Igor Astarloa
Igor Astarloa Askasibar (born March 29, 1976 in Ermua, Basque Country) is a retired cyclist from Spain.
 Astarloa at the 2006 Rund um den Henninger Turm | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Igor Astarloa Askasibar | |||||||||||||
| Born | March 29, 1976 Ermua, Spain | |||||||||||||
| Team information | ||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Road | |||||||||||||
| Role | Rider (retired) | |||||||||||||
| Rider type | Classics specialist | |||||||||||||
| Professional teams | ||||||||||||||
| 2000–2001 | Mercatone Uno–Albacom | |||||||||||||
| 2002–2003 | Saeco Macchine per Caffè–Longoni Sport | |||||||||||||
| 2004 | Cofidis (till April) | |||||||||||||
| 2004 | Lampre (from May) | |||||||||||||
| 2005–2006 | Barloworld | |||||||||||||
| 2007–2008 | Milram | |||||||||||||
| 2009 | Amica Chips-Knauf | |||||||||||||
| Major wins | ||||||||||||||
| La Flèche Wallonne (2003) Milano–Torino (2006) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Career
Astarloa turned professional with the Italian cycling team Mercatone Uno and enjoyed his best season in 2003 with team Saeco Macchine per Caffè when he won the Flèche Wallonne and the road race title at the World Cycling Championships at Hamilton, Canada. The following year, he joined Cofidis, but when the team temporarily stopped racing due to a doping scandal, he was released to join Lampre.[1] During the 2006 transfer season it was announced that he was to leave Team Barloworld, the Continental Circuit team for which Astarloa had ridden for the last several years, and join Team Milram, a member of the UCI ProTour.
Team Milram terminated its contract with Astarloa in May 2008 following disclosures that he had shown "irregular blood values", as reported by Focus magazine.[2] He joined the Amica Chips-Knauf team, which folded in May 2009. Soon after, in June 2009, Astarloa was one of the first five riders to fall foul of the Union Cycliste International's new biological passport system, introduced to combat doping by competitive cyclists. Astarloa was unable to secure another contract that season, and retired in January 2010.[3]
Doping conviction
On 1 December 2010, the Union Cycliste International announced that the Spanish Cycling Federation’s Disciplinary Commission had handed down a two-year suspension and a €35,000 fine to Igor Astarloa. According to Cyclingnews.com, Astarloa's blood samples had come under considerable scrutiny prior to the events of 2008-09 and in the wake of his 2003 world championships victory, although he was never punished for any infraction.[4]
Major achievements
- 2002
- 1st
Overall Brixia Tour
- 1st Stage 2
- 2003
- 1st
Road race, UCI Road World Championships - 1st La Flèche Wallonne
- 1st Stage 3 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
- 10th Amstel Gold Race
- 2004
- 1st Stage 2 Brixia Tour
- 2005
- 1st Stage 2 Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos
- 2006
- 1st Milano–Torino
See also
References
- "Weltmeister Astarloa wechselt zu Lampre". Rheinische Post (in German). 24 April 2004. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
- Milram terminates Astarloa's contract
- Astarloa retires with good and bad memories
External links
- Igor Astarloa at Cycling Archives