The first, and only, Spanish classicomaniac of the 20th century was Miguel Poblet, winner of two Milan-San Remo in the late 1950s. From then until the dawn of the new millennium, the desert in one-day races, including the long-distance road World Championship that only saw one national representative crowned, Abraham Olano, in 1995 in Duitama (Colombia). And everyone thought that this was a blip in the water until four years later, in 1999, a phenomenon broke out in Verona. A very young Óscar Freire won the rainbow jersey in a group that he submitted to the sprint: Ullrich, Casagrande, Vandenbroucke, Camenzind and Konishev, among others, gave up against the Cantabrian.
Freire built an enormous record, always in one-day events like those that designated the Olympic champion, a competition that in Atlanta 96 had been opened to the stars of professional cycling (Induráin and Olano signed a double in the time trial). Three world titles, as many victories in San Remo, a couple of Ghent-Wevelgem, Paris-Tours or the Flecha Brabanzona, among other prestigious races, certified him as one of the most accurate snipers in the platoon. He had all the time in the world ahead of him to win a medal at the Games. But he failed three times.
Recently crowned in Verona and a few weeks before winning bronze in the Plouay World Championship, Óscar Freire led the powerful Spanish quintet in Sydney 2000: Juan Carlos Domínguez, Abraham Olano, Santos González and Miguel Ángel Martín Perdiguero would work for him on an ideal circuit for its characteristics, flat with a climb – the name Bronte Hill was a great fit for that slope – near the finish line. But the Torrelavega cyclist suffered the strangest mishap of his career: the odometer failed and, when Jan Ullrich broke the race with two Telekom teammates, along with the Kazakh Vinokurov and the also German Klöden, they took the podium, he believed there was one lap left. further. He finished in a sad seventeenth place.
Freire, while joining the brotherhood of three-time world champions that includes legends such as “La Gioconda” Binda or “El Caníbal” Merckx, also participated in Athens 2004, where he crashed in the first laps and then went straight to the boxes. His third and last Olympic participation, Beijing 2008, was historic because Samuel Sánchez won the gold medal. The Cantabrian did not finish the race either, but he collaborated for the Spanish victory in a truly luxurious quintet in which the champion was, paradoxically, the one with the least impressive record: Alejandro Valverde and two Tour winners such as Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre rode for him. .
His last great year was 2010, when he won Milan-San Remo again and closed the season with victory in Paris-Tours. He still ran other courses in professionals, already a veteran and very battered by injuries, in which he raised his arms less than usual. In 2016, he gave free rein to rallying, his other great passion, and participated as a driver in the Spanish Championship.
2024-04-14 12:18:46
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