Sonny Colbrelli confirms retirement to avoid cardiac arrhythmia risks

Sonny Colbrelli has announced his retirement, revealing the emotions he has faced since suffering an unstable cardiac arrhythmia at the Volta a Catalunya in March, but also his desire to start a new chapter of his life.   

“New challenges await me, and with courage, I prepare to face them with a smile on my face. Continue to rejoice in every ride I will do, even if only for fun and no longer for competition,” Colbrelli said in his official announcement published by his Bahrain Victorious team on Sunday.

“A year ago in this period, I spent my days celebrating the most important victory of my career, Paris-Roubaix. I never thought I would find myself a year later to face one of the most challenging moments that life has put me in front of.

“But it’s my life that I want to be grateful for, a life I risked losing and which gave me a second chance. That of being here today, to remember that I came out of the Hell of the North as a winner, and I did it in a legendary way, which will remain in history and that I will be able to continue to tell my children. It is to them, my family and all the people closest to me that I owe this new life of mine. 

“From them, I am drawing the strength to accept this moment of my sporting career that sees me here today to give up being able to add to my Palmares a victory in a Grand Tour or Flanders, a lifelong dream.”

Colbrelli admitted to friends and former colleagues at the recent end-of-season races in the Veneto that he has reached a decision on his future. A formal announcement was planned for November 15 but La Gazzetta dello Sport revealed his plans on Saturday and so Colbrelli confirmed his decision to end his professional career. 

The Italian rider was fitted with a subcutaneous defibrillator to protect him against other cardiac arrhythmia but Italian law does not allow athletes to compete with the life-saving device. He considered removing it but the risk was just too high and he did not want to take it for personal and family reasons.

“After what happened at Catalunya, the hope of being able to continue being a professional rider has never abandoned me, albeit minimal. I knew that the way back would be difficult with a defibrillator,” Colbrelli explained. 

“Removing the defibrillator is against the best medical practice and means removing a lifesaver that is necessary as secondary prevention. A risk too high. A risk that I cannot afford to take, for me, for the opportunity that life, God I believe in, has given me. For Adelina, for Vittoria and for Tomaso. For my parents too.” 

Colbrelli promised to keep smiling in life, revealing he will stay in the sport with Bahrain Victorious and be a role model for young riders in the Bahrain development teams.  

“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,” he said. 

“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 reference for Team Bahrain Victorious and the development teams: Cycling Team Friuli and the Cannibal U19.” 

Nine days after he confirmed his retirement, Sonny Colbrelli posted on Instagram from the Funivia Hotel in Bormio that he had a tattoo designed to commemorate his career. It showed the Italian walking along the Arenberg forest hand-in-hand with his two 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."

While Colbrelli can count many victories in his palmarés, his 2021 Paris-Roubaix win on his debut edition of the race, in one of its most vicious years, will certainly be remembered as the most significant and emotional in his career.