Pieter Weening has announced his retirement from professional cycling, ending his 17-year run in the peloton. The Dutchman has been with Rabobank, Orica GreenEdge, Roompot, and most recently Trek-Segafredo since 2004.

"I am happy to announce now that I am feeling confident and happy. For almost 20 years, I've been doing a job I've dreamed of and loved," Weening said in a communique released by the Trek Segafredo team. I've enjoyed every season, and I'm truly grateful. But in the last few weeks I told myself that enough was enough."

Weening's career appeared to be coming to an end when the Roompot-Charles team ceased operations last winter and he was without a contract when the 2020 season began. However, despite the interruption caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, Trek-Segafredo added Weening to its roster and supported Vincenzo Nibali at the Giro d'Italia in October.

Weening was forced to abandon the race on stage 5 due to a crash in the opening week of the Giro; the 39-year-old officially announced his retirement on Friday.

"When I joined Trek-Segafredo in February, after talking to Luca Guercilena and Steven de Jong, I told myself I would see how the Giro went and then make a decision," Weening said. "The stupid crash on stage four still makes me angry when I think about it. The next day, I had to retire from the race and went home with the aftereffects of concussion. I thought I would recover by the Vuelta a España, but the doctor put me on absolute bed rest. At that moment, my mind at ease, I understood that the time had come. It was not my body that told me to stop, but my spirit.

Weening's first professional victory, from Friesland, was perhaps the most famous, a two-man sprint in Gerardmer on stage 8 of the 2005 Tour de France, narrowly edging out Andreas Klöden.

Weening went on to win 12 races, including two stages of the Giro d'Italia. His first victory came in 2011, a solo victory on the gravel roads of Orvieto, which led to a four-day Maria Rosa. Three years later, he added another Giro victory when he passed Davide Malacarne at Passo del Lupo in Sestola.

He left the WorldTour before the 2016 season to join the Dutch pro continental team Roompot, where he quickly became team leader and scored several wins, including stage wins at the Tour of Norway and the Tour de Suisse that year. Weening's last professional victory was a stage at the 2019 Tour de Luxembourg.

"I can say I am happy about what I have achieved. I always raced with a great team and in a great group. I think this was an important motivation for me. I always felt part of a team spirit, to pursue a common goal and to get better every year to achieve it," said Weening, who competed in 16 Grand Tours throughout his career.

"I have many good memories in cycling; winning the Tour in 2005 and the four-day Maria Rosa in the Giro in 2014 and 2011 were the best moments. But I also happily recall the Giro team time trial in Belfast in 2014 and the time trial in Orica in 2015." There are so many facts and memories from each of those years that make me feel fortunate to have been a part of this long adventure. It has also made me ready and happy to turn my attention to other things now."

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