Ion Izagirre, euphoric: “We waited for almost five years and it paid off”

Once you cross the finish line Ion Izagirre was celebrating the victory at 12th stage of the Tour de France all of the above And it is that not every day achieve success in ‘Big Boucle’the second for cofidi corridors after reaching in 2016.

Before climbing the podium, Ion Izagirre spoke to the Tour press service and evaluated his victory with these words: “Finally, now. I rested, we did very well. William (Martin) -his partner at Cofidis- and we do very well. At the last port I found myself well. I saw myself with strength and I was able to handle the difference.”

He crowned the last level of the day with just over 20 seconds to go and from this point he had 28 kilometers to go where Ion gave everything, but that “it’s been a long time for me. You don’t know if what will happen. I trusted in my strength. I knew that if I had enough profit it would be worth it and my strength was with me in the last few kilometers. And many things crossed my mind and it was very exciting -exciting”.

He remembered the clear Basque accent of the Tour, at the start Bilbao and the victory two days ago for Pello. “Yes, it is true, it is a Basque Tour. It started at home and we are satisfied. We hope to continue in this line. With the Cofidis team we are doing an incredible job. We came with the idea to win a stage and we already have the two of us and Guillaume ( Martin) having an incredible Tour”.

And he ended his remarks with these sentences: “We waited for almost five years and it was worth it”, in reference to how much it cost Spanish cycling to achieve a victory in the Tour, after brother omar in 2018, and the other two days ago Bilbao hair.