Team RadioShack’s Markel Irizar pulled out a stunning time trial ride to take both the stage win and leader’s jersey in stage four of the Tour du Poitou-Chartes on Thursday. Taking to the course midway through the pack, Irizar put up the top time with more than 50 riders still to start. His time was challenged by teammate Haimar Zubeldia who fell in just behind Markel by two seconds.

“I still cannot believe it,” commented the TT winner from the Basque Country. “My emotions on the podium were so strong. I was thinking of my first trainer, my family, my friends, my former and current team mates, Johan Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong who gave me a spot in this Team. This is the reward for hard work.”

Like RadioShack teammate Lance Armstrong, Markel Irizar is a testicular cancer survivor (2002). After six years in the Euskaltel team, Irizar followed his friend Haimar Zubeldia to Team RadioShack in 2010. The teammates train together and are normally workers not winners. However both recently found themselves in the winners circle.

“Maybe this all happened with a bit of luck,” continued Irizar. “Because Haimar broke his wrist in the Critérium du Dauphiné, he missed the Tour. The only thing he and I could do was train. So we trained hard for two months in the Pyrenees. Team Director Alain Gallopin gave us a new roster for the rest of the year. We were motivated to perform well in the races that suit us, namely the Tour de l’Ain, the ProTour races in Canada and the Italian classics at the end of the season. The Tour du Poitou-Charentes was too flat for us but there was a time trial. So we saved our strength in the early stages to do well today and we succeeded. Alain Gallopin told me that we had a chance to win. He was right!”

“After the Tour de l’Ain, Irizar and Zubeldia didn’t go home,” explained Team Director Gallopin. “They continued their training in the mountains. Already last Sunday in Plouay, I saw that Markel was in superb shape. He had to take advantage of this situation. I think we can see other nice things this year from our two Basque riders.”

Haimar Zubeldia finished third in the prologue at one second behind Irizar. “I was hindered by a rider I caught up with. It might have cost me that one second, but honestly I am more happy with the victory of Markel than I would have been with a win of myself,” said Zubeldia.

Two years ago Markel Irizar finished second in the prologue of Paris-Nice, showing his TT skills. In 2009 he won the overall mountains classification in the Tour Down Under.

“But this is my first real victory in my professional career,” concluded Irizar. “It is my job to help my teammates. A time trial is the best opportunity for me to land on the podium. I am more than happy today but I will continue working for the others.”

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/teamradioshack/news_irizar-takes-first-win-since-recovery-cancer-2/#ixzz0yCUXt8KP