Óscar Freire Gomez

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Oscar Freire at the Tour Down Under 2012

Oscar Freire Gomez (born February 15, 1976 in Torrelavega , Spain ) is a former Spanish cyclist and three-time road world champion .

He is considered untypical for Spanish cycling: In contrast to numerous other Spanish professional cyclists, he is not a mountain specialist, but is considered a classic hunter and strong sprinter, to whom high tactical and technical skills are ascribed.

Career

In 1999, Freire surprisingly won the road world championship as a relatively unknown driver by attacking from a leading group of favorites 500 meters from the finish. The Spaniard was able to repeat this success in 2001 and 2004 . He holds the world championship record together with Alfredo Binda , Rik Van Steenbergen , Eddy Merckx and Peter Sagan. In the road races for the world championship, Freire was able to place eight more times in the top twenty in addition to his three title wins: in 1998 he was 17th, in 2000 third, in 2003 ninth, 2007 14th, 2009 15th, 2010 sixth, 2011 ninth and 2012 Tenth.

In each sprint he was able to win four stages of the Tour de France and seven stages of the Vuelta a España . In 2001 he was once successful on the Germany Tour . In 2004 he won his first important one-day race outside of the world championships, the Italian spring classic Milan-San Remo, ahead of Erik Zabel , who had already raised his arms in cheer with the feeling of a sure victory. Freire won the first victory in San Remo for Spain since Miguel Poblet in 1959. He also won Milan-San Remo in the sprint in 2007 and 2010.

In 2005 he not only won three stages, but also the overall ranking of the Tirreno – Adriatico long-distance journey . He was the first Spaniard to win the green jersey at the 2008 Tour de France . In addition, he was the first Spaniard to win the following important one-day races: 2006 the Vattenfall Cyclassics , in 2008 the semi-classic Gent – ​​Wevelgem and 2010 the French one-day race Paris – Tours .

Oscar Freire's career was repeatedly interrupted by a chronic back problem. Also in 2005 he had to forego participation in the Tour de France and the World Cup in Madrid due to buttocks problems .

In early June 2010, Oscar Freire announced that he had extended his contract with Rabobank until the end of 2011 and would then end his career. However, he drove his last season in 2012 in the jersey of the Russian Katusha team and was able to record two more wins, as well as being tenth at the 2012 World Championships .

Honors

In his hometown of Torrelavega, the Velodrome located there is named after him: This is where the 11th stage of the Vuelta a España started in 2006 .

Palmarès

Freire in the green jersey of the Tour de France 2008
Oscar Freire (2011)
Freire after his victory at the Vattenfall Cyclassics 2006 in Hamburg

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010
2011
2012

Teams

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. strassenradsport.com only : Oscar Freire ( memento of December 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on August 25, 2013
  2. ↑ cyclingnews.com of October 10, 1999: An Oscar Winning Move From Oscar
  3. ↑ radsport-news.com of March 21, 2004: Zabel gives away victory in the San-Remo finish
  4. ↑ cf. spiegel.de from July 14, 2002: Tour of the Falls: World Champion Freire gives up
  5. ↑ radsport-news.com from August 9th, 2005: Defending champion Freire cancels World Cup start
  6. ↑ radsport-news.com from June 5, 2010: Freire ends his career at Rabobank
  7. ↑ berliner-zeitung.de of October 4, 2012: Three-time road world champion Freire stops
  8. ↑ cyclingnews.com of September 17, 2006: The peloton leaves the Oscar Freire velodrome in Torrelavega

Web links

Commons : Óscar Freire  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Freire Gomez, Óscar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Freire Gomez, Oscar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish cyclist and three-time road world champion
DATE OF BIRTH 15th February 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH Torrelavega , Spain