Ion Izagirre

Born in Ormaiztegi in the Basque Country, Izagirre comes from a family of professional cyclists, as both his father José Ramón and brother Gorka have competed professionally on the roads and in cyclo-cross. Having joined the Euskaltel–Euskadi team – alongside brother Gorka – from the 2011 season onwards,^[11]

Izagirre won his first professional races in the spring of 2012; he won the individual time trial at the Vuelta a Asturias in April,^[12] before taking a victory during his Grand Tour début at the Giro d'Italia. During the sixteenth stage, Izagirre made a solo breakaway with 4 km (2.5 mi) remaining, before winning the stage by sixteen seconds from his nearest competitor.^[13][14]

Following the collapse of the Euskaltel–Euskadi team at the end of the 2013 season, both Izagirre brothers were signed by the Movistar Team for the 2014 season.^[2]

In 2015, Izagirre won the Tour de Pologne. He started the final stage sixth on general classification but overhauled race leader Sergio Henao (Team Sky) and the others above him by virtue of a superior time trial performance on the rolling 25-kilometre (16-mile) circuit.^[15]

Izagirre won Stage 20 of the 2016 Tour de France in Morzine, after attacking on the wet descent from a three rider group that led over the final climb of Col de Joux Plane.^[16]

Izagirre moved to the newly formed Bahrain–Merida team for the 2017 season. He was the team's GC leader at the Tour de France, but crashed out on Stage 1, an individual time trial in Düsseldorf, suffering a lumbar fracture which ended his season.^[17]

He was joined at Bahrain–Merida by his brother Gorka for the 2018 season. In August 2018 it was announced that the brothers would join Astana in 2019.^[18] In his first year with Astana, Izagirre won the overall titles of the Tour of the Basque Country and the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana as well as the final stage of Paris–Nice.^[19] His win at the Basque Country made him the first Basque rider to win the race since Iban Mayo in 2003. The following season, he won his third Grand Tour stage and first in the Vuelta a España, completing the trio. In June 2021, he won his second national time trial championship, before signing an initial one-year contract to ride for Cofidis in 2022 three months later.^[20]

His first win with Cofidis came on stage six of the 2022 Tour of the Basque Country.^[21] In 2023, he GP Miguel Induráin one-day race as well as his second Tour de France stage, in a solo victory on stage 12.^[22]

Izagirre took his 20th career win at the Memorial Marco Pantani, in his final professional season.^[23]