José Rujano (Vacansoleil-DCM) is no stranger to surprises. He has a long history of squabbles with the various teams he rode for during his career; the most memorable is him abandoning from the 2006 Giro d’Italia on stage 13, only 3 km from the finish.

The Venezuelan hasn’t seen much racing action this year: After a decent build-up towards the Giro d’Italia, the race that made his name when he won the mountain jersey and finished on the overall podium, Rujano was under investigation in the Italian Operazione Amateur and was subsequently left out of the Giro by his team Vacansoleil-DCM who is looking for a new sponsor.

Last week, it looked like Rujano was back again, as he won the Venezuelan ITT championships.

But yesterday, Rujano spoke to Venezuelan newspaper Diario de los Andes and announced that he would retire from cycling at the end of the season: “I retire from cycling not because of a lack of condition, but because of the problems I’ve had both nationally and internationally and the lack of support from those governing cycling in my country,” Rujano explained his decision, according to Biciciclismo.

Rujano continued that he would he wanted to build better foundations for future generations of Venezuelan cyclists, hoping to form a Continental team with government support to get young talents to the right level. He also said that he would stand for a position in the Venezuelan Cycling Federation.

The Vacansoleil-DCM team has not yet reacted to the news.