Edvald Boasson Hagen has announced that he will retire at the end of this season, bringing the curtain down on his long professional career. The Norwegian made the announcement in an Instagram post on Wednesday morning.
“There is a time for everything and after 17 years in the pro peloton, I'm proud of what I have accomplished during my career,” Boassan Hagen wrote. “2024 will be my last season and I am looking forward to spending more time with my family and exploring new opportunities in my life beyond cycling.”
Boasson Hagen has spent the 2024 campaign with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale after striking a late deal to sign with the team following his departure from TotalEnergies. The 37-year-old is on the provisional start list for the Renewi Tour and he indicated that he has “still some races left this season” before he finally hangs up his wheels.
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A native of Rudsbygd near Lillehammer, Boasson Hagen caught the eye with some sparkling displays during his time with Norwegian Continental outfit Maxbo-Bianchi, including a hat-trick of stage wins on the 2006 Tour de l’Avenir.
He graduated to the top level when he joined Team Highroad in 2008, and he made an immediate impact on a strikingly wide range of terrains, from sprinting to time trialling – blazing a trail, perhaps, for the generation of versatile talents that would follow him.
After winning Gent-Wevelgem in 2009, Boasson Hagen was arguably the most exciting young talent in all of cycling and, along with Bradley Wiggins, he was the marquee signing on the original Team Sky roster in 2010.
Boasson Hagen would spend five years with the British team, but although he collected some 24 victories in their colours, there was a sense that he never quite lived up to his potential during his tenure at Sky.
His thrilling brace of wins on the 2011 Tour de France demonstrated what was possible, but Boasson Hagen repeatedly fell short in the Spring Classics and then found himself riding in the service of others in the Grand Tours.
Boasson Hagen moved to MTN-Qhubeka in 2015, and he enjoyed a clear return to form at the beginning of the following season. Remarkably, his fifth place at the 2016 Paris-Roubaix was one of only two top-10 finishes in a Monument (the other came at the 2015 Milan-San Remo), even though he proved his aptitude for the distance with his silver medal at the 2012 Worlds in Valkenburg.
After a string of near misses on the race, Boasson Hagen added a third Tour stage victory in Salon-de-Provence in 2017, but his win rate would slow in the years that followed. His 81st and most recent professional victory came on the opening stage of the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné.
Boasson Hagen spent the final part of his career on French teams, signing for TotalEnergies in 2021 before moving to Decathlon AG2R in January of this year.
“I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone that [has] supported me and cheered me on, the teams I've been a part of and especially my family and wife, who have always been there for me,” Boasson Hagen wrote on Wednesday.
“I've been very lucky and happy to have been able to do this for so long, and for all the friendships, and cherished memories I am left with.”
