Paris-Roubaix winner to stay with team until 2024 after announcing retirement
(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Sonny Colbrelli has been assured a technical and ambassador role at the Bahrain Victorious team as he begins life as a former rider after suffering an unstable cardiac arrhythmia in the spring.
The 2021 Paris-Roubaix winner and former European champion confirmed his retirement two weeks ago and will speak at length on Tuesday afternoon at a special event organised by component brand FSA.
Colbrelli was fitted with a subcutaneous defibrillator after suffering a sudden unstable cardiac arrhythmia at the Volta a Catalunya in March. The device will stabilise his heartbeat in the case of another arrhythmia but means he can no longer race.
He joined Bahrain Victorious when the team was created in 2017 and will continue to play a role, even though he can no longer race.
“He’ll stay with us at least until 2024 because we're sure he can make a big contribution,” team manager Milan Erzan told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“We hoped he could perhaps return to racing but his health comes first and he’s made the right decision. The Bahrain team was created in 2017 and Sonny has been with us from the start. After Vincenzo Nibali, he was the second rider we really wanted in the team.
“Sonny will be an ambassador, promoting the team and our different sponsors. We’re sure he can also share his experience with us, especially for the Classics. We’ll have a training camp in Spain in December and he can perhaps be there too and then take part in any reconnaissance we do in northern Europe.”
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Colbrelli is able to ride his bike but Italian law does not allow athletes with a subcutaneous defibrillator to compete due to the risks of further cardiac arrhythmia. He considered removing it but the risk was just too high and he did not want to take it for personal and family reasons.
“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. I learned what life offers and what life takes. But it also gives back in a different form,” Colbrelli said when he announced his retirement.
“I’m ready to keep trying to be a champion, like on the bike. I will stay in cycling with the Bahrain Victorious, who have been close to me like a second family and will accompany me in this transition period from a rider to a new role that will evolve daily. I will be an ambassador for our partners, work closely with the performance group, and share my experience with my teammates.
"I was delighted to see how the children have taken me as a role model in recent months. Maybe, I tell myself, because the man covered in mud looks a bit like a superhero. For them, I would like to do something sooner or later. Meanwhile, I will also have the opportunity to be a point of reference for Team Bahrain Victorious and the development teams: Cycling Team Friuli and the Cannibal U19.”
After he confirmed his retirement, Colbrelli posted a photo on Instagram of a new tattoo designed to commemorate his career. It showed the Italian walking along the Arenberg forest hand-in-hand with his children.
"In this tattoo... there is designed everything about my life," he wrote.
"First of all the bike, passion that I had to give up, then the Arenberg forest which is the most famous and hardest cobble sector of Paris-Roubaix my biggest win of ever and Vittoria with Tomaso on my shoulder, my force and my life."
Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.
