Andrea Garosio closes his long career after 24 years of cycling. With pride, passion, professionalism, and sporting spirit, the cyclist from Brescia says goodbye and thanks with these words from his Facebook profile.

Everything started almost like a game, because of that winning character hidden in me, always wanting to fight to win something. As a child, that something was a trophy that, if I had won it, I would have kept it at home! I hated losing, both on the bike and in any game I faced at school, with friends, with my brother or my cousins.. after every defeat, I thought about improving myself to win, and this helped me tremendously throughout my cycling career. I never would have thought at the beginning that I could become a professional cyclist, coming from a family of only soccer players. Only after a few years, precisely because of this character and my new passion, I came to have two dreams: becoming a professional and racing the Giro d'Italia, dreams that I realized by also wearing the Italian national jersey as a professional. They always said about me that I was shy, didn't talk, and needed more grit, but inside me I was and am the opposite. Without this character and the mindset I have, I would never have been able to achieve so many results.. there were many sacrifices, ups and many downs in my career, partly due to mistakes, partly due to bad luck or other situations. I know that as a professional I didn't win, and certainly this disappoints me, but what I will NEVER regret is the fact that in my career I always dedicated my mind and body to always give my best, and I am proud to have succeeded despite being hindered as a professional by a health issue that prevented me from achieving greater results that I am sure I would have reached! I sincerely thank those who always believed in me (they certainly know without naming names), those who supported me (many fans whom I thank) who helped me along this journey, the teams that gave me the opportunity to race in these 24 seasons. Thank you cycling, for teaching me so much from the situations I experienced, but a special thanks definitely goes to my family who ALWAYS supported me, believed in me, helped me, and allowed me to chase my dreams by living the cyclist's life to the fullest. Good luck for a new life chapter, Andrea