01/04/2023

GP Miguel Indurain: Ion Izagirre claims frantic victory ahead of Sergio Higuita

A frantic finish at the 2023 GP Miguel Indurain saw Ion Izagirre ride to a second career win at the race, after a thrilling day's racing.

A day full of climbing saw Alessandro Fancellu (EOLO-Kometa), Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Matyáš Kopecký (Team Novo Nordisk) and Xavier Cañellas (Electro Hiper Europa) make it into the early break, gaining a lead of over four minutes at one point.

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As the race reached the foot of Alto Guirguillano, the peloton, being led by EF Education-EasyPost, began to close on the breakaway. Bizakarra wasn't ready to give up the lead of the race just yet however, riding hard to maintain a gap to the bunch. The brave Spaniard couldn't hold them off for long though and with 62km left the race was back together.

With EF having kept the tempo high and riders having dropped out the back of a much-reduced peloton the race began to split as Movistar took control. With five riders in the front group, it was advantage Movistar and Nelson Oliveira attacked off the front with Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) soon joining him.

As the race frantically entered the final 10kms it was Sergio Higuita (BORA - hansgrohe) and 2016 winner, Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) who had a ten-second gap at the front. With everyone in the chase group under pressure, there wasn't much in the way of organisation. The lack of cohesion gave the advantage to the leading duo and as the pair reach the final climb Izagirre made his move, powering away from Higuita in what turned out to be a race-winning move.