{"id":349673,"date":"2025-12-15T14:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T14:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/349673\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T14:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T14:10:07","slug":"american-veteran-steps-away-from-elite-competition-at-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/349673\/","title":{"rendered":"American veteran steps away from elite competition at 38"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nSix years later, gravel racing has grown into a global, highly competitive, and increasingly professionalised scene<\/a>. A completely different scenario than the one Stetina experienced back in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came to gravel to have a more fulfilling and fun experience,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I almost feel like I\u2019m back in the World Tour that I left. That\u2019s not a negative thing, but it\u2019s so high-performance now. It extended my career even more than I ever thought possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why is it now the right time to retire?<\/p>\n

Age and motivation both played a role in his decision to put an end to his career, but there were also other factors. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of things, it’s complicated. The endless pursuit of another race, another performance; it\u2019s starting to get tiresome and not fulfilling. Winning doesn\u2019t mean the same anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family considerations were also significant, as commonly happens to people his age. \u201cA big part of it is not having the bike dictate every angle of family life. The bike would have to come on every family vacation. That\u2019s not fair to my wife, to my kids growing up. I want to be more present at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the clarity of his decision, Stetina is still unsure whether he will easily get used to a new life without being a professional cyclist. \u201cI\u2019m nervous. When you retire as an athlete, it can be a midlife crisis.\u00a0When this is all you\u2019ve done since you were 16, you need to put that intensity somewhere else. And if you don\u2019t, you can spiral.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he expressed gratitude for being able to step away on his own terms, which is not usual in cycling. \u201cI\u2019m really grateful that I get to do it on my terms. It\u2019s so rare in this sport. Usually, the sport decides when you\u2019re done.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the bike remains part of his life, even if its role has changed. He plans to become a player-coach to help the next generation of gravel riders to become professionals, passing on all the experience he has accumulated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m truly just retiring from the pursuit of pro podiums and being a professional athlete and what that entails. I want to keep going to these events and explore them in different ways. Maybe sometimes I\u2019ll be quick, but that\u2019s not the objective.\u201d<\/p>\n

“When I started in gravel, there wasn\u2019t a formula. Now it\u2019s a thing, which is awesome, but there\u2019s this whole subset of younger pros who don\u2019t know how to do it yet. So I’m going to help these young talents truly excel,” he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Six years later, gravel racing has grown into a global, highly competitive, and increasingly professionalised scene. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,50514,192661,85,192660],"class_list":{"0":"post-349673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-gravel","12":"tag-peter-stetina","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-trek-segafredo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}