One in the saddle, say, reportedly bids farewell to age at the end of the year (8)

'end of the year' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.

'one in the saddle say reportedly bids farewell to age at' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'one' could be 'i' (Roman numeral) and 'i' is present in the answer.
'age' could be 'cycle' (I've seen this before) and 'cycle' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'the' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?