After 15 seasons in professional cycling, Alessandro De Marchi is nearing the end of his career, with the Tour de Pologne among his final races. The rider from Friuli, who is concluding his adventure with the Jayco-AlUla team, makes no secret of his disillusionment with modern cycling.

In an interview during the Polish race, De Marchi expressed mixed feelings about his impending farewell: "I won't miss much of the current peloton. It's changed too much; there are dynamics I don't like anymore. There's too much aggression."

"Thinking about how I started and how I was used to interpreting races, everything is very different now, and it's almost impossible to adapt," the Italian rider continued. "More than the peloton itself, I'll miss the atmosphere of the races, the crowd's cheering, the water bottle the child asks for on the roadside. This is the privilege of those approaching the end of their career: realizing that these are the most beautiful things, the ones that stay with you."

De Marchi has chosen to end his career on home soil, in the Veneto region, competing in the Giro del Veneto (October 15) and the Veneto Classic (October 19). The rider, who has achieved seven career victories, including three stages at the Vuelta and one at the Dauphiné, has no intention of giving up until the end: "For a cyclist, there must always be the hope of winning, otherwise we would be racing without the fire that drives us. This will be within me until the last race in Veneto."

For the future, De Marchi is considering a role as sports director: "The main idea is to stay in cycling, moving to the other side, to the team car. The project still has to materialize, but I feel like I want to take this path."