Did Oscar Freire and Alejandro Valverde’s internal fight cost Spain a gold medal?
Three-time former World Champion, Oscar Freire previously announced his retirement after the 2012 UCI Road World Championships.
The cyclist would only have continued his professional endeavours if he had claimed the top spot at the race, which unlucky did not happen this year.
Freire blamed his teammate Alejandro Valverde for not waiting for him at Cauberg, as previously agreed by the team.
While responding to Freire’s claims, Valverde noted, "We had talked about racing for Oscar, but when I saw Gilbert was getting a gap, I responded to that attack”.
"So we left him (Freire) alone? Gilbert was a long way off and we wouldn't have caught him even if we had started to chase”.
“In fact, if I hadn't doubted for a while, I'd have gone with Gilbert, not after him. I should have chased after him straight way."
"I did the right thing trying to chase down Gilbert. Boasson Hagen and [Alexandre] Kolobnev [Russia] had already attacked. Bloody h**l, it was bronze, but it could have been gold".
Despite having a slow start to his 2012 campaign; Philippe Gilbert registered an important victory as he climbed the top podium spot at the most important race of the year.
He completed the race in a total time of 6 hours, 10 minutes and 41 seconds with Edvald Boasson Hagen and Alejandro Valverde Belmonte finishing 4 and 5 seconds behind at the second and the third positions respectively.
John Degenkolb, Lars Boom, Allan Davis, Thomas Voeckler, Ramunas Navardauskas and Sergio Luis Henao Montoya achieved the next six positions in the respective order.
Oscar Freire Gomez could not secure any better than the tenth overall position at the race which means that the cyclist will call it a day on his professional career by the end of this season.
The 36-year-old rode his first World Championships at the same venue where he rode his last, Valkenburg Netherlands back in 1998.
He succeeded during the 1999, 2001 and 2004 versions of the race with a bronze medal during the 2000 edition of the race.
Winning the world championships three times is definitely a huge achievement and Oscar must not have any regrets from his professional success in the past 14 years in the sport.
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