Óscar Pereiro

This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Óscar Pereiro is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:

Óscar Pereiro
Personal information
Full name Óscar Pereiro Sio
Date of birth August 3, 1977 (1977-08-03) (age 31)
Country  Spain
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight 68 kg (150 lb; 10.7 st)
Team information
Current team Caisse d'Epargne
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Rider type All-rounder
Professional team(s)
2000–2001
2002–2005
2006–
Porta da Ravessa
Phonak
Caisse d'Epargne
Major wins
Tour de France (2006), 1 stage
Combativity award (2005)
Infobox last updated on:
September 21, 2007

Óscar Pereiro Sio (born August 3, 1977 in Mos, Galicia) is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer best known for winning the 2006 Tour de France after the original winner, Floyd Landis, was disqualified for failing a series of doping tests. Pereiro currently rides for the Caisse d'Epargne cycling team. He is a former member of the Portugal-based team Porta da Ravessa (2000 to 2001) and the Swiss-based team Phonak Hearing Systems (2002 to 2005).

Contents

Early career

Pereiro placed tenth in the 2004 Tour de France, 22 minutes 54 seconds behind Tour winner Lance Armstrong. He was awarded the Most Aggressive Rider Award in the 2005 Tour de France after powering the winning breakaways in Stages 15, 16 and 18. 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.

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

Pereiro rode a Pinarello Dogma FP bike throughout the 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.1 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."2

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.3

Doping investigation

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).4 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.5

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 him6. 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 Cuneocitation needed. 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.

Major results

Tour de France finishes

  • 2004: 10th overall (+22' 54")
  • 2005: 10th overall (+16' 04"); (Winner Stage 16)
  • 2006: 1st overall*; Holder of the Maillot jaune for 5 non-consecutive days. (*upgraded to a first place finish, from second, after Floyd Landis tested positive on urine tests.)
  • 2007: 10th overall (+14' 25")
  • 2008: DNF

Victories

1998
 Spain U23 Cyclo-Cross Champion (in Los Corrales de Buelna)
2001
Stage 3 – Grande Premio R.L.V.T. (2.5) - 166.1 km
2002
Stage 5 – Setmana Catalana (2.1) - 144 km
2003
Stage 6 – Tour de Suisse (2.HC) - 135 km
2004
Classique des Alpes (1.1) - 165 km
2005
Tour de France
Winner Combativity Competition
1st, Stage 16 (PT) - 180.5 km
Prologue – Tour de Romandie (PT) - 3.4 km (ITT)
2006
Tour de France
Winner overall classification
10th, Mountains classification
10th, Points classification
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Flag of the United States Lance Armstrong
Winner of the Tour de France
2006
Succeeded by
Flag of Spain Alberto Contador

References

  1. ^ "Pereiro cautious about Landis case", SportsIllustrated.com (2006-07-27). 
  2. ^ "I am the Tour champion - Pereiro", BBC Sport (2006-08-05). 
  3. ^ Landis loses verdict, must forfeit Tour title MSNBC, September 20, 2007
  4. ^ "Oscar Pereiro, deuxième du Tour de France 2006, a été contrôlé positif pendant la Grande Boucle", Le Monde (2006-01-18). 
  5. ^ France's anti-doping agency drops Pereiro case - USATODAY.com
  6. ^ "Oscar Pereiro breaks arm in crash", Reuters (2006-07-20). 

External links


Persondata
NAME Pereiro, Óscar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pereiro Sio, Óscar
SHORT DESCRIPTION Road bicycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH 1977-08-03
PLACE OF BIRTH Mos, Spain
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

Wikipedia content modification information:

  • This page was last modified on 24 December 2008, at 00:02.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Óscar Pereiro".

The URL for this specific entry is:

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.