Two-time Tour de France stage winner Ion Izazire (Cofidis) has revealed that he is racing this year's Grand Boucle with a broken rib.

The 35-year-old Basque told AS that he was injured in the Tour de Suisse and was involved in a crash with stage 1 winner and early leader Yves Lampert (Soudal-Quick Step), who eventually abandoned on stage 7.

Izagirre, who won the 2016 Tour de France in Morzine in the Alps and again in 2023 on the grueling transition stage to Belleville-en-Beaujolais, said he and his team doubted he would be able to compete in this year's race but eventually decided He explained.

"Two days after the crash, I didn't care anymore," the 35-year-old Izagirre told AS.

"I found out I had a broken bone. I warned the team and they began to doubt my ability to race. I decided to take it calmly and test myself. In training I was no longer in pain, so I finally decided to take part, knowing that I would not be at 100% in the early stages."

However, Izaguirre rode the first big breakaway of the race for about 120 km, although he fell back two-thirds of the way through the race; after five stages, he was in 79th place overall.

"I'm not sore at all. I was worried because my training didn't go so well, but my legs felt better after the first day of braking and I want to keep it going. If it had hurt, I wouldn't have come. But with an injury like this you have to wait and see."

Rib injuries are not predictable, but Izaguirre suffered a similar injury in his first Tour de France in 2014 and recalled that it was "very painful."

"Of course, we'll work things out and see if it's worth waiting for the Vuelta to prepare. It will get better as the race goes on."

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