Cycling-Nibali to retire at the end of the season

FILE PHOTO: Cycling - Giro d'Italia - Stage 4 - Avola to Etna-Nicolosi, Italy - May 10, 2022 Astana Qazaqstan Team's Vincenzo Nibali at the end of stage 4 REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini

(Reuters) - Multiple grand tour champion Vincenzo Nibali will retire at the end of the season, the Italian said at the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday.

Italian Nibali, one of seven riders to win the Tour de France, the Giro and the Spanish Vuelta, told reporters after the fifth stage in his hometown on Messina that 2022 would be his last competitive year.

"I was waiting for this stage for a while, for years, it’s where I started to ride and train, so I wanted to confirm that this is my last Giro and my last season," the 37-year-old told RAI’s Processo alla Tappa programme.

"I’ve got a lot of memories from my career and a lot of things to look back on. There were good and bad moments, injuries that played a part in the outcome of my career but that’s cycling, there are always good and bad times. It’s all been incredible."

Nibali is one of few riders who shone on both grands tours and one-day classics, having notably won the Milan-San Remo and Giro di Lombardia Monument classics since turning professional in 2005.

He won the Tour de France in 2014, the Giro in 2013 and 2016 and the Vuelta in 2010.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)