The Basque, who will hang up his bike at the end of the season, will have to give up the last Monument Classic of his career after a bad fall
Ion Izagirre 's dream of ending his long and successful professional career on a high note at Il Lombardia has come to a tragic end. The Basque rider, poised for his last big opportunity in a Monument Classic, fell during training and fractured his left wrist, an injury that will force him to end his season and, effectively, his career.
One of the most versatile and well-known riders in the group, the 37-year-old Basque had announced his retirement at the beginning of the season, a year that was nonetheless full of satisfactions: two victories in prestigious classics such as the Memorial Miguel Indurain (won for the third time in his career) and the Memorial Marco Pantani , a milestone that represented the twentieth success of his professional career.
It was a season to remember, also thanks to other notable finishes: fourth place in his home race, the Itzulia Basque Country (a race he won way back in 2019), seventh in the Paris-Nice, and seventh in the Flèche Wallonne. These numbers demonstrate that, right up until the end, Izagirre remained a complete and dangerous rider on all types of terrain.
Precisely for this reason, the idea of giving himself one last shot at the Lombardia—a race where he finished fourth in 2024 and sixth in 2018—seemed anything but a wild card, and he would have been a luxury outsider for the top ten of the Classica delle Foglie Morte. Now, however, everything is up in the air due to a nasty fall in training that caused him to fracture his left wrist.
The Cofidis team announced the news on social media, wishing their rider a "speedy recovery" and implicitly confirming that Izagirre's season can be considered over early.
Despite this unfortunate ending, Izagirre's career remains etched in recent cycling history. Up until his final season, the victories continued: stages in all three Grand Tours, victories at Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie, as well as prestigious general classification titles at the Tour de Pologne and the Itzulia Basque Country.
A palmares built with patience and perseverance since his debut in 2010 with the small Orbea-Oreka SDA team, in the Continental category, before climbing the hierarchies of world cycling wearing the jerseys of Euskaltel-Euskadi, Movistar, Bahrain-Merida, Astana and finally Cofidis.
Sports journalist and cycling enthusiast, following professional cycling for over 10 years. Collaborates with FantaCycling to bring you the best analysis and news from the world of cycling.
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