Amets Txurruka

Who is Amets Txurruka?

Amets Txurruka Ansola is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer for UCI Professional Continental Team Caja Rural-Seguros RGA.

Born in Etxebarria in the Basque Country, Txurruka has not yet won any races, but he made his Tour de France debut in 2007, memorably participating in a breakaway during Stage 12 that was caught just 1 km from the finish line. This effort earned him the red back numbers for most combative rider the next day. He was also indirectly benefited when Michael Rasmussen was withdrawn from the Tour; Txurruka was third in the young rider classification, behind Alberto Contador and Mauricio Soler. With Contador wearing the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification because of Rasmussen's withdrawal, and Soler wearing the polka dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification, Txurruka wore the white jersey that is given to the leader of the young rider classification.

He was also chosen as the most combative rider of whole Tour, being the third Spanish rider in a row to earn that award.

Txurruka was released by Euskaltel-Euskadi at the end of the 2012 season, and joined Caja Rural for the 2013 season. In the Tour of the Basque Country, Txurruka won both the mountains and sprint classification jerseys after being part of long breakaways for the first three stages.