Former double US National Time Trial Champion Lawson Craddock has announced that this will be his final season as a professional racer.
The 32-year-old from Houston said via his Instagram account that it had been a “hell of a run” but that he would be handing up his wheels at the end of 2024.
A valued team worker and all-rounder, Craddock’s two top moments of success came with back-to-back National Time Trial Championships in 2021 and 2022, although his climbing talents also saw him feature regularly in mountain breakaways in the ten Grand Tours he has raced to date.
At the 2023 Tour de France, the Jayco-AIUIa rider secured a fourth place on the Mont Blanc stage behind Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) after taking part in a daylong move across the Alps, while at the 2019 Vuelta, he finished third in a breakaway through the Pyrenean foothills to Urdax behind Euskadi-Murias rider Mikel Iturria.
Craddock started racing in 2014 at WorldTour level with Giant-Shimano. That year he took one of his best stage race results in the Tour of California, placing third overall and BYR winner behind Bradley Wiggins, before heading on to Cannondale and then EF Education when the two teams subsequently merged. He joined his current Jayco-AIUIa squad in 2022.
“One final trip to Europe with the fam.” Craddock posted on Instagram this week beneath a shot of himself with his children at Houston airport. “It’s been a hell of a run, but I’m excited to say that 2024 will be my last year in the professional peloton.
“There are so many people to thank but none more than my wife and children. I’m so blessed to have them by my side and can’t wait to see what the future in store for us.”
It is not known which races Craddock will take part in prior to retiring at the end of the season.
