| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alberto Fernández Blanco | ||
| Nickname | El Galleta (The Biscuit) | ||
| Born | January 15, 1955 Cuena, Cantabria, Spain |
||
| Died | December 14, 1984 (aged 29) Spain |
||
| Team information | |||
| Discipline | Road | ||
| Role | Rider | ||
| Rider type | All-rounder | ||
| Professional team(s) | |||
| 1978 1979 1980–1982 1983–1984 |
Novostil-Helios Moliner-Vereco Teka Zor-Gemeaz |
||
| Major wins | |||
|
|||
| Infobox last updated on 6 September 2007 |
|||
Alberto Fernández Blanco (15 January 1955 - 14 December 1984) was a Spanish road racing cyclist. His son Alberto Fernández Sainz is also a road racing cyclist.
Fernández was born in Cuena, Cantabria. As an amateur, he won the Spanish mountain bike championships, and turned professional in 1978. During his career, he was nicknamed el Galleta ("the Biscuit"), because the town where he lived, Aguilar de Campoo, had several biscuit factories.
His best results came during the last two years of his career. He finished 10th overall in the 1982 Tour de France, and 3rd in his first appearance in the 1983 Giro d'Italia. He also finished 3rd in the 1983 Vuelta a España, improving to 2nd in 1984, only 6 seconds behind winner Éric Caritoux (the shortest winning margin in any of the Grand Tours).
He was killed, alongside his wife, in a car accident in December 1984, just short of his 30th birthday.