulling the plug on their career. Beyond that, the reasons for doing so are as many and varied as they were for getting into the sport in the first place, and the point, too, when riders opt to pull down the curtain on their career is equally varied.
Do you opt to go out at the top of the sport and with all guns blazing, a la Bernard Hinault in 1986? Or is it better to finish with a small-scale criterium in the middle of nowhere in Spain, like Miguel Indurain? This year, just to take two examples of star names, Geraint Thomas opted to end his career on home soil in Cardiff, just a few miles away from Maindy Velodrome where it all began for him aged 10. Alexander Kristoff, on the other hand, ended with a crash-out in the Tour of Langkawi, literally half a world away from his native Norway.
