Rio 2016 road cycling champion Greg Van Avermaet to retire at the end of the 2023 season
The Belgian classic specialist, who also won the 2017 Paris-Roubaix, made the announcement on social media: "I am extremely proud of my achievements," he wrote. "I did not only enjoy the victory but also the way to it."
Cycling Road
Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet, widely regarded as one of the finest classics riders of his generation, has announced his retirement from professional road cycling at the end of the current 2023 season.
The 37-year-old Belgian, who joined the AG2R Citroen Team in 2021, shared his 'hard' decision through his social media channels on Wednesday (3 May): "I am extremely proud of my achievements," he wrote in a post accompanied by an emotional video where we see him hanging up the jerseys he wore during his 17-year-long career.
Then he added: "I gave every day the best of myself, just to not have any regrets afterwards. I did not only enjoy the victory but also the way to it."
On 6 August 2016, Van Avermaet became the second Belgian in history to win gold in the Olympic men's road race, by winning the Rio 2016 title: "The most beautiful moment of my career," he told Olympics.com.
On the finish line in Fort Copacabana, 'GVA' - as he's nicknamed - outsprinted Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang after a chaotic race that saw pre-race favourites Geraint Thomas and Vincenzo Nibali crash hard in the final kilometres.
In 2017, the 'King of Flanders' produced an extraordinary spring classics campaign by taking the prestigious E3 Herelbeke, the Omloot Het Nieuwsblad for the second time, the Gent-Wevelgem, and the Paris-Roubaix monument title, his best career achievement along with Olympic gold. These wins helped him top both the UCI World Ranking and UCI World Tour at the end of the season.
Van Avermaet also claimed two individual stages and the Tour de France (wearing the leader's yellow jersey for 11 days between 2016 and 2018) and the points classification at the 2008 Vuelta a Espana.
You can relive his efforts at Rio 2016 by watching the full replay of the Olympic road race below.