Oscar Pereiro retires due to surgery
Oscar Pereiro is ending his 11-year professional cycling career a little earlier than he intended, due to a required surgery in relation to a cyst in his right wrist. Pereiro can trace the problem back to a major crash over two years ago, in the 2008 Tour
de France, where he suffered a broken arm.
"After a month of therapy, with ultrasound sessions, electrical currents, paraffin and massages, the progress that the doctors had hoped for did not materialize," said Pereiro. "There is nothing else left to do other than surgery."
The 33-year-old Team Astana rider was targeting a stage win at the Vuelta a Espana this year, his home country’s Grand Tour, as a final victory of his career, but had to miss the Spanish tour due to the lack of full movement in his wrist. Since then, he
has been trying to use conventional therapy to loosen the tendons in his wrist in anticipation of an end-of-season race in Valencia at the beginning of October, but the treatments have failed. The surgery will be performed by trauma specialist Calos Irisarri
in Vigo, Spain.
"It has been a real pain, because due to this injury I couldn't be active, like I wanted to. I won't be able to ride the Criterium Internacional de la Comunidad Valenciana, on October 3, like I promised to [friend and former Pro cyclist] Javier Castellar."
In the previous four editions of the Tour, 2004 to 2007, the Spaniard finished in 10th overall three times and currently holds the overall victory in the 2006 Tour de France, which was won by Floyd Landis, but handed to Pereiro, the runner-up,
after Landis’ victories were revoked due to doping violations. That year was the first that the Spaniard rode with Caisse d’Epargne, the team he rode with until the end of 2009.
He had been contemplating retirement until Astana offered him a one-year contract at the end of the 2009 season.
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