Ion Izaguirre Insausti is the latest rider to sign with BAHRAIN MERIDA Pro Cycling Team.

Ion Izaguirre Insausti, 27, turned professional in 2010. He won his first professional race in the spring of 2012 at the individual time trial at the Vuelta an Asturias in April, before achieving victory at his Grand Tour début in the Giro d'Italia. In 2014 he was a National Road Race Champion and he has also been National Time Trial Champion.

With a stage win at the Tour and podium spots at the Tour de Suisse and Tour de Romandie, 2016 was the most successful year of his career, but his ambitions are higher. Izagirre is keen to achieve the best that he can in the upcoming season and also his new team believes that he can achieve more and will encourage and help him with all the professional support.

After signing with BAHRAIN MERIDA Pro Cycling Team, Izagirre said:

“I am looking forward to meeting the group in BAHRAIN MERIDA Team. From the day I found out that they were interested in me, and seeing that the team was gaining strength, I started to like the idea of belonging to this club more and more. It is a great challenge for me and I am looking forward to working with my new partners to achieve new goals.”

General Manager of Team BAHRAIN MERIDA, Brent Copeland, said:

“Having Izaguirre on the team is a very exciting signing for us. It gives the team a boost to our group of riders for the GC at tours. He is a complete rider who can win both one day races as we saw with his Spanish championship win as well as place very well in the general classification of tours thanks to his very good time trailing ability and climbing skills. At the very experienced age of 27 and with 7 years in the pro peloton, we still feel he has margin for improvement and we are looking forward to him reaching his maturation years with us for the next two years. It is important for us to also have another Spanish rider on the team, showing the internationality that we believe in.” 

Izagirre broke out of his contract with the Movistar team. His many WorldTour points will go a long way in securing Bahrain-Merida a WorldTour license in the fight with Dimension Data and Bora-hansgrohe for the 17th and final spot.