“There was a moment when I thought I’d be out of a job” - Izagirre reflects on career ahead of Tour de France bow

Ion Izagirre is enjoying one of the most satisfying spells of his long professional career. At 37, with the decision already made to end his career at the close of this season, the Gipuzkoan is relishing a campaign that contrasts starkly with the struggles he endured barely a year ago. The results have returned and, above all, he has rediscovered the sensations he had lost. He will give everything at the 2026 Tour de France.

The Cofidis rider admits that announcing his retirement has felt like a mental release. After a 2024 marked by frustration, lack of confidence, and a dearth of results, Izagirre faces his final months in the peloton with the calm of someone who has regained control of his destiny and wants to say farewell to professional cycling leaving a good memory for himself and for those who have supported him throughout his career.

“The body feels good, things are clicking, and the results are there. I’m genuinely very happy with the season I’m putting together so far,” Izagirre explains in an interview with AS. A very different picture to last year, when he seriously questioned whether he could still compete at the highest level.

“Saying it out loud made my body respond better. Last year nothing went right, I didn’t enjoy it, it wasn’t good. I saw everything in black and there was a moment when I even pictured myself out on the street, with the feeling nobody would want you and that you’d be forced to quit. I developed anxiety and felt awful, and I don’t want to go through that again,” says the Basque rider.

That situation led him to make a big decision after renewing his contract through 2026. “I then decided this would be my last season, with the challenge of doing it as well as possible. That way, I could decide my own ending, because if it had been different, it would have left a really bitter aftertaste,” he adds.

Izagirre recalls how he began 2024 with optimism, convinced he could perform at a high level after a promising end to the previous season, when he finished fourth at Il Lombardia. However, things never quite came together. “I told the team I wanted to go to Australia, I came off the end of 2024 well at Il Lombardia, but nothing worked in the first part of the season. Even in races like the Basque Country, races that have always suited me, it didn’t happen either.”

The accumulation of disappointments eventually took a heavy toll. “It was one disaster after another and the Tour was just another. I didn’t enjoy anything, always in the gruppetto, I couldn’t help, not even in breakaways… I didn’t feel useful. I didn’t feel like a cyclist.

"I trained well, the bloods were good, and many times you don’t know why the lack of results comes.” Faced with that, he stopped and reset. “In August I decided to hit reset and, luckily, at the end of the year I could perform better. Thanks to that I could renew and do this final year.”

His retirement announcement has not gone unnoticed among fans. During a high-altitude training camp he received a gesture that stuck with him. “In Sierra Nevada, while training, I heard a fan say to me, ‘don’t retire, don’t retire’. It’s nice to hear that, a fine compliment.”

Precisely because of that affection over so many years, Izagirre wants to close his career in the best possible way. “That’s why I prefer to leave with a good taste, to enjoy it myself and also with everyone around me.”

Although he still has to decide with Cofidis whether he will ride La Vuelta a España after the Tour de France, the Gipuzkoan is clear about how he would like to draw the final line. “My personal idea is to finish at home, in Ormaiztegi, at a cyclo-cross race that’s held every year and I think it will be on 25.10.2026. It would mean stretching the season a little and ending in my town, with my people, my friends.”

What he rules out completely is staying linked to the peloton with a schedule anything like the current one. “I’m crystal clear on that. It’s too many days away from home and right now what my mind and body ask for is to be with mine. And to lend a hand to my wife, who needs it. The girls grow up very fast and that time doesn’t come back.”

After more than a decade and a half at the top level, Izagirre looks back with pride. “Maybe my last few years haven’t been the best, but I had respectable results. If you’d told me as a youngster that I’d be 16 or 17 years as a pro… I wouldn’t have believed it. I’ll keep the journey, the people I met, and the experiences.” A measured reflection from someone preparing to close a long career with the satisfaction of having chosen the moment and the manner of his farewell.