In 2003 he won his first race, when he finished just in front of
Lennie Kristensen in the overall rankings of the
Tour Down Under. He has taken part in all editions of the
Tour de France since 2003, and won stage 16 of the 2009 Tour to record his second professional stage win in any competition (for the Euskaltel team), with his 9th position overall in 2007 as his next best attempt. His cousin
Íñigo Chaurreau is also a professional cyclist. On 26 June 2009 he tested positive on Recombinant
Erythropoietin (EPO), for which he was suspended by the UCI on 31 July 2009. Astarloza denied using EPO, saying that it was "sporting suicide" to use illegal performance-enhancing drugs. On 15 May 2010, he was formally handed a two-year ban by the Spanish Cycling Federation. Astarloza continually claimed his innocence, and Euskaltel-Euskadi stated that they would rehire him once the ban ended. He indeed rejoined the Basque team in August 2011, at the
Vuelta a Burgos. Astarloza was selected to ride the
2012 Tour de France, but crashed on a big pile-up in stage 6 with remaining with a fractured right elbow and did not finish the stage. On 1 October 2013 Astarloza announced that he would retire from professional cycling after the
2013 Tour of Beijing. ==Career achievements==