Rally Cycling's Will Routley has confirmed that 2016 will be his last season as a professional cyclist. The 33-year-old Canadian turned pro in 2005 with Symmetrics and spent the past three seasons with Rally and its predecessor Optum.
Routley took several high-profile victories during his 12 years as a professional, including the Canadian national road title in 2010, a stage and the mountains classification at the 2014 Tour of California and a sprint victory this year in stage 2 of the GP Liberty Seguros in Portugal on his way to second overall.
In a statement released Friday by the team, Routley said he has considered retirement for some time and was "pretty sure" he would stop on several previous occasions.
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"I love the lifestyle, making sure you are healthy and feeling strong, well rested, and just going out and hammering the hell out of your body," he said. "I love that, but I am also wise after so many years of racing. I have no interest in getting hurt, and was starting to race cautiously the past couple of seasons. It is time to move on from racing and accomplish other goals."
Routley came from a mountain biking background but switched to road racing at the age of 21. He signed with Symmetrics in 2005 and raced with the Canadian team alongside current Rally Cycling staff Eric Wohlberg, Zach Bell and Jacob Erker for four years. He moved to Jelly Belly for two years in 2009 and 2010, then jumped to the Pro Continental level with Spidertech-C10 for two years through 2012. Routley tried his luck in Europe with Belgian Pro Continental team AccentJobs-Wanty in 2013 before returning to North America to finish out his career with Optum and then Rally.
He scored the biggest win of his career in 2014 at the Tour of California when he made the breakaway on stage 4 from Monterey to Cambria. A strong tailwind along the coast favoured the escapees, causing Mark Cavendish and the bunch to mistime the chase and allow Routley's six-rider group to fight for the win at the line. Routley added to his lead in the mountains classification that day, and he held the polka dot jersey through the overall finish in Thousand Oaks.
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