The Glud & Marstrand - LRO Radgivning guys sign on. (Image credit: Frank Rud Jensen)
Thomas Vedel Kvist is the next rider to retire at the age of 24. The Dane rode for two seasons with Quick Step before a successful season at the Continental team Glud & Marstrand-LRO in 2011. He will now attend medical school
Kvist joined Quick Step as a trainee in August 2008, and then rode for the top-ranked Belgian team for two years. This year he went to the smaller Danish team, where he had two victories, winning stages at the Tour de Normandie and the Rhone-Alpes Isere Tour.
“I'm completely finished with the sport,” he told feltet.dk. He had his time at the top level, but “I really feel that I have had enough. The desire was not there anymore.”
His time at Quick Step was marked by injury and illness. “I learned a lot because of hardship and trouble. If a professional is injured and doesn't have a lot of success, then it's a hard world to be part of.”
He does not regret it, though. “I know what it means to be a professional, what kind of life it is you have there and it has given me some really cool experiences, so it's definitely not an experience tat I would exchange for anything.”
Nor was it a sudden decision. "It has been a long time coming, so it's something I've known a long time. Even when I rode for Quick Step, I knew that it was not what I would do many years into the future think there are other things in life, so that is why I started medical school, which I am really happy."
