'I didn't feel like a cyclist' - Izagirre on the 2025 collapse that drove him to retire
Ion Izagirre will retire at the end of the 2026 season. The 37-year-old Cofidis rider, the only active Spanish rider to have won stages in all three Grand Tours, has spent the past month preparing for his final Tour de France at the Sierra Nevada altitude training centre.
Speaking to AS, the Basque rider framed his retirement as a way to take control of the end of his career, rather than wait for the sport to force him out.
Izagirre has been in strong form throughout the spring, winning the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain in March and finishing inside the top 10 overall at both Paris Nice and the Itzulia Basque Country.
It is a long way from the 2025 season that ultimately drove his decision to retire.
"Last year, nothing went right for me; I didn't enjoy it, it wasn't good. I saw everything as bleak, and there was a moment when I even pictured myself on the street, feeling like nobody would want me and that I'd have to quit. It caused me anxiety and made me feel awful, and I don't want to go through that again," Izagirre said in an interview with Spanish outlet AS.
The 2025 Tour de France was the lowest point. Izagirre, who had claimed his second Tour stage victory in Belleville en Beaujolais in 2023, could not find a role at Cofidis in which he felt comfortable.
“It was one disaster after another, and the Tour was just another one. I didn’t enjoy it at all. I was always stuck in the peloton, unable to contribute, not even in breakaways. I didn’t feel useful. I didn’t feel like a cyclist.”
A reset followed in August 2025. After renewing his contract with Cofidis, Izagirre decided that 2026 would be his final season.
“After renewing my contract for 2026, I decided it would be my last season, with the challenge of doing my best. This way, I could decide how it ended, because if it had been different, it would have left a very bitter aftertaste. The moment I said it, my body responded better.”
Izagirre turned professional with Euskaltel Euskadi in 2011. He later rode for Movistar, Bahrain Merida and Astana before joining Cofidis in 2022.
His palmarès includes 19 professional victories, overall victory at the 2019 Itzulia Basque Country, two Tour de France stage wins, in Morzine in 2016 and Belleville en Beaujolais in 2023, as well as stage victories at the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.
Ending where it began
“Perhaps my last few years haven’t been the best, but I achieved respectable results. If someone had told me when I was young that I would be a professional for 16 or 17 years, I wouldn’t have believed it. I’ll cherish the journey, the people I met and the experiences.”
The closing weeks of his career are still to be decided. His participation in the Vuelta a España remains uncertain, while his preferred ending would come at a cyclocross race in his hometown of Ormaiztegi on 25 October.
“After the Tour, we have to talk to the team about the possibility of doing the Vuelta or not. My personal idea is to finish at home, in Ormaiztegi, in a cyclocross race that’s organised every year, and I think it’s on October 25th. It would extend the season a bit and allow me to finish in my town, with my people, my friends.”
Make us your preferred source on Google
Stay closer than ever to the latest cycling news, interviews and analysis. Simply selecting Domestique as a Preferred Source can really help us grow, while making sure you see more of our stories in your news overview.
