Santiago Botero

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Santiago Botero Echeverry (born October 27, 1972 in Medellín, Colombia) is a Colombian professional road bicycle racer. He has been a pro since 1996, during which time he has raced in three editions of the Tour de France and four editions of Vuelta a España (the Tour of Spain).

Colombian road racer Santiago Botero climbing in stage 11 of the 2005 Tour de France.
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Colombian road racer Santiago Botero climbing in stage 11 of the 2005 Tour de France.

He has been, for the greater part of his career, a member of the Kelme team, but in 2003 joined T-Mobile Team (then named Team Telekom). His often brilliant performance as part of the Kelme team turned lacklustre in Team Telekom, with the team management blaming his lack of discipline in training but he claimed because of health problems. In October 2004 he joined Phonak, together with Miguel Ángel Martín Perdiguero from Saunier Duval, and Víctor Hugo Peña and Floyd Landis from Discovery Channel-Berry Floor. He currently lives in both Colombia and Madrid, Spain with his wife.

[edit] Results

He was the World Champion in individual time trial in 2002. His career highlights include a stage win in Ruta del Sol in 1999, a stage win in the Paris-Nice in 1999, a stage win in the 2000 Tour de France, a polka dot jersey as "King of the Mountains" in the 2000 Tour de France, two stage wins in the Vuelta 2001, third place in the World Championships in the individual time trial in 2001, and two stage wins and fourth place overall in the 2002 Tour de France. Other victories include a stage win in the Clasica Bogota in 1997, a prologue win in the Vuelta a Chile in 1997, a stage win in GP Mitsubishi in 1998. After joining T-Mobile his accomplishments in the Tour diminished sharply.

In May 1, 2005 he won the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland, 33 seconds ahead of rising Italian star and favorite for the Giro d'Italia Damiano Cunego. Romandie is often used as a preparation race for the Giro d'Italia.

[edit] Doping allegations

In 2006, Team Phonak dropped him on June 2 after he was named in media reports on the massive Operación Puerto [1] doping probe in Spain, this just weeks before the start of the 2006 Tour de France. On October 2, 2006, Botero was cleared by the disciplany committee of the Federación Colombiana de Ciclismo (Colombian Cycling Federation).[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Fotheringham, William (2006-07-16). Plucky Pereiro reigns for Spain in shock result. The Observer. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2006-07-16.
  2. ^ http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/10957.0.html Velonews.com Botero cleared;...


UCI World Time Trial Champions
1994: Chris Boardman - 1995: Miguel Indurain - 1996: Alex Zülle - 1997: Laurent Jalabert
1998: Abraham Olano - 1999: Jan Ullrich - 2000: Serhiy Honchar - 2001: Jan Ullrich (2) - 2002: Santiago Botero
2003: Michael Rogers - 2004: Michael Rogers (2) - 2005: Michael Rogers (3) - 2006: Fabian Cancellara