Alexander Vinokourov quits professional cycling
Alexander Vinokourov has decided to call it a day on his professional career after the Kazakhstani announced his retirement after his 35 place finish at the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian.
"I was psyched that this year was over and my goal was to win a stage in the Tour," said Vinokourov.
"I wanted to leave through the front door. It was not possible to win in France, but it has been even better winning at the Olympics”.
The 38-year-old started his professional career back in 1998 when Team Casino-Ag2r spotted his true talent.
He had a splendid first year with the team and registered overall victories at the Four Days of Dunkirk, Tour de Picardie and the Circuit de Lorraine 1998.
The cyclist accepted an offer from Team Telekom after spending a period of two-years with Team Casino-Ag2r and his performance kept on improving as he gained experience.
After spending a period of six years with Team Telekom (2000-05), he spent a year each with Team Liberty Seguros-Wurth (2006) and Team Astana (2009) after facing a one-year ban because of doping at the Tour de France 2007.
Alexander had a disastrous crash during the Tour de France 2011 where he fell and broke his femur which forced him to announce his retirement on July 17th, 2011 on his Twitter page.
However, after the successful rehabilitation process, he returned to professional cycling at the Giro di Lombardia 2011and delayed his retirement till the end of the 2012 season.
Vinokourov had the 2012 Olympic Games in his sight as he stormed through the finish line during the 250 kilometre Olympic Men’s Road Race event restricting the race favourites.
It was his first Olympics gold after the silver medal he earned at the Sydney Olympics back in 2000 during the road race event.
"I am very grateful and happy that my last race as a professional is in San Sebastian," he said.
"It was my last race and I have come to enjoy”.
“I tried to be fighting to win, I really wanted it and for my team, but my best legs were in London. Nevertheless I enjoyed my final kilometres".
The top ten results of the 2012 Olympic Men’s Road Race are as below,
1
Alexandr Vinokurov (Kazakhstan)
5:45:57
2
Rigoberto Uran Uran (Colombia)
3
Alexander Kristoff (Norway)
0:00:08
4
Taylor Phinney (United States of America)
5
Sergey Lagutin (Uzbekistan)
6
Stuart O'grady (Australia)
7
Jurgen Roelandts (Belgium)
8
Gregory Rast (Switzerland)
9
Luca Paolini (Italy)
10
Jack Bauer (New Zealand)
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