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 com ...

. 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 Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. It took place between the 1st and the 23rd of July. It was won by Óscar Pereiro following the disqualification of Floyd Land ...

, after the original winner

Floyd Landis Floyd Landis (born October 14, 1975) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. At the 2006 Tour de France, he would have been the third non-European winner in the event's history, but was disqualified after testing positive for p ...

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

Coruxo FC Coruxo Fútbol Club is a Spanish football club based in the parish of Coruxo, Vigo, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Founded in 1930 it plays in , holding home matches at '' O Vao'', with a capacity of 1,500 spectators. The association ...

of the

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: 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 ...

Early career

Pereiro placed tenth in the 2004 Tour de France, 22 minutes 54 seconds behind original winner

Lance Armstrong Lance Edward Armstrong (''né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. He achieved international fame for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times fro ...

, 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 Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. It took place between 2–24 July, with 21 stages covering a distance . It has no overall winner—although American cyclist ...

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 Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

's Eddy Mazzoleni and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

's Cadel Evans. His efforts on Stage 15, the toughest stage of the Tour, were highly admired by the

peloton In a road Cycle sport, bicycle race, the peloton (, originally meaning ) is the main group or pack of riders. Riders in a group save energy by riding close (drafting (racing), drafting or slipstreaming) to (particularly behind) other riders. The ...

. 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 that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

George Hincapie George Anthony Hincapie (born June 29, 1973) is an American former racing cycle sport, cyclist, who competed professionally between 1994 and 2012. Hincapie was a key domestique of Lance Armstrong. Hincapie was also a domestique for Alberto Contad ...

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 Floyd 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 Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Jens Voigt Jens Voigt (; born 17 September 1971) is a German former professional road bicycle racer and, upon retirement, became a cycling sports broadcast commentator. During his cycling career, Voigt raced for several teams, the last one being UCI ProTe ...

) gained him almost 30 minutes on most of the General classification leaders and propelled him into an unexpected

yellow jersey The general classification of the Tour de France is the most important classification of the race and determines the winner of the race. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification has worn the yellow jersey ( ). History For the first t ...

. 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).

Landis' allegations of doping by Pereiro

In his 2010 interview with cycling journalist Paul Kimmage, Landis alleged Pereiro had engaged in doping both during the 2006 race and the year prior, when they raced in the same team. Explaining to Kimmage his satisfaction with his performance in the Stage 17 breakaway, he said, "I haven’t said this before because no one has asked, but if I had any reason to believe, and didn’t have specific knowledge that Pereiro was also doped, then I would have felt like I was cheating somebody - but I knew it, I had seen it first hand." He also told Kimmage that ahead of the penultimate stage of the 2006 Tour, a time trial, Pereiro had admitted to him about his upcoming planned blood transfusion for the race: "I know Pereiro, and I know he wasn’t going to have any new tricks that he hadn’t already tried so… I had talked to him about it, and he told me that he had another blood transfusion to do, but I still wasn’t concerned because I was a better time triallist than him regardless."

Doping investigation

On 18 January 2007, French newspaper ''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

'' 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 that causes relaxation of ...

in excess of the threshold of the allowed therapeutic use was found in two urine samples, produced after stages 14 (

Montélimar Montélimar (; Vivaro-Alpine dialect, Vivaro-Alpine: ''Montelaimar'' ; ) is a town in the Drôme Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It is the second-largest town in t ...

- Gap, in which Pereiro finished 26th) and 16 ( Bourg-d'Oisans - La Toussuire, 3rd place). In the latter stage, Pereiro retook the yellow jersey from Landis. Salbutamol is commonly used to treat

asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...

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 Tour de France, the race. The event took place from 5 to 27 July. Starting in the French city of Brest, France, Brest, the tour entered Italy on the 15th stage and returned to France during the 16t ...

, 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 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (born 25 April 1980) is a Spanish cyclist, who competed as a professional in road bicycle racing from 2002 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2022, and now competes in gravel cycling for the Movistar Team Gravel Squad. During ...

but when it became clear in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

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

. He said that it was his childhood dream to become a professional footballer. Playing as a winger, he made two appearances for the team that season, scoring twice.

Major results

Road

;2001 : 6th Overall

Grande Prémio Jornal de Notícias Grande Prémio Jornal de Notícias is a stage race, multi-day road bicycle racing, road cycling race held annually in Portugal. It is sponsored by the daily ''Jornal de Notícias'' newspaper. Winners References

{{reflist Cycle races in Po ...

: 7th Overall

Volta ao Alentejo The Volta ao Alentejo ( Portuguese; ) is a road bicycle racing stage race held annually in the Alentejo, Portugal. Since 2010, it has been organised as a 2.2 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle ...

;2002 : 1st Stage 5

Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme The Catalan Cycling Week (''Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme'' in Catalan language, Catalan) was a stage race, multi-stage road bicycle race held in Catalonia, Spain. Held annually from 1963 until 2005, it was run as a 2.HC race on the UCI Europe Tour ...

: 3rd

Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia – Clásica de Ordizia is a Spanish professional cycle road race held in Ordizia, Basque Country. The first edition was held in 1922. Since 2005, the race has been organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour ...

: 5th Trofeo Calvià ;2003 : 2nd Overall

Vuelta a Burgos Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos is an elite professional road bicycle racing event held annually in the Burgos (province), Burgos province of Spain. The men's Vuelta a Burgos has been a multi-day stage race as part of the UCI Europe Tour since 2005. In ...

: 3rd Overall

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse () is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France, which is on the calend ...

::1st Stage 6 : 10th Overall

Paris–Nice Paris–Nice is a professional road bicycle racing, cycling stage race in France, held annually since 1933. Raced over eight days, the race usually starts with a prologue in the Paris region and ends with a final stage either in Nice or on the ...

;2004 : 1st Classique des Alpes : 7th Overall

: 9th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 10th Overall

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

;2005 : 6th Overall Tour of the Basque Country : 7th Overall

Tour de Romandie The Tour de Romandie is a stage race which is part of the UCI World Tour. It runs through the Romandie region, or French-speaking part of Switzerland. The competition began in 1947, to coincide with the 50-year anniversary of Swiss Cycling. It ...

::1st Prologue : 10th Overall

::1st Stage 16 :: Jersey red number

Combativity award Overall ;2006 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

;2007 : 1st Stage 1 ( TTT)

Volta a Catalunya The Volta a Catalunya (; Tour of Catalonia, ) 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 the Basque Country. The race has had ...

: 2nd Overall

Tour du Limousin Tour du Limousin is a 4-day road bicycle race held annually in Limousin, France. It was first held in 1968 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle raci ...

: 6th Clásica a los Puertos de Guadarrama : 10th Overall

;2008 : 3rd Road race, National Road Championships ;2009 : 8th Overall Circuit de la Sarthe-Pays de la Loire

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Cyclo-cross

;1998–1999 : 1st National Under-23 Championships ;1999–2000 : 1st National Under-23 Championships

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pereiro, Oscar 1977 births Living people Footballers from the Province of Pontevedra Spanish men's footballers Men's association football wingers People from Mos, Spain Cyclists from the Province of Pontevedra Spanish Tour de France stage winners Tour de France winners Tour de Suisse stage winners Spanish male cyclists