Gorka Verdugo Markotegui (born November 4, 1978 in Etxarri-Aranatz

Etxarri-Aranatz

Etxarri-Aranatz is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain. Etxarri-Aranatz was founded in 1312.-External links:*...

, Basque Country

Basque Country (autonomous community)

The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

) is a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour

UCI ProTour

The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI . Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises a number of 'ProTour' cycling teams, each of whom are required to compete in every round of the series...

 team Euskaltel-Euskadi

Euskaltel-Euskadi

Euskaltel-Euskadi is a professional road bicycle racing team from Spain. The team is commercially sponsored, but also works as an unofficial Basque national team and is partly funded by the Basque Government. Its riders are either from Basque Country, or at least have grown up in the cycling...

.

He has not yet won any races, but made his Giro d'Italia

Giro d'Italia

The Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. The Giro is one of the three Grand Tours , and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...

 debut in 2005 (86th) and his Tour de France

Tour de France

The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...

debut in 2006 (75th). His highest placing in the Tour de France was in 2010 (36th), however despite completing it an impressive 6 times he has never had a top ten finish in any stage of the race. Considered a reliable team rider, his is best individual tour performance was on stage 16 in the 2007 Tour de France where in a breakaway he gained enough points in the mountains classification to finish 11th overall in Paris. On stage 9 of the 2008 Tour de France he was involved in a crash which caused the fall of future Tour de France winner Cadel Evans, who later stated 'Verdugo... was in front of me, he makes me very nervous, I don't like to follow him in the peloton, he still scares me today. He had crashed on this downhill... and... took me down.'

.