- Valverde. "It doesn't overwhelm me to lose the throne"
«Who is Freire Velasco?» Italian journalists exclaimed as they surrounded Luis Román , press officer of the Spanish Cycling Federation, to demand information about the most unexpected world champion . A gift nobody broke into a tornado in medieval Verona at the beginning of October 1999 .
A 23-year-old boy, who had spent almost the entire idle season due to a knee injury, surprised as nobody in the World Cup en route with a master attack in the absence of 800 meters. After jumping for Camenzind , he stood in line with a small group marching in an Indian line and where Vandenbroucke, Casagrande, Ullrich, Robin, Konishev, Zberg, McRae, Celestino and Boogerd were . In the last straight he made a great maneuver: in a right-hand corner, he left the group's rebuild, hit the right of the road and accelerated close to the fences without his rivals being able to follow him. "I was propelled by that innate winning instinct ... The image of the rabbit in the hat of the prestidigitator so many times repeated, seen and narrated," wrote Pedro Horrillo, former runner , in the prologue of the book Oscar Freire, the genius of the rainbow (Titano Ediciones), by Juanma Muraday.
«I've only been a professional for two years. I am not married, but I have a girlfriend. I studied Metal but left it in fourth grade, when I became a professional cyclist. I am a day runner and I pass the middle mountain, but I stay in the long harbors ». This is how Freire appeared before those reporters eager to discover the new champion. Next to him was the coach Paco Antequera , the only one who trusted the boy from Torrelavega. «I managed the last meters well because I had already been in similar situations in youth and sub'23. It benefited me to be a stranger because then nobody was watching me . That changed over the years, and I had to win differently, ” says Freire today, 20 years later .
A victory that marked a turning point in Spanish cycling in the World Cups, championships premiered in 1927 and in which until then sporadic medals had been achieved ( Sáez, Ocaña, Juan Fernández, Indurain and Olano, gold in Duitama ). Since Freire catapulted his career in Verona, no country has surpassed Spain in the sum of medals and titles. In two decades: five golds (three from Freire, one from Astarloa and one from Valverde) . The next in this ranking is Italy, with four. The medals added by the Spaniards have been 14 (in addition to the golds mentioned, two silver and four bronze of Valverde, a Freire bronze and a silver and a bronze by Purito Rodríguez), double that of Italy and Australia. The podium as a habit. «I don't think Spanish cycling is indebted to me . Yes it is possible that I opened a path for cyclists in the one-day tests, not for the teams, which still have the same mentality of the great races ”, points out the best Spanish classicist ever .
Cycling world
VERY DEMANDED TOUR
THE CANDIDATES
THE CHAMPION, FOR THE EIGHTH METAL
The main event, the men's elite route, consists of a complicated route of 285 kilometers, leaving in Leeds and arriving in Harrogate. The route includes numerous steep slopes and the end ends on an 800 meter ramp, not suitable for sprinters.
Neither for sprinters nor for climbers, only for complete runners. The relationship of applicants is broad; Valverde (defends title), the Dutch Van der Poel, the French Alaphilippe, the Belgian Gilbert, the Slovak Sagan or the British Simon Yates.
Alejandro Valverde assumes that the reconquest of gold is difficult because the circuit is less hard than in 2018, but does not rule out stretching its world record. The Spanish has seven medals (one gold, two silver and four bronze), more than anyone.
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