Coryn Labecki will officially retire from professional cycling at the end of this season but looks to have already pinned on a number for the last time as a professional, with her team, EF-Oatly-Cannondale, announcing Labecki’s retirement with a touching video posted on Instagram that included special messages from her teammates.
“Celebrating our crit dawg’s final road race with some special messages from the squad,” EF Oatly-Cannondale wrote.
“Coryn’s two-decade career includes 74 national titles in road, track, mountain bike, and cyclocross — with victories at the Tour of Flanders, RideLondon Classique, Trofeo Alfredo Binda, and stage wins at the Giro d’Italia Women, the Women’s Tour, Thüringen Ladies Tour, and the Lotto Belgium Tour.
“Coryn, you absolute legend. Thank you for everything!”
Labecki rode her last UCI race as a professional in Europe at the Kreiz Breizh Elites Féminin in the Netherlands on July 30. Labecki is one of the nation’s most decorated female cyclists with an illustrious career that includes 74 US national titles over a racing career in road, cyclocross and mountain biking, that began when she was 12 years old.
She won her 74th national title in the criterium at the 2024 USA Pro Road Championships in May.
In a blog for Cyclingnews, Who am I?, written in 2018, Labecki spoke of her life growing up in Orange Country, California, her first bike – a purple Mongoose, graduated to a 650 Cannondale – and travelling to bike races with her family in their vacation motorhome.
Coryn Labecki (EF Education-Cannondale) snatches the victory in the elite women’s criterium (Image credit: Snowy Mountain Photography)
She turned professional in 2014 with UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling and then moved to the European-based Team Sunweb and Team DSM, where she stayed until the end of 2021. She also spent two seasons racing with Jumbo-Visma in 2022 and 2023. She signed with EF-Oatly-Cannondale for her final season in 2024.
“I think you are one of the best teammates I have ever had and I have really looked up to you as a leader, as a cyclist, as a person,” said Veronica Ewers. “I think you’re incredible.”
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Labecki is the only American to ever win the Tour of Flanders. She stormed to a historic victory in 2017, a feat she said she would always remember as one of her most significant accomplishments.
Her career highlights also include winning the Women’s Tour, Trofeo Alfredo Binda, and RideLondon Classique, as well as a stage at the Giro d’Italia Women and the Tour of California.
She was also part of the Team Sunweb squad that won the world title in the trade team time trial at the 2017 World Championships.
For her national team, Labecki represented the USA at eight editions of the UCI Road World Championships and at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
As a veteran of the sport in 2021, Labecki highlighted many of the major steps toward professionalisation in women’s cycling that happened during her career in an interview with Cyclingnews.
She also used her voice to speak up about minimum wage, contract safety, live broadcasting of women’s races, and the general need for sport governing bodies to both ask and listen to the women’s peloton.
“Of course, we will miss you big, big time, but I’m sure it’s not a goodbye but a see you later,” said manager Esra Tromp.
Elite women’s podium in the criterium at the 2024 USA Pro Road National Championships (Image credit: Snowy Mountain Photography)
