Óscar Pereiro

Óscar Pereiro

Personal information
Full name	Óscar Pereiro Sío
Born	(1977-08-03) August 3, 1977 Mos, Galicia, Spain
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb; 10.7 st)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder
Professional team(s)
2000–2001	Porta da Ravessa
2002–2005	Phonak
2006–2009	Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears
2010	Astana
Major wins
Tour de France General classification (2006) Combativity award (2005) 1 Stage
Infobox last updated on July 27, 2009

Óscar Pereiro Sío (pronounced: [ˈos.kaɾ pe.reˈi.ro ˈsi.o]; born August 3, 1977) is a former Spanish professional road bicycle racer. Pereiro won the 2006 Tour de France, after the original winner Floyd Landis was disqualified for failing a doping test after his stage 17 victory. Pereiro is a former member of Porta da Ravessa (2000 to 2001), Phonak Hearing Systems (2002 to 2005), Caisse d'Epargne (2006 to 2009), and the Astana cycling team (2010). After retiring from cycling in 2010, Pereiro joined his local part-time football club Coruxo FC of the Segunda División B.

Early career

Pereiro placed tenth in the 2004 Tour de France, 22 minutes 54 seconds behind original winner Lance Armstrong, who was subsequently disqualified. He was awarded the Most Aggressive Rider Award in the 2005 Tour de France after powering the winning breakaways in Stages 15, 16 and 19. He was the Stage 16 winner - just edging out Spain's Xabier Zandio, Italy's Eddy Mazzoleni and Australia's Cadel Evans. His efforts on Stage 15, the toughest stage of the Tour, were highly admired by the peloton. He finished second that day to Discovery Channel's George Hincapie after "pulling" for most of the final climb up the Pla D'Adet. In January 2014, Pereiro confessed on a radio show he sold this stage to Hincapie, making the deal some kilometers before arriving to the finish line.^[1]

Pereiro was considered a leader on Phonak along with Landis and Santiago Botero in 2005 - his last year riding for the team.

2006 Tour de France

His breakaway Stage 13 second-place finish (just behind Germany's Jens Voigt) gained him almost 30 minutes on most of the General classification leaders and propelled him into an unexpected yellow jersey. He traded the overall lead back and forth with Floyd Landis over the next few days before finally losing it to him for good on the second to last day of the Tour.

After hearing of Landis' positive "A" test, Pereiro stated that it was only an initial, unconfirmed result and he would not yet consider Landis guilty or himself the Tour winner. "I have too much respect for Landis to do otherwise", he said.^[2] After hearing that the Landis "B" test also came back positive, Pereiro stated that he now considers himself Tour champion and the Landis scandal should not diminish his own achievement. "Right now I feel like the winner of the Tour de France", Pereiro said. "It's a victory for the whole team."^[3]

On September 20, 2007, Landis was found guilty of doping and ordered that he forfeit his 2006 Tour de France victory, making Pereiro the official winner, but not before Pereiro had his own small doping issue (see the next section for more details).^[4]

Doping investigation

Pereiro in 2009

On January 18, 2007, French newspaper Le Monde reported that Pereiro also tested positive during the 2006 Tour de France. It is alleged that salbutamol was found in two urine samples, produced after stages 14 (Montélimar - Gap, in which Pereiro finished 26th) and 16 (Bourg-d'Oisans - La Toussuire, 3rd place).^[5] In the latter stage, Pereiro retook the yellow jersey from Landis.

Salbutamol is commonly used to treat asthma symptoms, and is allowed to be used in cycle racing if the cyclist can provide a medical prescription for the substance. It is alleged that the International Cycling Union gave Pereiro retroactive permission to use the substance on medical grounds after the positive tests. The French anti-doping agency questions the veracity of the medical grounds. It demanded that Pereiro verify the grounds for the use of salbutamol within a week.

On January 25, 2007, France's anti-doping agency dropped its investigation, saying Pereiro provided sufficient justification for use of the asthma medication.^[6]

Crash in 2008 Tour de France

On July 20 during the 15th stage of 2008 Tour de France, Pereiro crashed at the 89 kilometre mark over a guardrail just prior to a hairpin turn during the descent of the Col Agnel landing on the other side of the turn, which meant the end of the tour for him.^[7][8] Initially, he was thought to have broken his femur and arm, but later it was learned that this was not the case. He suffered a broken arm but never lost consciousness and was taken to a nearby hospital in Cuneo.^[9] During this Tour, Pereiro was working for Caisse d'Epargne team captain Alejandro Valverde but when it became clear in the Pyrenees that Valverde had lost too much time, he and Valverde managed to maintain placings in the top 20 riders.

Football career

In December 2010 Pereiro announced that he signed with Segunda División B club Coruxo FC. He said that it was his childhood dream to become a professional footballer. He made two appearances for the team that season, scoring twice.^[10]

Palmarès

Grand Tour General classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Giro	11	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Tour	-	-	10	10	1*	10	DNF	DNF
Vuelta	30	17	-	25	49	DNF	-	-

• After the disqualification of Floyd Landis

DNF = Did not Finish

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Óscar Pereiro.

• Official website

• Óscar Pereiro profile at Cycling Archives