![\"13207_22-07-2013_6338.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-2-0-91912500-1374568461.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto credit: Graham Watson <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted my career to end with something truly special and this year\u2019s Tour de France has given me that,\u201d explained O\u2019Grady. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a great race, and I\u2019m really proud of what we accomplished. Winning a stage and standing on the podium with all my teammates after the team time trial in Nice was a dream come true for me this late in my career, and to be able to defend the yellow jersey for Simon [Gerrans] and Daryl [impey] was special. I\u2019m extremely happy to have had a chance to do that one more time before I retired.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHaving done all this, I\u2019m happy to say that I\u2019ve had my run,\u201d O\u2019Grady continued. \u201cOriginally, I wanted to keep going, but I\u2019ve kept thinking that this is the year. We reached big goals as a team at the Tour, and I\u2019m proud to finish my career after an amazing experience with an incredible team.<\/p>\n I\u2019m turning 40 very soon, and I\u2019ve realized there are things in my life that I want to prioritize. My family has helped me make this decision. It\u2019s been 23 years of top level performing and 19 years of professional racing, so it\u2019s time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Grady has appeared in every Tour de France since he made his debut at La Grand Boucle in 1997. He started a record-tying 17th Tour de France in Corsica in June and has 15 finishes, three stage wins and nine days in yellow to his name.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a lot of great memories to look back upon, and I\u2019m happy to pull the pin at a point where I still feel strong, healthy and competitive,\u201d said O\u2019Grady. \u201cI\u2019ve had some bad crashes along the way, but it\u2019s the great moments \u2013 like this year\u2019s Tour de France \u2013 that I\u2019ll always remember. Above all, I would like to thank all the fans, my team and my family for always cheering for me and for all the great support throughout my career. It has made me feel appreciated and has given me profound joy for simply doing my job.\u201d<\/p>\n Although O\u2019Grady\u2019s personal victories have diminished in the twilight of his career, he remains a familiar figure on the front of the bunch. The South Australian played an integral role in Simon Gerrans\u2019 Tour de France stage victory in Corsica and the team time trial win in Nice. He was instrumental in the team\u2019s ability to defend the yellow jersey during the first week of the Tour.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to sum up everything that Stuart has given cycling, but a few things stand out,\u201d said General Manager Shayne Bannan. \u201cHis commitment to the sport and to his team has been immense. He\u2019s been a huge resource and a fantastic rider for us to work with. To have that kind of dedication at this point in his career shows a lot about his character. He\u2019s a unique person and an incredible athlete. His experience and status in the peloton has been one of the key elements to our success.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe respect his decision and even if we wanted to keep him, we knew that he had been thinking this after the team time trial win,\u201d Bannan added \u201cBowing out after a legendary career like his has been a hard decision for him, but we\u2019re proud to say that he was part of starting up this team and set the bar for high ambitions from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stuart O\u2019Grady has announced his retirement from the professional peloton today. While Australia\u2019s first Classics champion, six-time Olympian and inaugural Tour Down winner had originally stated his intention to retire next year, O\u2019Grady has opted to readjust his plans on the heels of a historical Tour de France for ORICA-GreenEDGE. Photo credit: Graham Watson \u201cI\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":53204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4517,5269],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-21697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-orica-greenedge","tag-stuart-ogrady"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21697"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=21697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}