Marta Cavalli has confirmed she will retire at the end of the 2025 season, drawing a close to a career that brought her victories at Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge, as well as overall titles at the Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées and the Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l’Ardèche.
The Italian rider shared the news in an emotional Instagram post after her final race at the 2025 Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l’Ardèche. “After pouring litres of sweat, grinding kilometres and exceeding my limits over and over, I feel exhausted,” she wrote. “The last few years have been very difficult due to continuous ups and downs. I’ve been chasing a condition that never returned, my legs weren’t spinning as hard as I wanted, and the motivation has faded away.”
Cavalli was one of the standout riders of 2022, winning both Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne and finishing runner-up at the Giro d’Italia. She was expected to challenge for the Tour de France Femmes, but a violent crash on stage 2 ended her race and marked a turning point in her career. Though she returned to racing later that year, she struggled for comfort in the peloton and battled with repeated setbacks across the next seasons. A strong comeback in 2023 brought stage race victories in the Pyrenees and Ardèche, but crashes again disrupted her momentum in 2024, including one in training and another collision with a car.
For 2025 she switched from FDJ-Suez to Team Picnic PostNL, beginning the season with determination at Setmana Valenciana and the Spring Classics. Her best result proved to be 13th at Milan-San Remo Women, as stage races later in the year exposed her fading strength and made it clear she was approaching the end of her journey in the sport.
Cavalli’s career began with Valcar in 2017 before moving to FDJ in 2020, where she spent five seasons and achieved her greatest successes. Reflecting on her decision to retire, she said: “After a year with peace of mind I can say I don’t feel part of this world anymore and it’s time to say goodbye. I don’t hide the sadness, but it’s that time when it’s better to loosen the grip and go chase other dreams I have in my drawer.”
Her palmarès may not reflect the full measure of her talent due to the misfortunes of the past three years, but Cavalli leaves the peloton as one of the most elegant climbers of her generation, with a legacy defined by her memorable wins in 2022 and her determination to return after devastating setbacks.
