"I am so incredibly happy with this, I can hardly believe it" - Ion Izagirre over the moon with Tour de France triumph at a late stage of his career

Ion Izagirre has won a stage in the 2016 Tour de France, and has experienced much success throughout the 2010's. The level of the peloton currently is higher, however the Basque has repeated his success this afternoon in a brutal stage into Belleville-en-Beaujolais.

“The start was already in the Basque Country and two days ago Pello Bilbao also won a stage," the Cofidis rider, hailing from the Basque Country, notes as a grandious month for his region. The French team itself broke a 15-year dry spell of wins at the Tour with Victor Lafay earlier in the race, and today played it's cards perfectly. “But I also want to emphasize that we are doing very well with Cofidis. This is already our second stage victory, so we should be proud of ourselves. Hopefully this can continue.”

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Izagirre was part of a 15-rider breakaway which escaped following another gruelling and suffocating start to the stage. Alongside Guillaume Martin, Izagirre had the space to play tactically. However it came down to power, as the group lost riders in the final set of ascents, Izagirre had less riders capable of following an attack, and when he moved he was clearly the strongest, dropping the rest of the competition quickly and moving solo off the front.

“I made the difference on the final climb. That attack won me victory. I am so incredibly happy with this, I can hardly believe it," he admits. The terrain afterwards favoured him, however the presence of Martin gave Izagirre another small advantage, and with the lack of perfect collaboration behind, he managed to soar to what is one of the most beautiful wins of his career.

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