I packed in racing in 1981. It seemed that every conversation was about "what year was it that Pete won the wobbly 25 with a 52?" etc, and I also seemed to have a regular round of events on the same old courses, including track and circuit races. I was useless anyway. Through all this I was a regular rider with CTC club runs and touring, so I had things to fall back on.
In the last 20 years I have found I prefer to ride alone, but I ride out to meet others in cafes etc, such as local CTC group, and I go to help out with local club's events such as time trials and reliability rides. All of these give me a reason to go out, and a destination to aim for, plus of course the social contact. My steeds all have steel frames and almost always a Carradice saddlebag - as they always have been.
Most years I go off for a tour of upto a month. Cyclists ask me why the limit, and I reply "I get bored of myself". To non cyclists I say "I can only carry that many sandwiches", and watch them think about that.