Edvald Boasson Hagen has introduced that he’ll retire on the finish of this season, bringing the curtain down on his lengthy skilled profession. The Norwegian made the announcement in an Instagram put up on Wednesday morning.
“There’s a time for all the pieces and after 17 years within the professional peloton, I am happy with what I’ve completed throughout my profession,” Boassan Hagen wrote. “2024 will likely be my final season and I’m wanting ahead to spending extra time with my household and exploring new alternatives in my life past biking.”
Boasson Hagen has spent the 2024 marketing campaign with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale after placing a late deal to signal with the workforce following his departure from TotalEnergies. The 37-year-old is on the provisional begin listing for the Renewi Tour and he indicated that he has “nonetheless some races left this season” earlier than he lastly hangs up his wheels.
A local of Rudsbygd close to Lillehammer, Boasson Hagen caught the attention with some glowing shows throughout his time with Norwegian Continental outfit Maxbo-Bianchi, together with a hat-trick of stage wins on the 2006 Tour de l’Avenir.
He graduated to the highest stage when he joined Workforce Highroad in 2008, and he made a direct affect on a strikingly wide selection of terrains, from sprinting to time trialling – blazing a path, maybe, for the era of versatile skills that will comply with him.
After profitable Gent-Wevelgem in 2009, Boasson Hagen was arguably essentially the most thrilling younger expertise in all of biking and, together with Bradley Wiggins, he was the marquee signing on the unique Workforce Sky roster in 2010.
Boasson Hagen would spend 5 years with the British workforce, however though he collected some 24 victories of their colors, there was a way that he by no means fairly lived as much as his potential throughout his tenure at Sky.
His thrilling brace of wins on the 2011 Tour de France demonstrated what was potential, however Boasson Hagen repeatedly fell quick within the Spring Classics after which discovered himself driving within the service of others within the Grand Excursions.
Boasson Hagen moved to MTN-Qhubeka in 2015, and he loved a transparent return to kind in the beginning of the next season. Remarkably, his fifth place on the 2016 Paris-Roubaix was one in every of solely two top-10 finishes in a Monument (the opposite got here on the 2015 Milan-San Remo), regardless that he proved his aptitude for the gap together with his silver medal on the 2012 Worlds in Valkenburg.
After a string of close to misses on the race, Boasson Hagen added a 3rd Tour stage victory in Salon-de-Provence in 2017, however his win charge would gradual within the years that adopted. His 81st and most up-to-date skilled victory got here on the opening stage of the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné.
Boasson Hagen spent the ultimate a part of his profession on French groups, signing for TotalEnergies in 2021 earlier than shifting to Decathlon AG2R in January of this 12 months.
“I wish to take this chance to thank everybody that [has] supported me and cheered me on, the groups I have been part of and particularly my household and spouse, who’ve all the time been there for me,” Boasson Hagen wrote on Wednesday.
“I have been very fortunate and blissful to have been in a position to do that for thus lengthy, and for all of the friendships, and cherished reminiscences I’m left with.”
