Tom Peterson has decided to hang up his bike. The 28-year-old American has been riding for Giant-Shimano for two years but he mainly worked as a domestique and had little success. Now he no longer has the motivation to continue his career and will work as a coach at Tête de la Course Cycling. Moreover, he will return to school. 

“I’m retiring from racing next year in 2015," he wrote on his website. "I just can’t do it, too much time in Europe, too much time training. I guess I’m doing it for the wrong reasons, not the passion…I had a good run for a few years, but it’s really been hard the last couple years to get into it. When I left Garmin it was do or die, either I was going to start to love it again or I was going to go back to school.

"Well, I didn’t / don’t love it… So I’m going back to school. Taking prerequisites to nursing school…with the plan to enter a program to earn a bachelors of science in nursing. I have been planning on getting into coaching all year, I really just haven’t figured out how to do it. I wanted to do it while I had the shop, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to provide the personal experience or value to clients that I wanted to. 

"Most of what I am doing now is because I enjoy it and I want to spread that passion. I know how to burn out, and I don’t want to breed that.”

Peterson rode for Garmin from 2006 to 2012 before he joined Skil-Shimano. He won a single race in his career, the third stage of the 2009 Tour of California.