Oscar Freire should be the new Spanish National Coach, Paco Antequera
Former Spanish National Coach Paco Antequera is in contention of being the new president of the Spanish Cycling Federation and he will appoint Oscar Freire as the new National Road Race Coach.
“Freire is a great teammate, he knows from his own experience what it means to race and challenge for a world’s team,” Antequera cited.
“His techniques and tactics have enabled him to triumph many times as a pro and now I want him to pass on that experience and know-how to the riders of the Spanish team”.
Oscar has not shown any direct interest towards becoming the National Coach but noted that he will support Paco.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to participate in this project, Paco has proposed to put cycling back to the level where it deserves to be, and I’m going to be by his side to achieve that,” Freire noted in a press release.
The cyclist retired from the sport in October with several top performances under his belt throughout his 14 years of professional career.
He started riding professionally with Team Vitalicio Seguros in 1998 and stayed with the team by the end of 1999 season.
Freire joined Team Mapei-Quick Step in 2000 and helped the team with several top performances during his three-year stay with the time before moving to Team Rabobank in 2003.
The Spaniard spent a maximum number of nine-years with the Dutch side, through 2003-2011 before accepting an offer from the Russian side, Team Katusha in 2012.
He holds as many as three UCI Road World Championships gold medals in his bag, earned during the 1999, 2001 and 2004 versions of the race including a bronze medal in 2004.
The 36-year-old had a good 2012 season with stage victories at the Santos Tour Down Under and the Vuelta a Andalucia along with the second place finishes at the E3 Harelbeke and the Brabantse Pijl 2012.
He finished fourth at the Amstel Gold Race, seventh at the Milan-San Remo and occupied the tenth overall position at the UCI Road World Championships 2012.
Paco Antequera performed his duties as the Spanish National Coach through 1998 to 2008 and till date he is by far the most successful Spanish National Coach, helping the nation winning the maximum number of gold medals at the Worlds level under his watchful
guidance.
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