"Between gardening, home, and daughters, I'm busier now than during the season". Calm and serene, Davide Cimolai doesn't seem like a rider without a contract for the 2026 season. Especially because that contract, in reality, he's not even looking for. The 2025 season was, with high probability, his last season as a professional cyclist. An enviable career with jerseys from Liquigas, Lampre, FDJ, Israel, Cofidis, and Movistar, seasoned with 9 personal victories and many others in support of teammates. Not by chance, he was one of the cornerstones of Davide Cassani's National Team, capable of winning 4 consecutive European Championships.

"At the beginning of the year, I had set the goal of racing also in 2026, but I went through a very demanding year, physically and mentally," Cimo told tuttobiciweb. "To enjoy myself and work at my best, I need to be 100%, because I'm not a phenomenon and I'm of a certain age, but this year I never reached the level I wanted."

Away from the spotlight, his season was very much like a calvary: "I caught a mega flu in Oman but had to stay there because I was racing in UAE, I was never able to rest, I filled in gaps here and there, doing a lot of pavé and even Strade Bianche, which the team called me for the day before to reach the minimum number of participants, after a week when I hadn't touched the bike," the Friulian athlete continues. "In April-May, I was stopped by an infection in my arm that came from who knows where, which I had underestimated and instead they almost had to amputate my arm. The surgery was nothing complicated, but I was hospitalized for a week and after several days of intravenous antibiotics, my immune defenses were zero. I got 3 ear infections in two months, and I had never had one before. I started feeling better in July, but at the Tour of Poland I caught covid like half the group. They still made me race the Renewi Tour, the most stressful race of the year, and I committed myself like never before just to finish it. In short, a difficult year in which I was never really myself. I know that in a possible next year things couldn't go worse, but I also wondered if it was really worth it."

At this point, the only possibility of seeing him back in the saddle seems to be a rethink by Movistar. "Another year with them I would have done gladly, but thinking about having to start over in a new environment, honestly, doesn't appeal to me," he admits. "The races are increasingly grueling, the training increasingly specific. I've done my 16 years of professionalism, I've reached 36 years old, I'm serene, at peace with myself, I have nothing more to ask."

Although he doesn't want to commit, the impression is that Cimolai already has some ideas for his future, between the desire to launch into something new and that of making the most of his many years on the bike. "I'm evaluating some proposals from the environment, but right now I would say that 2025 was my last year as a professional. I'm fortunate not to have the need to immediately find an occupation, so I want to carefully weigh my choices. Staying in cycling is certainly a possibility, I would like to make my 16 years as a professional available to young people, but over time I've also developed an interest in agriculture, I live in Prosecco land (in Villa di Villa, where the Giro del Belvedere is raced, ed.) so I would like to try to get my hands dirty in some way. In the end, I was practically born and raised on a bicycle, but outside there's another life."

Effort, however, will not abandon him in any case: "I've always liked running, I would like to start soon doing some half marathons, with the ultimate dream of going, one day, to the New York Marathon". The goals never run out.