Jumbo-Visma's Maarten Winants will retire after his favorite race, next season's Paris-Roubaix, and then take a new position with the team as sport director.

The 38-year-old, who will celebrate his 39th birthday at the time of his retirement, initially planned to retire after the 2019 season, but with Steven Kruijswijk finishing third in the Tour de France and Primoš Roglic winning the Vuelta a España, the Dutch World Tour He said he decided to continue in 2020 after a successful season for the team.

And this season, interrupted by a coronavirus outbreak, Wynants further postponed his retirement.

"I didn't want to stop like this," he told Het Nieuwsblad over the weekend. After two more Paris-Roubaix races, it will be time to take the wheel." [Roubaix will be my last race. In principle, I could do it in October because of the new calendar, but I want to retire with a full spring season.

"Paris-Roubaix is my favorite race. After the last Roubaix, Tom Boonen saying goodbye may have had an unintentional influence on me," said Wynants, who raced with Boonen for four years with the Quick Step team. Boonen retired after Roubaix in 2017.

"I would love to lead Wout Van Aert or one of his teammates to victory on the (Roubaix) velodrome," Weinanz said.

During his 17-year professional career, he has run for teams such as Quick Step, Schokolade Jacques, and since 2011, Rabobank, Blanco, Belkin, LotNL-Yumbo, and now Yumbo Visma. He has yet to win his first professional race, but there is still time.

"My main role is the same as always, team captain of the Classics. Luckily, the Classic doesn't come back until the end of the year. By then, my body will definitely be back to normal," he said, referring to the race suspension due to the COVID-19 crisis and the fact that races such as the Tour de Flanders and Paris-Roubaix will not take place until late October.

"It looked like everything was going to be canceled because of the coronavirus, but if we can still race for four months, so much the better," said Wynants, who has raced Roubaix 12 times and Flanders 13 times. I don't think the season is over yet, and I'm still very eager to race."

"The young guys on the team still need some coaching for the spring races. They can all bike hard, but they need to be able to make the right decisions at the right time." They need to learn and know when to go fast and when to conserve energy. So it is good that experienced riders like me can still mentor them. I want to pass on that experience even after I retire."

Initially, Wynants will gain experience with Jumbo-Visma's under-23 development team before moving to the senior team.

"The idea is to learn everything as a coach with them before moving to the World Tour team. However, I will be taking part in some smaller professional races, but the Tour de France is not something I plan to take part in any time soon. I have learned a lot about coaching over the last while. I just need to take one more exam and then I can get my degree in coaching."

"This coronavirus crisis has made me realize how beautiful cycling can be," Wynants added, "and after 17 years of riding at full throttle, I was happy to give my body some rest these past few months.

"Now I can once again give my best in road racing.