'One final opportunity to give it everything' – Ashleigh Moolman Pasio set to close out 17-year professional career with World Championships road race

South Africa's Ashleigh Moolman Pasio is gearing up for her last outing on the road as a professional, with Saturday's elite women's road race at the World Championships set to draw to a close her 17-year career.

The very last dance of Moolman Pasio's career will be at the Gravel World Championships in Nannup, Australia next month, she confirmed in a blog post on Friday, but Montreal will be her final road race as a professional.

Turning 41 in December, Moolman Pasio has been racing on the European UCI circuit since 2009, gaining her first UCI contract in 2010 with Lotto Ladies Team when she was 24, and she's been a stalwart of the peloton ever since then, for a long time one of the only African cyclists in the bunch.

Her career has spanned nearly two decades, and she's extended it multiple times in the last few years: she originally laid out her intentions to retire in 2022, then at the end of 2024, but extended her contract with AG Insurance-Soudal to bring her to the end of 2026.

Transitioning into the role of mentor and road captain in the last few years, she already has an important new career lined up: she will take over as the general manager of Team Amani for the 2027 season, aiming to help the team become the first African squad to race the Tour de France Femmes.

But first, there's the matter of closing the curtain on her own racing career.

"Now, I find myself in Montreal, just days away from my final road race," she wrote in a blog post on the Rocacorba Collective website, her cycling community founded in Girona.

"The preparation has not been completely smooth. I have not raced as much as I would have liked during the second half of the season, but I have continued to find ways to challenge myself. Racing virtually has helped me grow stronger week by week, push beyond my comfort zone and enjoy the process of building towards one final goal on the road.

"So, one last time on the road, I have done everything I can to prepare. I have arrived here in good shape, confident in my form and ready to give this final road race one enormous shot. I want to race bravely. I want to empty the tank. Most of all, I want to cross that finish line knowing that I gave everything I had, with no regrets."

On Saturday, she will form part of a four-rider South Africa team, alongside Hayley Preen, Tiffany Keep and Lisa Bone. In some years, she has been South Africa's sole representative at the World Championships, but will line up alongside her compatriots this year, as well as riders from Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Rwanda and multiple other African nations.

"My racing journey will not be completely over - there is still one final adventure awaiting me at the Gravel World Championships - but Montreal will close an enormous and defining chapter of my life," she wrote.

"Then, I will be ready to move into the next one: using everything this sport has taught me to help pave the way for the next generation of African cyclists. To share my experience, knowledge and belief with young riders who may not yet realise what is possible - just as I once could not imagine what was possible for me."

In her blog post, she shared various anecdotes and stories from her career, including the holiday with her now-husband Carl where he became convinced she could be one of the world's finest cyclists, and the decision to leave the world of study and engineering to pursue a career in the sport.

"After graduating, we took an enormous leap of faith and moved to Europe so I could try to build a professional cycling career. I could never have imagined where that decision would lead," she wrote.

"I never dreamt that I would compete at four Olympic Games, win mountain stages of the Giro, stand on the Giro podium multiple times, finish on the podium at Flèche Wallonne, win Emakumeen Bira and the Tour de Romandie, or become the first UCI Cycling Esports World Champion during the pandemic. I certainly never imagined that I would spend 17 years racing among the very best cyclists in the world."

She also reflected on how her career has changed and evolved over the years, such as taking more interest in virtual racing during the pandemic, setting up the Rocacorba Collective and its ambitions to empower female riders, the biggest lessons of her career, and recovering from a broken back in 2024.

"Seventeen years ago, I arrived in Europe with a dream that initially felt far too big," she wrote. "Now, as I prepare to pin on a number for my final road race, I can look back with immense pride and gratitude. Not only for the results, but for the person this journey has helped me become, for the people who have walked it with me and for the community that will remain long after the racing ends.

"One last race on the road. One final opportunity to give it everything. No regrets."

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