Anyone who follows dirt bikes knew this had to be coming.

On Thursday, Kawasaki's Adam Cianciarulo announced on social media that he will retire after the 2024 Supercross season. Cianciarulo currently sits 14th in the 450 Supercross Points Standings with 63 total points. His best finish of the '24 season was an eighth place in round two in San Francisco.

Cianciarulo, who has been with Kawasaki since his amateur days, will step away after 10 full professional seasons. He won the 250 Motocross title in 2019 just months after losing the 250 West Supercross title with a 20th at the Las Vegas Showdown due to a blown rear tire.

Cianciarulo's first full season came in 2014, and he won a 250 Supercross event in his first try at Dallas, the opening round of the East series. He won three of the first six races of that season before an injury at Toronto forced him to the sidelines for the rest of the year.

After more injuries sidelined him in 2015 and '16 Supercross, it appeared Cianciarulo would spend his whole career in the 250cc class. He did not give up and kept trying to win a Supercross title until that botched one in 2019.

Cianciarulo would win six of the 12 rounds of the 250cc Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship in 2019, which included the first four events of the season en route to his lone championship. He would move to the 450cc class from that point on.

Cianciarulo would win the 2019 Monster Energy Cup at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas in his first ride on the 450. He had to withstand some serious heat from his teammate Eli Tomac to win the third main event and the overall.

My Reaction:

Who DIDN'T see this coming??? If you do not follow Supercross like I do, you know how hard Adam Cianciarulo works, and injuries just kept piling up and prevented him from riding up to his potential.

When he won the last Monster Cup in 2019, I knew he was ready for the 450 class, but he still had a learning curve! Unfortunately, Adam has had his lunch handed to him more times than normal since then.

Cianciarulo reminded me a lot of Trey Canard and Robbie Reynard all rolled into one! They were fast, but injuries constantly held them back. On any given night, Adam Cianciarulo could battle for wins -- just like Reynard -- but his nerve problems this year kept him back.

While injuries held back Trey Canard, Robbie Reynard had a bad case of carpal tunnel. It was not made public until well after his retirement in the late 2000s.

While I am happy that Adam Cianciarulo got a title in Motocross when he did (2019), I still felt he should have gone for a 250cc Supercross title unless he had already pointed out due to the old "pointing out" rules.

Congratulations on the career, Adam Cianciarulo!