Óscar Freire

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Óscar Freire
Personal information
Full name Óscar Freire Gómez
Nickname The Cat
Date of birth February 15, 1976 (age 30)
Country Flag of Spain Spain
Team information
Current team Rabobank
Role Rider
Rider type Sprinter
Professional team(s)
1998-1999
2000-2002
2003-present		 Vitalicio Seguros
Mapei
Rabobank
Major wins
3x World Cycling Championship

3 stages Tour de France
3 stages Vuelta a España
1x Tirreno-Adriatico
1x Milano-Sanremo
1x Vattenfall Cyclassics
Infobox last updated on:
December 11, 2006

Óscar Freire Gómez (born February 15, 1976 in Torrelavega, Cantabria) is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer for the UCI ProTour team Rabobank. Freire has won the World Cycling Championship on a record-equalling three occasions, along with Alfredo Binda, Rik Van Steenbergen and Eddy Merckx.

[edit] Career

Freire became professional in 1998 at the Vitalicio Seguros team. Through the 1998 season Freire only won one race, a stage in the Vuelta a Castilla y Léon, and achieved eleventh place in the Paris-Tours UCI World Cup race. In 1999, Freire went the entire season without a major victory until the World Championships in October. Although Freire went to the World Championships in Verona seemingly only to make up the numbers of the Spanish team, he went on to take an unexpected victory. A photograph taken shortly after his win, in which he is calling his grandmother (who had no television) to tell her he had won, became famous. He spent the prize money on an elevator for his grandmother's apartment.

Freire is a sprinter who, unlike many other sprinters, does not need much help from his team mates to get into good position for a win. Despite his diminutive stature, Freire is one of the most feared sprinters in the peloton. He usually draws his own plan in which he hopes the element of surprise gives him the victory. Freire sometimes gets criticized for his training ethic, since he usually rides only half the training miles in comparison with other cyclists.

For the 2000 season, Freire was able to secure a contract with the Mapei cycling team. Mapei had been ranked as the best team since 1994 when Freire joined. That year he had a successful season, winning 11 races including two stages in the Vuelta a España, and a third place at the World Championships. In 2001 Freire had a modest season, winning two races and the points competition in the Vuelta a Burgos, before becoming world champion for the second time. In 2002 he was less successful, but still he won a stage in the Tour de France.

In 2003, Freire moved to the Rabobank team, where in his first season he won six races. 2004 was a more successful year: Freire won Milan-Sanremo, Trofeo Luis Puig, a stage in Tirreno-Adriatico and second place overall, a stage in the Vuelta a España and for the third time, and the second time in Verona, the World Championships. Freire enjoyed an excellent start to the 2005 season winning three stages, the points classification and the GC yellow jersey at the Tirreno-Adriatico, as well as the Brabantse Pijl, Trofeo Alcudia and Trofeo Mallorca, all before the end of March. His season was then cut short, and all attempts at victory in Grand Tour stages and Classic races eliminated, by injury to his saddle area.

In 2006, Freire won his second consecutive Brabantse Pijl. His stage 3 win at the Tirreno-Adriatico allowed him to wear the event's yellow jersey as the overall leader for 2 days, although Freire was unable to repeat his overall victory of 2005. At the Tour de Suisse, he survived an early break of four riders to record an impressive solo win on Stage 7.

In the 2006 Tour de France, Freire won the 5th and 9th stage, and was contesting the points classification until he was forced to retire from the race due to illness. During stage twelve, Freire was involved in a breakaway with three other riders. When Yaroslav Popovych, riding for the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, rode away for the victory, rumours spread that Freire had been ordered by his Rabobank Directeur sportif not to ride for the victory, in order to secure help from the Discovery Team in the mountains for their general classification aims. Although such rumours were rubbished by both teams, Freire was visually upset after the stage.

Freire continued his successful year by winning the Vattenfall Cyclassics, finishing ahead of German favourite Erik Zabel. This, his seventh victory of 2006, means that Freire accounts for half of Rabobank’s victories this year. He recently decided to miss the 2006 Vuelta a España in order to recover from a neck problem in time for the World Championships in Salzburg.

Freire’s career has been blighted with injury and successive return to form following his lay offs. He has suffered from back problems, saddle sores and most recently neck problems. Freire recently resigned for the Rabobank team until the end of 2008, rejecting overtures and a possible lucrative contract from Saunier Duval-Prodir, citing that he felt comfortable with the Dutch squad.

[edit] Palmarès

Olympic medal record
World Championships
Gold 2004 Verona Elite Men's Road Race
Gold 2001 Lisbon Elite Men's Road Race
Gold 1999 Verona Elite Men's Road Race
Bronze 2000 Plouay Elite Men's Road Race
2006
2005
  • Tirenno-Adriatico, overall classification, 3 stages, points classification
  • Brabantse Pijl
  • Trofeo Alcudia
  • Trofeo Mallorca
2004
2003
2002
  • Tour de France, 1 stage
  • Manacor-Porto Cristo
  • Cala Rajada – Cala Millor
2001
2000
1999
1998
  • Vuelta a Castilla y Léon, 1 stage
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Preceded by:
Oskar Camenzind		 World Road Racing Champion
1999		 Succeeded by:
Romans Vainsteins
Preceded by:
Romans Vainsteins		 World Road Racing Champion
2001		 Succeeded by:
Mario Cipollini
Preceded by:
Igor Astarloa		 World Road Racing Champion
2004		 Succeeded by:
Tom Boonen
Riders on Rabobank
Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano | Michael Boogerd | Jan Boven | Graeme Brown | Erik Dekker | Thomas Dekker | Theo Eltink | Juan Antonio Flecha | Óscar Freire | Bram de Groot | Mathew Hayman | Pedro Horrillo | Aleksandr Kolobnev | Gerben Löwik | Marc de Maar | Denis Menchov | Grischa Niermann | Joost Posthuma | Michael Rasmussen | Kai Reus | Niels Scheuneman | Roy Sentjens | Rory Sutherland | Jukka Vastaranta | Thorwald Veneberg | Marc Wauters | Pieter Weening
Manager
Theo de Rooij
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