Originally Joaquim Rodriguez declared at the Tour de France that he would end his career after the Olympics in Rio. As a result, the Spaniard greeted the crowd on the Champs-Élysées with air kisses to bid farewell to his fans.

But now he is back with a team for the coming season: Bahrain-Merida. When the rumours started to emerge, Rodriguez was simply offered enough money to sign a contract that would give the new team enough points to get a WorldTour license. Rodriguez was not even expected to any races but now the 37-year-old may have changed his mind.

"In the end, I could not say goodbye in the way I had planned," Rodriguez said in an interview with Wieler Revue. "I thought I could stop at the Olympics, but it was not like that."

After Rio, Rodriguez had to do three races in Italy: Milan-Turin, the Giro del Piemonte and Il Lombardia. Katusha insisted on using the Spaniard who won the race in Lombardy in 2012 and 2013 for the Russian team.

"I was not in shape. Katusha forced me to finish my career with three appearances at the Italian races, although my form was not optimal. Personally, I don’t like the decision of the team management to force me to ride again after seven years just because of my contract. That was not correct,” Rodriguez said.

It is possible that Rodriguez has extended his career by another year to get the chance to say good-bye to the peloton with a proper race.