Shane Archbold, one of Sam Bennett's lead-out men at Bora-hansgrohe and who has worked for him for many seasons, has announced his retirement from the sport. Archbold and Bennett were a force together back in their days at the An Post-Sean Kelly Irish Continental team, through to ProContinental level at Bora-Argon 18 and then onto the World Tour.
In the top tier of the sport, Archbold rode with Bennett for the last two years, as well as Deceuninck-QuickStep for 2020 and 2021, and at the Bora-hansgrohe World Tour team for two years before that. He was Bennett's most trusted lead-out man and had ridden in support of him more than any other rider in the peloton.
Archbold also scored some great successes of his own, including winning the New Zealand road race title in 2020 after coming back from the type of injuries that would have ended the career of most of other riders. Archbold is now ending his career, saying all good things eventually run their course.
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"As they say all good things have to come to an end," he said, "After 20 years of dream chasing, and nine years professional, it’s time to pull the curtain down on my cycling career.
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"I have lived the best times and the worst. With some amazing people. Thank you to everyone who was in my corner. One last race in china next week
"Now what? Well, like I have told the many people over the years, cycling was always my sport/hobby. But I always said I will work it out when I get there and I have. But more on that later."
Archbold won a stage of the Czech Cycling Tour in 2019 in a sprint and and took silver in the omnium at the Worlds in 2011. At the Commonwealth Games in 2014 he won gold in the scratch race and bronze in the team pursuit.
Archbold always had a strong Irish connection in his career as, aside from being so close to Bennett, he also rode for three Irish teams; An Post-Sean Kelly, Aqua Blue Sport and EvoPro Racing.
