British road and track cycling veteran Rob Hayles is to call-time on a 16-year professional career after Sunday’s National Hill-Climb Championship.
Hayles won eight World Championship medals on the track, including team pursuit and, with Mark Cavendish, madison gold in 2005.
The 38-year-old also won three Olympic medals, claiming team pursuit bronze in 2000, upgrading to silver in 2004, when he also won madison bronze with Bradley Wiggins.
But Hayles will now “step back and watch another generation of British cyclists rule the world.”
He said: “The highlight of my career has to be winning my first World Track Championship title with Mark Cavendish in 2005, and it’s been an absolute pleasure seeing how his career has taken off since then.”
On the road Hayles rode for the French team Cofidis between 2001 and 2003, and claimed the national title in 2008. Hayles also held the national 10 and 25-mile time trial titles and claimed multiple Tour Series victories.
Hayles signed for Endura as a rider/manager at the start of the 2010 season and will bow out at the National Hill-Climb Championships on Long Hill near Buxton, Derbyshire.
Hayles added on Twitter: “I feel its now time to concentrate on other very exciting things I will be doing in the future. I would like to thank all of those of you who have either been a part of my cycling and life in general, and to those who have followed from a distance.
“Cycling has been a great life for me, and I hope it will continue to be in one form or another. All I ask now, is that you all come out on Sunday, and show your support by PUSHING me up the #nationalhillclimb.”
