Sooner or later, but inevitably, everything comes to an end. For the professional cyclist, the end of a career is a decision that can be forced on you by the absence of a contract, or injury, or circumstances beyond your control. But for some, there’s a moment of good fortune amidst the upheaval of a life-phase ending – being able to walk away at the time you want to, when you are ready; being able to plan what comes next.
This is the final stint in Europe for Texan rider Lawson Craddock, who after an entire adult life as a pro cyclist announced this week that he will be hanging up his helmet. After developing in the Trek-Livestrong continental team – a precursor to Hagens Bermans Jayco – Craddock first signed a WorldTour contract in 2014 with Giant-Shimano, before spending 2016-2021 with permutations of what is now EF Education-EasyPost, and joining Jayco-AlUla in 2022. A solid time-triallist, Craddock has often been up there or thereabouts, finishing 6th at the 2019 World Championships in the discipline, 3rd overall at the 2014 Tour of California, and picking up a pair of national TT championships in 2021 and 2022 – his only wins during his time as a pro.
But while Craddock hasn’t been a prolific winner, he’s been a popular rider, in large part because of his dogged determination and his self-sacrifice in the service of others. At the 2019 Vuelta a España, for example, he sacrificed himself for then teammate Magnus Cort, setting him up for a stage win and crossing the finish line five seconds later, fists raised in celebration of the combined glory of the win. At the 2018 Tour de France, he crashed on the first stage, rode to the finish with a fractured scapula and blood pouring down his face, and turned his ride into a fundraiser for his storm-damaged local velodrome. Craddock finished that Tour de France as lanterne rouge, dead last from stage one to Paris, but earned more than US$250,000 to secure the future of the velodrome he’d grown up racing on.
Which in a roundabout way brings us to two days ago, where at the team presentation of the Arctic Race of Norway, Craddock stood on the sidelines with his teammates, waiting to be announced. There was something thoughtful in his demeanour – perhaps contemplating that this was one of the last times he’d get called up, have his name read out to applause – or perhaps it was that fractured fatigue that comes with travel, displacing yourself from one place to another where everything goes on around you slightly differently to the way it did where you just were. Either way, I felt compelled to go talk to him – and the Texan was in a forthcoming and reflective mood, sharing his thoughts on his career, his family, and his future.
Iain Treloar: So … you have just announced your retirement.
Lawson Craddock: [laughs] Yeah.
IT: That’s, uh, a big step.
LC: For sure! But it’s been a really nice career for me – I’m really happy and … you know, all good things must come to an end. It’s been, uh, a little bit of a time coming. I knew pretty much once we started the season that my time was coming to a close. And… yeah. A lot of emotions but I’m very happy, and I can’t imagine a better team to be ending my career with.
IT: What are the logistics of finishing your career having been based in Europe – I assume you’re in Europe all year…?
LC: Yeah, I’ve been in Girona now for 11 years with my family.
IT: So does everyone now just move back to America, or…?
LC: Yeah, that’s the plan. We’ll stay here for the last little bit of the season – just to enjoy it, you know? We spend so much time travelling to all these different parts of the world but we’re rarely there just to be there. So this will be honestly, one of the first times of my life – I’ve been coming to Europe since I was 16 – and just now, over 15 years later I’ll be in Europe for the first time with the sole purpose of actually enjoying Europe. So, I’m really excited for that.
You know, we’ll take a couple months after the season, my daughter started kindergarten, and so when this semester comes to a close, we’ll pack everything up and move back to Texas.
IT: Do the kids have a sense of home in Europe, or in Texas, or in both?
LC: I think it’s both. In Girona, they feel at home – our daughter’s incredible, she’s almost six years old, she speaks like three languages, so she’s way, way more intelligent than I am. She puts us to shame. [laughs] But one of the most special things about Girona is the sense of community that we’ve developed there – you know, the family outside of our family that we have, and that’s been really special. So, it’ll be really tough to leave that behind. But overall, my wife and I – we’re both very, very excited to start the next phase of our lives.
IT: And what comes next for Lawson Craddock?
LC: Ah, probably a couple of beers at first, once the season’s finished –
IT: A good plan.
LC: [laughs] Yeah. And, you know, we’ll get back to Texas in December, and we’ll take a little bit more time to settle in a bit. We’ve actually made the move from Austin to Houston. And then, my dad’s had a roofing business for the last 40 years and my plan is to step into that, learn that from him, and we’ll see five years from now where we’re at.
IT: Do you think you’ll stay connected to cycling?
LC: Yeah, I mean … I’ve been on a bike since I was four years old so it’s hard to picture myself being outside of the sport in some sense or another. I don’t know if the professional side of the sport still interests me – I see how hard everyone works; the directors, the mechanics, the soigneurs, the management. It is a lot. To be honest, I’m at the phase of my career where that’s what I’m trying to get away from. I have a lot of respect for what they do, but if I’d like to stay in the sport it’ll be casual.
Being a part of the local community – that’s what I’ve probably missed the most in my WorldTour career. I’d like to help out the juniors where I can – we have a great junior program in Houston and Texas as a whole; we have a velodrome there that I’m a big fan of. So obviously, I mean, it’ll be a lot of getting our feet underneath me, but a lot of projects that I’m really excited for.
IT: What are your career highlights? What do you look back on and think “that is something that I am so stoked that I got to do”?
LC: I mean, the sport has given us so much, you know? The biggest thing it’s given me is my wife and my children. Obviously I have my career highlights, but if it wasn’t for the sport – granted, my wife has nothing to do with cycling, but if it wasn’t for cycling I probably wouldn’t have been in that position to meet her, and wouldn’t have my two incredible, incredible children. So that’s probably the thing that I’m most proud about.
As far as on the bike moments – it’s hard to say. There’s been a lot of incredible moments – the Tour de France in 2018 really stands out; it taught me a lot about myself and showed me what I was really capable of and brought a lot of things into their priority. So that was really special.
Probably, you know, my most well-known result is finishing dead last at the Tour. But I’m okay with that.
IT: It’s a memorable last.
LC: Exactly, y’know? I can’t say that my career has turned out exactly how I expected it: you come in and you think you’re gonna win all these races and the reality is, that’s just never happening.
But I look back on it now and I am very proud of the person I am and what I have around me. So it’s impossible to say that it’s been a disappointment … and I am extremely proud to be here at the finish line.
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