Australian rider Robbie McEwen has called time on his professional cycling career to concentrate on a coaching role. He confirmed the news when he spoke to a website stating that the he will ride one final time for his team, Team Green EDGE at the Amgen Tour of California before calling it quits and move on to a coaching career that he had already planed a few years back. Speaking to the website, McEwen said that he will definitely be done after the Tour of California and the cycling world will not seem him riding a bike except under a coaching capacity.

When Team Green EDGE debuted, not many people had given it much of a chance for much success in its debut season but it has been more than successful in its first professional season with stellar performances put in at the Tour Down Under, the Tour of the Basque Country as well as the Volta a Catalunya but Robbie McEwen, who is one of the most skilled veterans in the circuit at the moment in the sprint section failed to provide the leadership on the track the team had expected of him or the performances that a rider of his caliber should deliver.

When the team started to be built around the 34 year old veteran, many had raised an eyebrow but McEwen insisted that it was a clause in his contract that he would move onto a coaching role in the team after his retirement and he wanted the clause to be put there and added that he had no regrets for calling time on his career as he looked back at his performances.

With the retirement of Robbie McEwen, Australia lost one of its role models and a void has been created that will be extremely difficult to fill.