Ion Izagirre overwhelmed after winning stage of the Tour de France back in 2023, but now a training ride crash has ended his career earlier than he’d planned (Photo: Pauline Ballet)
Ion Izagirre, the 37-year-old Spanish rider who turned pro 16 years ago, has ended his career, not at Il Lombardia as he’d hoped but after a training ride crash in his native Spain.
The Cofidis veteran was out training as the end of season Italian one-day races approached, and which were set to mark the end of his career. He had already confirmed he was retiring from racing.
He had every reason to be hopeful of making his mark in his final races as he won Memorial Marco Pantani (1.1) in Italy less than two weeks ago and was clearly in some very good form.
However, his crash on Wednesday resulted in a broken wrist, meaning he will not race again this season.
So unless he decides to keep going into 2027, which seems unlikely, his racing career came to an end at Memorial Marco Pantani on September 12th, he just didn’t realise it at the time.
His team issued a statement, confirming the fracture and pointing to the fact this was the end of the road for the popular Basque climber.
“The Basque cyclist crashed whilst training on Wednesday, during a ride near his training base in the Spanish Basque Country,” Cofidis said.
“The crash resulted in a fracture to his left wrist. After informing the medical team, he received first aid and will miss the rest of the season.
“Ion was due to take part in the end-of-season races in Italy and finish with the Tour of Lombardy. This race, for which he had high hopes, was to be the last of his career.
“The entire Cofidis team is sending him their warmest support and wishes him a speedy recovery.”
Izagirre rode for the Orbea-Oreka SDA UCI Continental team in 2010 before moving up to the pros, first with Euskaltel-Euskadi, the World Tour team he stayed with for three seasons.
He then remained in the World Tour, for three seasons with Movistar Team, two with Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team and then three with Astana. Izagirre joined Cofidis in 2022, riding the last five years if his career with the French outfit.
He claimed 20 wins as a pro, including two stages at the Tour de France and one in both the Giro and Vuelta. He also claimed overall victories in several stage races, including Itzulia Basque Country, Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Tour de Pologne.