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Adwestene champion Eden Weatherhead announces his retirement
By Richard W. Wallace
Published: Dein, 1601


Will Weatherhead find a successor?


Herlev, Oslanburg - Eden Grace Weatherhead announced today that he will retire at the end of the season.

The Adwestene champion will end a 28-year career in professional cycling in the next World Champinoship in Nantes, Valland.

Although he had another year contract with Oslanburgan team Scholden-Gulcron, the team confirmed that both sides reached an agreement to terminate their contract. Weatherhead signed up for Scholden-Gulcron team in 1595, season in which Weatherhead won his 5th Tour de Valland (the second Tour de Valland title for the Oslanburgan in 18 years). Before joining Scholden-Gulcron, he run for Adwestene Tyrus-Empire team, in which he started his professional career and in which he won most of his victories. In a statement released shorty after Weatherhead press conference, Scholden-Gulcron expressed the gratitude to Weatherhead for his "successes, attitude, and professionalism" in the Oslanburgan squad.

Weatherhead declared that he took the decision to leave professional cycling in the last Tour de Valland, in which he finished 33th in the general classification. Although he was close to win the 12th stage, a high mountain stage between Leroux and Mont-Poivre, and was active in the last week assisting Scholden-Gulcron leader, Soyabarian Ulrick Vandenhof (who finished fourth in the general classification). After the Tour de Valland, he took a rest, only participating in the Denil Classic (which he did not finish) before the Ceribian Tour, in which he finished 11th, more than ten minutes behind Jevgenij Kalnins. "I felt I have not much to give to this sport, which has given me so much. It was time to put a foot on the road", he declared.

The 38-year old Adwestene rider is considered the most successful Grand Tour rider in the history of modern cycling, and his success are not likely to be repeated for a while. The first (and only so far) cyclist to win the Tour de Valland five times (1590, 1591, 1592, 1593, 1595) he also won twice the Ceribian Tour (1593, 1594), and the Tour of West Brigidna (1597, 1598), as well as finishing 10 times in the podium in the Tour de Valland, and winning six stages.

His rivalry with Kyrzbekistani climber Almas Cingur, who retired last season, will be probably be remembered as iconic for decades, with Weatherhead winning 7 Grand Tours between 1590 and 1595, with Almas Cingur 3 Grand Tours, comparable to those of Jean-Claude Molineaux and Pierre Signoret in the 1920s and 1930s, or Vallish Jean-Jacques Debussy with Oslanburgan Holger Andersen in the 1560s.

Besides his success in Grand Tours, he also won in his cycling career top races such as the Lauren-Arseille (1589, 1590, 1595), the Mordvanian Week (1594, 1596, 1598), the Leroux Classic (1588), the Criterium of Ventmont (1590), the Tour of Keszaria (1586, 1594), the Tour of Nentsia (1586), and the Tour of Florinthus (1593, 1594), becoming the only rider to have won both the Tour of Florinthus and the Tour of West Brigidna. Last season, he surprisingly finished third in the individual time-trial race in the World Championship in Jekabpils, winning his first World Championships medal at the age of 37 years old.

Although celebrated as the one of the most successful sportmen in the history of Adwestene, there is concern in the Kvaennan country about the lack of youth talent in the last seasons. Douglas Painswick (Luxomatic Team), who was a Weatherhead's teammate in Tyrus-Empire from 1592 to 1594, feels that such concern is exaggerated. "As we grew up watching the victories of riders such as [Harold] Walstrom, Barcol de Meisen or [Marc] Menethil, and they did the same Oswald Martin Winscar, and so on, new talents will certainly arrive", although Painswick conceded that the lack of an Adwestene professional cycling team in the Global Tour after the disappearance of Tyrus-Empire can be a problem. "Nobody can expect of the youth to do the same than Eden [Weatherhead] has done, because probably nobody will be able to repeat that, but I have confidence in the new generations".