Óscar Pereiro Sío (; born 3 August 1977) is a Spanish former professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

. Pereiro was declared the winner of the

2006 Tour de France The 2006 Tour de France was the 93rd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between the 1st and the 23rd of July. It was won by Óscar Pereiro following the disqualification of Floyd Landis. Due to the Unite ...

, after the original winner

Floyd Landis Floyd Landis (born October 14, 1975) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He finished first at the 2006 Tour de France, and would have been the third non-European winner in the event's history, but was disqualified after test ...

was disqualified for failing a

doping Doping may refer to: * Doping, adding a dopant to something * Doping (semiconductor), intentionally introducing impurities into an extremely pure semiconductor to change its electrical properties * Aircraft dope, a lacquer that is applied to fabr ...

test after his stage 17 victory. Pereiro is a former member of Porta da Ravessa (2000 to 2001),

Phonak Hearing Systems Phonak () was a Swiss professional cycling team from 2000 until 2006. The team was one of 20 teams in the first UCI ProTour in 2005. It won one race – Santiago Botero's victory in the Tour de Romandie – and came second in the team ranking on ...

(2002 to 2005), (2006 to 2009), and the cycling team (2010). After retiring from cycling in 2010, Pereiro joined his local part-time football club Coruxo FC of the

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

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 The 2005 Tour de France was the 92nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 2–24 July, with 21 stages covering a distance . It has no overall winner—although American cyclist Lance Armstrong origin ...

after powering the winning breakaways in Stages 15, 16 and 19. He was the Stage 16 winner - just edging out Spain's

Xabier Zandio Xabier Zandio Echaide (born 17 March 1977) is a retired Spanish professional road bicycle racer who last rode for UCI ProTeam . Biography Born in Pamplona, Zandio grew up in a sporting family—one brother is a footballer and another a pelota ...

, Italy's Eddy Mazzoleni and

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'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 Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

'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. 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

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. 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." On 20 September 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).

Doping investigation

On 18 January 2007 French newspaper Le Monde reported that Pereiro had returned an "Adverse Analytical Finding" (AAF) during the 2006 Tour de France. It is alleged that a concentration of

salbutamol Salbutamol, also known as albuterol and sold under the brand name Ventolin among others, is a medication that opens up the medium and large airways in the lungs. It is a short-acting β2 adrenergic receptor agonist which works by causing rel ...

in excess of the threshold of the allowed therapeutic use was found in two urine samples, produced after stages 14 ( Montélimar - Gap, in which Pereiro finished 26th) and 16 (

Bourg-d'Oisans Le Bourg-d'Oisans () is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. It is located in the Oisans region of the French Alps. Le Bourg-d'Oisans is located in the valley of the Romanche river, on the road from Grenoble to Briançon, a ...

- La Toussuire, 3rd place). 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 25 January 2007 France's anti-doping agency dropped its investigation, saying Pereiro provided sufficient justification for use of the asthma medication. MaillotAmarilloPereiro

Crash in 2008 Tour de France

On 20 July, during the 15th stage of

2008 Tour de France The 2008 Tour de France was the 95th running of the race. The event took place from 5 to 27 July. Starting in the French city of Brest, the tour entered Italy on the 15th stage and returned to France during the 16th, heading for Paris, its regu ...

, 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. 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. During this Tour, Pereiro was working for 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

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.

Career achievements

Major results

;1998 : 1st U23 Cyclo-Cross Champion ;1999 : 1st U23 Cyclo-Cross Champion ;2001 : 1st Stage 3 Grande Premio ;2002 : 1st Stage 5 Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme ;2003 : 1st Stage 6 Tour de Suisse ;2004 : 1st Classique des Alpes : 10th Overall Tour de France ;2005 : 1st Prologue Tour de Romandie : 10th Overall Tour de France ::1st Stage 16 :: Jersey red number

Combativity award Overall ;2006 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Tour de France ;2007 : 1st Stage 1 ( TTT)

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya The Volta a Catalunya (; en, Tour of Catalonia, es, Vuelta a Cataluña, link=no) is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain. It is one of three World Tour stage races in Spain, together with the Vuelta a España and the Tour of th ...

: 2nd Overall Tour du Limousin : 10th Overall Tour de France ;2008 : 3rd Road race, National Road Championships

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

* After the disqualification of

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pereiro, Oscar 1977 births Living people Cyclists from Galicia (Spain) Footballers from Galicia (Spain) People from Vigo (comarca) Sportspeople from the Province of Pontevedra Spanish Tour de France stage winners Tour de France winners Tour de Suisse stage winners Spanish male cyclists Association footballers not categorized by position Association football players not categorized by nationality