Sonny Colbrelli Announces Retirement From Professional Cycling

On Oct. 30, Italian road cyclist Sonny Colbrelli announced his retirement due to heart problems.

Nicknamed "Scary Raleigh", the 32-year-old Corbrayli is a professional road cyclist. He is good at sprint and classical races. He won the 2021 Paris Roubaix, the first of the five classical races, and the 2021 Euro Championships. It's fair to say that in 2021, Corbrelli is just entering the peak of his career. The bad news came in the first half of 2022.

On March 21, 2022 this year, when Corbrelli was with the team in the Spanish Tour of Catalonia, he fell to the ground immediately after crossing the line and was sent to the hospital; it was confirmed by the team afterwards that, It turned out that Colbrelli had an unstable heart arrhythmia. On the advice of his doctor, Corbrelli was fitted with a subcutaneous defibrillator to deal with the arrhythmia.

Although UCI International has no regulations on subcutaneous defibrillators, Italian law prohibits people with defibrillators from participating in professional-level sports and can only play non-professional-level recreational sports - this is tantamount to Corbrelli's suspension was announced.

Cole Breley has announced his official retirement decision through his Bahrain-Victory team. Colebrelli said in his retirement statement that he regretted being forced to retire without winning the next Tour of Flanders or a single Grand Tour.

“I say goodbye to cycling and try to do it with a smile for the good it gave me, even if it hurts to say goodbye after a season like last year. That was the best of my career.” 

“New challenges await me, and with courage, I prepare to face them with a smile on my face. Continue to rejoice in every ride I will do, even if only for fun and no longer for competition,” 

“A year ago in this period, I spent my days celebrating the most important victory of my career, Paris-Roubaix. I never thought I would find myself a year later to face one of the most challenging moments that life has put me in front of,”

“But it’s my life that I want to be grateful for, a life I risked losing and which gave me a second chance. That of being here today, to remember that I came out of the Hell of the North as a winner, and I did it in a legendary way, which will remain in history and that I will be able to continue to tell my children. It is to them, my family and all the people closest to me that I owe this new life of mine.

“From them, I am drawing the strength to accept this moment of my sporting career that sees me here today to give up being able to add to my palmarés a victory in a Grand Tour or [the Tour of] Flanders, a lifelong dream.”

Colbrelli said in a team statement, released on Sunday.