Íñigo Cuesta López de Castro (born 2 June 1969) is a Spanish former professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most com ...

, who now works as a

directeur sportif A ''directeur sportif'' (, ) is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is seen as the equivalent to a field manager in baseball, or a head coach in football. At professional level, a directeur sportif follows t ...

for UCI Women's Continental Team .

Career

Born in

Villarcayo de Merindad de Castilla la Vieja Villarcayo de Merindad de Castilla la Vieja () is a municipality located in the Burgos (province), province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census (Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain), INE), the municipality has a ...

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...

, Cuesta turned professional in 1994 for the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

team. Here his results included a second place in 1995

Vuelta a Asturias Vuelta Asturias is a professional cycle road race held in Spain in early May each year. The event was first run in 1925 but has not been held consistently until 1968 to present. Since 2005, the race has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI ...

, and in 1996 he signed a contract with Spanish team . Cuesta would have to wait until 1998 before he won his first race, the overall victory in the stage race

Tour of the Basque Country The Tour of the Basque Country (Officially: ''Itzulia Basque Country'') is an annual road cycling stage race held in the Spanish Basque Country in April. It is one of the races that make up the UCI World Tour calendar. As the Basque Country is ...

. In securing the stage race win, he proved his talent as both a climber and time trialist, though not on the level of the Grand Tours. Even though he won a second triumph, a stage in the 2000 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, he did not get his contract renewed. Instead he signed with , after his initial new employer, '' Linda McCartney Racing Team'', went bankrupt before the season started. His four years at Cofidis did not provide Cuesta with any more wins, his biggest result a 13th place in the

2001 Vuelta a España The 56th edition of the ''Vuelta a España'' (Tour of Spain), a long-distance stage race and one of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, was held from 8 September to 30 September 2001. It consisted of 21 stages covering a total of , and wa ...

. In 2005 he changed to , where he won stage 5 in the

Volta a Catalunya The Volta a Catalunya (; Tour of Catalonia, ) is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain. It is one of three World Tour stage races in Spain, together with the Vuelta a España and the Tour of the Basque Country. The race has had ...

, during the early part of the

2005 UCI ProTour The 2005 ProTour was the first year of the newly introduced UCI ProTour system, in which the ProTour teams are guaranteed, and obliged to, participate in the series of ProTour races. In certain ways the ProTour replaced the UCI Road World Cup seri ...

season. Though he still had one year remaining of his contract, Cuesta changed to before the 2006 season. Here he assisted team captain

Carlos Sastre Carlos Sastre Candil (; born 22 April 1975) is a former Spanish professional road bicycle racer and winner of the 2008 Tour de France. He consistently achieved outstanding results in the Vuelta a España and in the Tour de France. Sastre establis ...

in the

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; ) is an annual stage race, multi-stage bicycle racing, bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Ital ...

. Cuesta continued to help Sastre in 2009, after the announcement that he changed team and joined the new . During the

2010 Vuelta a España 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to s ...

, Cuesta started for the 17th consecutive year, a new record. To commemorate this, the race organizers gave him jersey number one, normally worn by the winner of the previous edition. He announced his retirement in August 2011 after his team were not selected for the

.Iñigo Cuesta retires
/ref>

Major results

;1995 :2nd Overall

:8th Overall

Euskal Bizikleta Euskal Bizikleta (Spanish: ''Bicicleta Vasca'', English: ''Basque Bicycle'') was an annual road cycling stage race held in the Basque Country in June. From 2005 to 2008, the race was organized as a 2.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour. In 2009, it ...

;1996 :2nd Overall

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana The Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (; or Tour of Valencia) is a road cycling stage race held in the Valencian Community (''Comunitat Valenciana''), Spain. Its position in the cycling calendar means it is often used as preparation for the sprin ...

:2nd Overall

Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme The Catalan Cycling Week (''Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme'' in Catalan language, Catalan) was a stage race, multi-stage road bicycle race held in Catalonia, Spain. Held annually from 1963 until 2005, it was run as a 2.HC race on the UCI Europe Tour ...

:3rd Overall

Vuelta a Castilla y León The Vuelta Ciclista a Castilla y León is a professional road bicycle stage race held in Castile and León, Spain. Since 2005, it has been a part of the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions ...

:3rd Overall

Vuelta a Burgos Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos is an elite professional road bicycle racing event held annually in the Burgos (province), Burgos province of Spain. The men's Vuelta a Burgos has been a multi-day stage race as part of the UCI Europe Tour since 2005. In ...

:3rd Overall

Vuelta a Mallorca The Challenge Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca (, ) is a series of four (five until 2012) professional one day road bicycle races held on the Spanish island of Mallorca in late January or early February. The event is used as an early season preparato ...

:3rd Classique des Alpes :5th

Subida a Urkiola Subida a Urkiola is a one-day cycling race in Durango, Biscay in the Basque Country whose starts in Durango Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

:6th Overall Paris-Nice ;1997 :4th Overall

:5th Overall

Tour of Galicia The Tour of Galicia (; ) is an annual cycling race held in Galicia, Spain. It was first held in 1933 and was held a further five times between 1934 and 1984. The tour did not take place from the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, until ...

;1998 :1st Overall

:3rd Overall

Vuelta a Aragón Vuelta a Aragón is a professional bicycle road race held in Spain in May of each year. The event was first run in 1939, and was not held between 2006 and 2017. The future of the race is uncertain; there had been plans to organise it again, but an ...

:6th Overall

;1999 :10th Overall

Vuelta a Murcia The Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia () is a road bicycle race held in and around Murcia, Spain. The first four editions were reserved to amateurs. Originally the race was held in early March and consisted of five stages. However, due to Spain's fina ...

;2000 : Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ::1st Jersey_white_dots_on_red

Mountains classification ::1st Stage 6 ;2002 :7th Overall

Critérium International The Critérium International was a two-day Stage (bicycle race), bicycle stage race held in France every spring from 1932 until 2016, typically the last weekend of March. It was formerly known as the Critérium National de la Route, first run in ...

:10th Overall

Tour de Romandie The Tour de Romandie is a stage race which is part of the UCI World Tour. It runs through the Romandie region, or French-speaking part of Switzerland. The competition began in 1947, to coincide with the 50-year anniversary of Swiss Cycling. It ...

;2004 :1st Mountains classification

Tour du Limousin Tour du Limousin is a 4-day road bicycle race held annually in Limousin, France. It was first held in 1968 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle raci ...

:9th Overall

;2005 :

::1st Mountains classification ::1st Stage 5 ;2006 :1st Stage 4

Giro d'Italia The Giro d'Italia (; ), also known simply as the Giro, is an annual stage race, multiple-stage bicycle racing, bicycle race primarily held in Italy, while also starting in, or passing through, other countries. The first race was organized in 19 ...

( TTT) :7th Overall

Deutschland Tour The Deutschland Tour (English: ''Tour of Germany'' and sometimes ''Deutschland-Rundfahrt'' in German) is the most important Race stage, multi-stage road bicycle racing, road bicycle race in Germany. Initially the race was held in May/June, but fro ...

;2008 :5th Overall

Tour de Georgia The Tour de Georgia was a U.S. professional road cycling stage race across the state of Georgia. The race began in 2003 and was contested six times until 2008. It was one of the three events in North America ranked as Hors Classe ( 2.HC) stage ra ...

:6th Overall

;2009 :8th Overall

References

External links

Team CSC profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuesta, Inigo 1969 births Living people Spanish male cyclists Cyclists from the Province of Burgos 20th-century Spanish sportsmen