The cycling career of Louis Kitzki comes to an end at just 21 years old. The promising young German, who joined Alpecin-Deceuninck Devo after winning the 2023 Zwift Academy in front of Mattia Gaffuri and Anton Schiffer (both close to getting a major professional chance), has decided to hang up his bike following the growing unease that began after the 2024 Tour of Austria.

Affected by the terrible on-race death of André Drege, the 2004 rider from Winsen began to feel significantly more vulnerable during races, developing an increasing discomfort that ultimately led him to say "enough" to cycling after the tragic events of the recent Giro della Valle d'Aosta.

"Probably this is not how I imagined ending my career... After participating in my last race, the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta, and the death of Samuele Privitera that occurred there, I decided to end my professional cycling career," Kitzki announced on his Instagram page.

"After the Tour of Austria last year, where another rider died, I already had serious doubts about continuing to race and was close to quitting. However, I went on, mostly pushing aside what had happened. Unfortunately, after the Tour of Austria, I was never again the rider I was before," the young German continued to explain.

"I started worrying more and more about my safety and feeling increasingly uncomfortable during races, which, in the medium term, translated into an inability to reproduce in races what I worked hard on in training. Moving forward, races unfortunately became just an annoying side effect to be accepted to continue earning in cycling. I completely lost the pleasure of racing and noticed that the more chaotic a race became, the more I would mentally collapse, and unfortunately, without that mental state, the body simply cannot function well. What happened in Valle d'Aosta was ultimately what pushed me to confirm my decision, and the proof that I made the right choice was realizing my well-being since I stopped," Kitzki continued.

"I'm sorry I couldn't meet some of the expectations people had of me as a professional cyclist and that my collaboration with Alpecin-Deceuninck is coming to an end. However, I'm certain that stopping was the right decision. Despite this, I'm very grateful for the opportunity given to me by the team and Zwift. I was able to learn from the world's best cyclists and meet many wonderful people within the team. Additionally, I managed to significantly improve my physical level thanks to my coach Philipp Walsleben, even though I never really managed to demonstrate it in races. I felt that this team was very aware of its responsibility towards young athletes and I never felt pressured in any way. I always appreciated training and the improvement process and hope to find time to occasionally pedal in the future."

The news of this farewell to competitive cycling, along with the recent retirements of other riders under 23 like Ella Simpson, Gabriele Casalini, Alessio Cialone and, last year, Leo Hayter (the latter perhaps close to returning to the circuit), all affected by issues more related to mental state than physical condition, undoubtedly calls for reflection on the evolution of a professional world that increasingly demands mental resilience and stability from the very earliest years.