Igor Astarloa

Astarloa at the 2006 Rund um den Henninger Turm

Personal information

Full name

Igor Astarloa Askasibar

Born

March 29, 1976 (age 47)
Ermua, Spain

Height

1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) ^[1]

Weight

67 kg (148 lb) ^[2]

Team information

Discipline

Road

Role

Rider (retired)

Rider type

Classics specialist

Professional teams

2000–2001

Mercatone Uno–Albacom

2002–2003

Saeco–Longoni Sport

2004

Cofidis (until April)

2004

Lampre (from May)

2005–2006

Barloworld

2007–2008

Team Milram

2009

Amica Chips-Knauf

Major wins

One-day races and Classics

World Road Race Championships (2003)

La Flèche Wallonne (2003)

Milano–Torino (2006)

Medal record

Representing Spain

Men's road bicycle racing
World Championships
	2003 Hamilton	Elite Men's Road Race

Igor Astarloa Askasibar (born March 29, 1976 in Ermua, Basque Country) is a retired cyclist from Spain.

Career

Astarloa turned professional with the Italian cycling team Mercatone Uno and enjoyed his best season in 2003 with team Saeco 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.^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5]

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.^[6]