I see, you can still be both old but not being retired. I guess especially if being better at something then those at half the age. So basically you literately haver to retire, to even be considered for this thread. Well OK, thanks but no thanks. See you in a couple of years then.
Not being funny, but the title is "ex pro cyclists". Rogla is quite literally still a pro cyclist. While I think the original aim of the thread was about surprising changes of career direction post-cycling (e.g. Hoy, Boonen and Niels Albert becoming car racers), Anacona I think kinda stretches that intention but it is also fair to say that the amateur racing scene of Guadeloupe is fairly off-the-beaten-path.
Roglič is born October 1989 so he isn't even 35 yet, still being a pro racer at that age is hardly novel or unexpected, especially for one who has been as successful as he has. However, just at the World Tour level, there's Cameron Wurf, Yukiya Arashiro, Dario Cataldo, Michael Mørkøv, Mark Cavendish, Ignatas Konovalovas, Simon Geschke, Geraint Thomas, Robert Gesink, Alessandro de Marchi, Ben Hermans, Dmitry Gruzdev, Andrey Amador, Rui Costa, Rigoberto Urán, Bauke Mollema, Wout Poels, Jonathan Castroviejo, Rein Taaramäe, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Damiano Caruso, Gorka Izagirre, Steven Kruijswijk, Ben Swift, Andrea Pasqualon, Baptiste Planckaert, Luka Mezgec, Boy van Poppel, John Degenkolb, Pieter Serry, Ion Izagirre, Ramon Sinkeldam, Vegard Stake Længen, Nelson Oliveira, Elia Viviani, Tim Declercq, Christopher Juul Jensen, Diego Ulissi, Julien Vermote, Salvatore Puccio, Davide Cimolai, Rafał Majka, Anthony Delaplace and Rudy Molard who are older than him.
If you extend to include the elite ProConti teams that have done the biggest races, you can add Jakob Fuglsang, Chris Froome, Julien Simon, Simon Clarke, Michael Woods, Thomas de Gendt, Alexander Kristoff, Jacopo Guarnieri, Geoffrey Soupe, Alexis Vuillermoz and Guillaume Boivin, while other ProTeams include the likes of Luís Ángel Mate, Peter Kusztor, Victor de la Parte, Eduard Prades, Gianluca Brambilla, Sebastián Mora, Filippo Conca, Andrea Peron, David Lozano, Giacomo Nizzolo, David de la Cruz, Sébastien Reichenbach, Jetse Bol, Ion Aberasturi, Matteo Trentin, Mikel Bizkarra and Joey Rosskopf (as well as also including Domenico Pozzovivo earlier in the season).
And pretty much all of them have had a longer career than Rogla due to his late start (including some like Planckaert who had to scratch around the top levels and those like Aberasturi who spent some years exiled to the Asia Tour after the economic crisis ripped the bottom out of Spanish domestic cycling and earned their way back). If you asked any of them if they'd like to swap palmarès with Primož Roglič, I think literally every single one of them would bite your hand off for it, except Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas. And even the latter one is debatable but I think having won the Tour will be the difference maker there.
But, as you can see, a pro cyclist having a pro cycling career at the age of 35 doesn't really count as "cropping up in unexpected places" unless maybe they'd been retired for several years and made a comeback like Serge Baguet or they suddenly emerged on a Kyrgyzstani Continental Team or something.
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