Jack Bobridge's cycling career is over. Since 2010, the 27-year-old Australian has been suffering from chronic rheumatoid arthritis, but last season it was too much. The hard rider will end his career as Australian champion at Trek Segafredo, he told The Advertiser.

Last season Bobridge returned to Europe again.

“I don’t really care what anyone else thinks I could have done or what I’ve done, I only went back to Europe this year to finalise things in my own head and I found it wasn’t enjoyable with the arthritis and the pain," he told the Australian paper. “The stuff you have to go through in the Grand Tours (2016 Giro d’Italia) and racing, it’s just not fun. There’s pain in my feet, hands and my back. When you get the flare ups, your body is fighting it and a Grand Tour is hard enough as it is."

The Australian now lives in Perth where he will soon open his own fitness business. 

“Since the (Rio) Games and backing off the training and racing load I’ve found my arthritis has been 100 per cent better and I’ve been able to get off all meds (medication) as well,” he said. “Obviously I love the bike, the racing and the lifestyle, but I’ve got a two-year-old (daughter) now and I could drag on for three or four years but come 40 or 50 the damage it’s going to do and the arthritis in my body ... I don’t see sport is worth it.

“I haven’t thought ‘am I doing the right thing?’ and I suppose after a few months of not racing if you haven’t got that hunger I guess you know it’s the right decision.”

Bobridge's greatest triumph is the world record in the individual pursuit on the track. In 2011 he broke the 'unbeatable' record that Chris Boardman set in 1996 with a time of 4.10.534 at the Australian track championships. Bobridge was often regarded as an all-or-nothing rider. 

“That over everything was pretty special because I remember the first track worlds I did (American) Taylor Phinney beat me and we went to an after-party and he said to me ‘why don’t you just control yourself in the first 2km and you could probably win?’  And I said ‘well, if I keep doing this every time I get further and further, so what about the day when I don’t die and I ride fast?’ In Sydney that morning that’s what I’d been training and racing for."