Ion Izagirre forced to end his careers on a sombre note after serious injury

Izagirre has been a WorldTour pro for no fewer than sixteen years. After starting his career with Euskaltel-Euskadi, he rode for Movistar, Bahrain Merida, Astana, and Cofidis. During his career, he has won twenty races, including two stages in the Tour de France, one in the Vuelta a España, one in the Giro d'Italia, and the overall classification of the Tour of the Basque Country, his home race.

He announced this season that he would be retiring at the age of 37. But the tenacious Basque rider still showed an incredibly high level of performance and had one of his best years ever. He won the GP Indurain (for the third time) and finished seventh in Paris-Nice and the Flèche Wallonne. To top it all off, he also won the Marco Pantani Memorial in mid-September.

But the fitting farewell, which was supposed to take place later this year, won’t happen. The Tour of Lombardy was supposed to be his final race, and he wanted to give it his all one last time there. But he crashed during a training ride in the Basque Country. The result: a broken wrist, according to a social media post by his team, Cofidis. And so his career is over.

Another rider who is retiring this year is Bouchard. The 34-year-old Frenchman was slightly less successful than Izagirre and won just once: he took the stage victory at the Tour of the Alps. But people probably know him better as a king of the mountains. For example, he won the mountains jersey at both the Giro d'Italia (in 2021) and the Vuelta a España (2019).

Bouchard was supposed to retire last year, but he received an offer from TotalEnergies and decided not to turn it down. With his experience and climbing legs, he was still a valuable asset to the French team, but this was truly going to be his final year. And the Tour de Langkawi was going to be his last race. But things went wrong on the very first day. He crashed and had to withdraw due to an unspecified injury.