Ion Izagirre defies broken bone to still have Il Lombardia farewell: “It wasn’t the ending I had imagined, but I’ll say goodbye on the bike”
Cycling
Ion Izagirre will line up for Il Lombardia this Saturday as the final professional race of a 16-year career. The rider from Gipuzkoa came close to missing the ending he had imagined after a training crash caused a fracture to his radius, but he ultimately decided to travel to Italy and say goodbye on the bike.
The rider admits that the past few days have been marked by sadness. He had planned to race the Coppa Agostoni, Tre Valli Varesine and Il Lombardia, but the crash disrupted those plans. In the end, he managed to recover in time and will take the start of a race that brings the curtain down on a career filled with hugely significant victories.
His final win also came at a particularly emotional moment, coinciding with his son’s birthday. Izagirre leaves satisfied that he was able to rediscover his best level after several seasons affected by injuries and crashes.
He now faces a new chapter away from professional cycling. He does not plan to become a sports director or coach and wants to regain time with his family. His three children are among the main reasons he has chosen to close this chapter and look towards a much quieter life.
Ion Izagirre, Cofidis star
“This wasn’t how I had planned to finish”
The crash happened while he was training alone, after rain had left the road wet. He lost control of his bike on a descent and put his hand out to break the fall. The result was a fracture around the radius that put his farewell in jeopardy.
“I was sad. I don’t know how to define it, but I was a little sad,” Izagirre told Diario Marca about those days. Mentally, missing the final races of his professional career was much harder than the physical blow itself.
The rider had planned to compete in Italy and bow out at the highest level. “Finishing my sporting career like that, physically cut short, wasn’t how I had planned it,” he explains. That is why he ultimately decided to travel to Lombardy, although he knows he will not arrive in the condition he would have wanted.
His final victory has at least allowed him to close the cycle with a special memory. “I won my final professional race, and that is not something everyone can achieve,” he says. Even so, he needed to complete his farewell on the bike and in front of the peloton.
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Constant learning every season
Izagirre does not believe his recent performances were the result of one specific change to his preparation. “There isn’t one thing I changed that worked. Every year, I have tried to do the best I could,” the rider from Gipuzkoa explains.
Throughout his career, he has experienced very different seasons, shaped by his health, crashes and form. For him, once everything starts to click, the results build confidence and create a positive momentum that is difficult to stop.
In 2026, he found that momentum from the start of the season. His good sensations helped him recover his motivation and enjoy racing again. The victory he recently secured confirmed that he could say goodbye with an exceptional feeling.
Even so, he never considered changing his mind about retirement. He received offers to continue for another year, but his decision had already been made. “When you decide something, I think you have to take it into account and move forward,” he concludes.
“I need to be at home”
Izagirre’s future has yet to be defined. The rider admits he feels some apprehension about the new life that will begin after Lombardy, but he does not want to rush into anything. His priority will be to rest and recover the time he has lost with his loved ones.
“I don’t have any short-term project in mind. I just want to spend some time at home, with friends, because that is what my body and mind are asking for,” he explains. After so many years shaped by training, camps and travel, he needs to establish a different routine.
He is not considering remaining in the peloton as a sports director, coach or team assistant either. “I don’t plan to continue that life inside the peloton,” he says. The days spent away from home are precisely what he wants to leave behind after so many years.
Family has played a particularly important role in that decision. “I have three children who are growing up very quickly, and I need them, just as they need me,” he explains. His goal now is to be there for them, take part in their upbringing and enjoy a life that was shaped for years by the professional calendar.
Tadej Pogacar, an unreachable cyclist
Izagirre also offers his view of the current generation, and particularly of Tadej Pogacar. The rider from Gipuzkoa believes the Slovenian is a level above, even among a group of extraordinary riders.
“There are many names: Van der Poel, Remco, Vingegaard, Van Aert, Pidcock... These riders are superstars, but then there is Pogacar,” he says. Izagirre avoids claiming that he is the greatest of all time because he did not experience the eras of Eddy Merckx or Bernard Hinault.
What he does know is that Pogacar has reached an extraordinary level. “He races all year, every kind of race, whether it is cobbles, a one-week stage race, San Remo, Lombardy or the Tour. He beats you, and the way he beats you...” he explains.
For Izagirre, the biggest difference lies in the variety of ways in which Pogacar can win. “He is good at everything and has no weaknesses. He makes everything look easy,” he sums up. After 16 years in the peloton, the rider from Gipuzkoa leaves with the certainty that he shared the road with a historic generation and the privilege of saying goodbye by doing what he has enjoyed most: racing.
Javier RampeCycling Journalist
Javier Rampe is a sports analyst with more than 15 years of experience. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Rome and a Diploma in Business Studies from the University of Cádiz. Despite coming from an academic background not particularly associated with cycling, his passion for both cycling and journalism was instilled in him from an early age. He grew up following Miguel Indurain and José María “El Chava” Jiménez. An admirer of Michael Robinson’s communication style and journalistic approach, he was inspired to pursue a degree in Journalism at the University of Buenos Aires, which he is currently completing.
He has always maintained close ties with the worlds of sport and culture, contributing from a young age to sports blogs and film and music review websites. His work has appeared in media outlets such as Cope, RAI, and Radio Con Vos. He is also the founder of the cycling-focused podcast El Contraanálisis and the football interview channel Días De Fútbol, dedicated to conversations with professional footballers.
In addition to his work at Ciclismoaldia, Javier has interviewed some of the most influential figures in modern cycling, including Alejandro Valverde and Tadej Pogačar, as well as key voices in anti-doping policy such as Alberto Yelmo, David Varillas, and Marcelo Milano. Marcos Maynar, in relation to the ‘Operación Ílex’ case, is also among the personalities he has interviewed. He enjoys conducting in-depth analysis of the cycling ecosystem and has attended major events such as Strade Bianche, the Vuelta a Andalucía, and Itzulia, as well as numerous national cyclo-cross races.
His background in economics, combined with extensive experience in marketing and corporate communications, drives his continuous study of positioning strategies and ensures that he always keeps his focus on crafting compelling and evocative headlines.
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- i guess there's journalism and then there's journalism. this website simply collects cycling stories and aggregates them in one portal for us fans to access. they aren't really investigative reporters, and their team likely isn't big enough to go into real depth... which is fine by me since i don't expect much more from them. that said, i agree with your view. it would be nice to see a bit more follow-up that pushes the people in charge to actually take a stance.Ketterechts08-10-2026
- UAE was really badly positioned at the last climb, and Ineos did a great job of making that happen at the bottom. That must have affected del Toro and the rest. His attack wasn't spectacular, and they hadn't ripped apart the bunch enough, letting a large group remain in back to reel him in. UAW lost the race on the road to the climb and the bottom third of it, I think.RidesHills08-10-2026
- He won in exactly the same way as others. By being the fastest to complete the stages.mobk08-10-2026
- Very surprised del toro couldn't beat everyone here against lesser competition. He's well on his way to being top 5 in the worldbruins3008-10-2026
- Being the best rider left in the race is pretty much the only way to win in any edition, surely? Seems reductive to say "they only won because the entire peloton wasn't as absolutely stacked as it could've been" - you can only beat who is in front of you.wrsty08-10-2026
- I’m sorry but generally the coverage on your site is first class but this incident highlights something I just don’t get with cycling journalism. This accident should never have been allowed to happen, it comes uncomfortably close to the Finlay Tarling tragedy and two other incidents took place within days of this. I checked all of the cycling websites and you all put out basically the same story. Pidcock gave journalists the perfect opening to blow this sky high, what has the UCI got to say? What is Adam Hansen doing? What do the organisers say? Nothing, you all trot out the same easy quotes taken from Pidcocks interview after the race but do nothing to follow it up. I see it time and time again, journalists taking the easy way out but being outraged when it happens again as it surely will. Riders can’t do this but journalists should be independent and should be able to raise these uncomfortable questions but cyclinguptodate and every other on line publication prefer to take the easy way out. That’s the real tragedy here.Paul53108-10-2026
- Happy to help :-)Mistermaumau08-10-2026
- Well, ok but, it’s also a structural, team, budgeting, direction and all sorts of other issueMistermaumau08-10-2026
- I wouldn’t call it an analogy but maybe his criticism is a little unfair. On the other hand, the fact Cicco made a public affair out of it despite having received all the explanations and proof makes me feel he now deserves being criticised for not accepting there is nothing to discuss.Mistermaumau08-10-2026
- Much as I like him (one of my favourites), I do want to attract a little attention to the coincidence of his recent performances in the current context. Not the first time a rider improves noticeably when there’s a job interview to prepare. In the same lighthearted humour of his, i hope the UCI will let him wear it at home as the rules quite strictly state you can only wear it during participation in the discipline you won in, and we all know how capable they are of interpreting rule interpretation ;-) Also, if it’s going to be retirement (please not), I wouldn’t call that an agreement as somebody will probably feel they didn’t get what they wanted.Mistermaumau08-10-2026
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