“Pogačar is something I’ve never seen before.” That is the parting assessment of Ion Izagirre, offered in an interview with Spanish daily Sport.es two weeks after the 37-year-old Cofidis rider took the start of Il Lombardia on 10 October and closed a professional career that began on the WorldTour with Euskaltel-Euskadi in 2011.

Izagirre, who rode for Euskaltel-Euskadi, Movistar, Bahrain-Merida, Astana and Cofidis, lined up the champions he had shared roads with before placing Pogačar above every one of them: Alberto Contador, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali. All of them won Grand Tours. All, in the Basque rider’s reading, sit a step below the Slovenian.

What he singles out is less the trophies than the sensation of racing alongside Pogačar. Izagirre described a versatile rider at home on any terrain and under any conditions, whose power, he told Sport.es, only becomes clear once you are inside the peloton with him.

Three seasons as Valverde’s domestique

Part of the weight of the verdict is who Izagirre is comparing. He rode at Movistar from 2014 to 2016 as a domestique for Alejandro Valverde, the Spanish former world champion, whom he described in the same Sport.es interview as a rider at a “fantastic level” who trained like no one else. Setting Pogačar above a teammate he had worked for every day is not a line Izagirre draws lightly.

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His own record earns him the right to compare. He is one of a small group of riders to have won stages in all three Grand Tours: two at the Tour de France (Morzine in 2016 and Belleville-en-Beaujolais in 2023), one at the Giro d’Italia in 2012 and one at the Vuelta a España in 2020.

A farewell that nearly didn’t happen

The farewell was close to being taken away from him. Izagirre fractured his left wrist in a training crash near his home in the Basque Country in late September, and Cofidis initially announced he would miss the rest of the season, Il Lombardia included. The team then reversed course so the Monument could stand as his final race number, although there was no realistic expectation that he would complete the 239 km course.

His last completed race therefore remains the Memorial Marco Pantani on 12 September in Cesenatico, where he beat Giulio Pellizzari, Mikkel Honoré and Michael Storer from a four-rider group to take the 20th victory of his professional career.

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