Frenchman hangs up his wheels after turbulent career
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Rémy Di Gregorio (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) leads the break(Image credit: ASO)
Remy Di Gregorio (La Pomme Marseille)(Image credit: Tour de Taiwan 2014 / Sonoko Tanaka)
KOM winner Rémy Di Gregorio (Delko Marseille Provence KTM)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Rémy Di Grégorio celebrates as he crosses the line(Image credit: AFP)
Rémy Di Grégorio at the courthouse in Marseille where he was questioned about alleged doping activities.(Image credit: AFP)
Rémy Di Gregorio (Française des Jeux) tries to stay warm after the finish.(Image credit: Petitesreines/Petitesreines.free.fr)
Remy Di Gregorio has announced that he will retire at the end of the season, bringing the curtain down on his professional career at the age of 32. The Marseille native has been racing on the Delko-Marseille Provence KTM (formerly La Pomme) set-up since 2014.
Di Gregorio took to social media on Wednesday evening to announce his decision to hang up his wheels.
"I don't write often on Facebook but today it's to announce that after 12 beautiful years of a sporting career, I'm bringing an end to my career," Di Gregorio wrote. "I want to thank all the people who supported me from the bottom of my heart."
Di Gregorio was still a teenager when he turned professional with La Française des Jeux in 2005, and he underlined his promise by winning a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir the following year.
After winning the mountains classification at the 2007 Dauphiné Libéré, Di Gregorio's reputation in France was such that he was featured on the cover of Vélo Magazine ahead of his Tour de France debut that July, but the race ended in disappointment when he crashed out in the opening week.
Di Gregorio's promise would remain largely unfulfilled thereafter at FDJ, but he enjoyed a brief renaissance when he signed for Astana in 2011, winning a stage of Paris-Nice in Biot ahead of Samuel Sanchez and Rigoberto Uran.
In 2012, Di Gregorio was excluded from the Tour de France by his Cofidis team after he was arrested at the team hotel in Bourg-en-Bresse for possessing a kit to inject glucose. He was provisionally suspended but cleared to race again in early 2013 when a court in Aix-en-Provence ruled that he had not been in possession of doping products.
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"The contents were banal, really, like Paracetamol, vitamin C... it was a terrible confusion. Now I can finally get back to work, continue with my passion," Di Gregorio told La Provence at the time.
Di Gregorio proceeded to win a case of wrongful dismissal against the Cofidis team later in 2013, and then returned to the peloton in 2014 with La Pomme-Marseille, at the time a Continental outfit.
Di Gregorio's sole victory during his time at the team came at the 2014 Tour de Taiwan, and the team has never succeeded in earning an invitation to the Tour de France, though he has been an aggressive presence since the squad stepped up to Pro Continental level in 2016.
