The African icon and AG Insurance-Soudal climber will hang up her bike at the end of this season and focus on the growth of women’s cycling, particularly in Africa.
“I’m not changing my mind,” says Ashleigh Moolman Pasio. This time, it’s “100% confirmed and certain”: after pushing back retirement a couple times, the 2026 season will be her final year in the professional peloton.
Moolman Pasio has a vision and plans to stick around and keep participating in the development of women’s cycling, especially on her continent. But at 40 years old, she is ready “to enjoy the last chapter, to enjoy every race, and to do [her] best to play a part in creating success for AG Insurance-Soudal.”
After a handful of races at the beginning of February, including a sixth South African title in the individual time-trial (to go along with the six she’s won in the road race, as well as numerous continental triumphs at the African Championships and African Games), Moolman Pasio heads to Italy for Trofeo Alfredo Binda this weekend.
In her 17th season, her last dance will then take her to the Giro dell’Apennino Donne, De Brabantse Pijl, Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, before two Spanish stage races, the Vuelta España Femenina and Itzulia Women.
The rest of her schedule, including potential participations in the Giro d’Italia Women and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, “depends on how the first part of the season goes”, she says when Escape sits down with her at the end of February to discuss the final stages of her career, the legacy she’s built, and what lies ahead of a champion “already taking steps in terms of paying it forward to Africa”.
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