Oscar Freire returning to Australia at the Tour Down Under 2012
All the cycling teams are looking forward to start their new season with the 2012 Tour Down under in South Australia. Russian UCI Pro Team Katusha is all set to start its new season with the best available squad.
Spanish cyclist Oscar Freire will make his first appearance with the team. The cyclist has raced in Australia before, in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and his most recent appearance was during last year’s World Championships.
Freire’s appearance in the race will certainly attract numerous fans as the Spaniard has earned many admirers throughout his career.
He is considered to be the best sprinter in the cycling world and his strength is the staged road race.
The 35-year-old started his professional career with Vitalicio Seguros in 1998 and stayed with the team for two years.
He then moved to Team Mapei for 2000 and 2002 before finally joining the Dutch Team Rabobank in 2003. Most of his career has been with Rabobank, as he spent a long period of nine years with the team.
Oscar scored a total number of 38 UCI points during the 2011 season and is currently at the 94th position according to the individual UCI rankings as of October 2011.
His inclusion will certainly help the organisers as a large crowd of people will only show up to see their favourite cyclist riding at the Australian stage race.
Mike Turtur is amongst the organisers as he commented about Freire, "He is one of the most impressive riders of the last decade and it will be really exciting for fans to see him take to the start line and for him to bring his competitive edge to the race".
Mike also mentioned that, “Freire has accomplished what only legends like Alfredo Binda, Eddy Merckx and Rik Van Steenbergen have been able to do: win three World Championships [1999, 2001, 2004]".
The 2012 edition of the race is expected to start on Tuesday January 17th 2012 and the six day staged race will conclude on January 22, 2012 with no rest days in the middle. It will be interesting to see how the tour unfolds as teams are getting
ready for a promising start of the new season.
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