SPAIN: CYCLING - Oscar Pereiro receives winner's yellow jersey from 2006 Tour de France after Floyd Landis' disqualification for doping

Record ID: 601479

  • Title: SPAIN: CYCLING - Oscar Pereiro receives winner's yellow jersey from 2006 Tour de France after Floyd Landis' disqualification for doping
  • Date: 16th October 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) 2006 TOUR DE FRANCE CHAMPION, OSCAR PEREIRO, SAYING: "I feel sorry for him. He was disqualified after the biggest triumph of his life and won't be able to enjoy it - I can't celebrate what's happening, that would make me a terrible person. But as a sportsman you have to stick to the rules." PEREIRO ENDING NEWS CONFERENCE PEREIRO GREETING FANS BEHIND
  • Embargoed: 31st October 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA9P2G44CQ86S6CI1DE4E14B0PM
  • Story Text: Spain's Oscar Pereiro receives the winner's yellow jersey from the 2006 Tour de France after Floyd Landis' disqualification for doping.
    Spaniard Oscar Pereiro finally got his hands on the 2006 Tour de France winner's yellow jersey at a special ceremony in Madrid on Monday (October 15).
    Fifteen months after the race finished, the 30-year-old was officially recognised the winner after American Floyd Landis had been stripped of victory for testing positive for synthetic testosterone.
    Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said Pereiro was the definitive winner and that the Spanish rider could finally take his place in the hall of fame.

    "At last we have a winner. It has been long, too long, for Oscar Pereiro, his team, for the Tour de France and too long for Spain too, proved by the impressive amount of journalists present here today. But the story has finally come to an end. It's being the longest delay in the Tour's history, but Pereiro is a real champion," he said.
    Pereiro is the sixth Spaniard to win the Tour after Federico Bahamontes, Luis Ocana, Pedro Delgado, Miguel Indurain and 2007 winner Alberto Contador.
    Pereiro thanked the Tour and his family and team mates for their support but said how glad he was to see the story come to an end.

    "The wait was interminable, very frustrating and at times - with all due respects - I thought the Tour de France had something personal against me. I now realise the Tour organisers had to wait for a resolution, and proof of that is the fact that we are all gathered here now, celebrating, despite knowing, as we all know, that Landis is appealing the decision," the Caisse d'Epargne rider told reporters at the headquarters of the Spanish Sports Council.
    Landis said last Wednesday (October 10) he would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over the doping case which has also cost him a two-year ban. Pereiro held the yellow jersey for five days but was overhauled as leader when Landis staged an incredible comeback towards the end of the race.
    It later emerged his former team mate had failed a doping test but runner-up Pereiro was not awarded victory until a lengthy investigation by the American Arbitration Association ended last month.
    Spain's sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky said Landis's disqualification was a victory in the battle against doping.

    "I think it's good news for the sports world in general to count on mechanisms capable of separating those who play dirty from those who play clean," he said.
    Wearing the coveted "maillot jaune", Pereiro told reporters that in sports there are rules that must be respected.

    "I feel sorry for him. He was disqualified after the biggest triumph of his life and won't be able to enjoy it - I can't celebrate what's happening, that would make me a terrible person. But as a sportsman you have to stick to the rules," he said.
    The new champion had a lead of more than eight minutes over Landis heading into the 17th stage of 2006's Tour, but saw Landis win the day's stage by almost five minutes. Pereiro finished 57 seconds behind the American in the final standings.
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