Mikel Astarloza

Mikel Astarloza

Mikel Astarloza during the 2007 Tour de France time trial in Albi
To person
Full name	Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau
Date of birth	17th November 1979
nation	Spain
discipline	Street
End of career	2013
Team (s)
2002–2006 2007–2009 2011–2013	AG2R Euskaltel-Euskadi Euskaltel-Euskadi
Most important successes
2003 Tour Down Under
Last updated: November 20, 2015

Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (born November 17, 1979 in Pasaia ) is a former Spanish cyclist from the Basque Country .

Career

Mikel Astarloza became a professional in the French team AG2R Prévoyance in 2002 . In 2003 he won the Tour Down Under . He caused a sensation at the 2005 Tour de France when he was part of a second-class team at the time and put himself in the spotlight through skilful attempts to break away and good results in the Pyrenees and Alps . He was 27th overall.

From 2007 Astarloza drove for the Basque team Euskaltel-Euskadi . In that year he achieved excellent placings with seventh place in the overall classification of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and ninth place in the overall classification of the Tour de France , in which he was able to finish both long individual time trials in the top 10. At the Tour de France 2009 he was able to win a difficult mountain stage. It was the first stage win for his Euskaltel-Euskadi team in six years when Iban Mayo had won a stage.

At the end of the 2013 season he ended his career as a professional cyclist.

Positive doping test

On July 31, 2009 it was announced that Astarloza had tested positive for the blood doping agent EPO during a training check on June 26, 2009 - before the start of the Tour de France . He was banned from the Spanish cycling association RFEC for doping until June 26, 2011.

successes

2003

• Overall Tour Down Under

Grand Tour placements

Grand Tour	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Giro d'Italia	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Tour de France	-	29	62	27	36	9	16	11	11	-	-	42
Vuelta a España	77	-	DNF	-	56	-	28	-	-	-	48	-

Legend: DNF: did not finish , abandoned or withdrawn from the race due to timeout.

Web links

Commons : Mikel Astarloza  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Mikel Astarloza in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Mikel Astarloza in the ProCyclingStats.com database
• Mikel Astarloza in the Tour de France database(French / English )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Article on rp-online.de ( Memento of the original from September 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ radsport-news.com: Spanish Federation bans Astarloza until June 2011 May 15, 2010