Abraham Olano Manzano (born 22 January 1970) is a Spanish retired professional road racing cyclist, who raced as a professional from 1992 to 2002. He won the World Road Championship in 1995, and the World Time Trial Championship in 1998, becoming the first male cyclist to win both.
He won Vuelta a España in 1998, was second in 1995, made it twice to the final podium at Giro d'Italia (third in 1996 and second in 2001), and placed three times in the top-ten at Tour de France, with the fourth place in 1997 as his personal best. In total he won six stages in the Vuelta and one in the Tour, all of them time trials.
Olano was also double Spanish Champion in both road (1994) and time trial (1994 and 1998), olympic silver medalist in time trial in Atlanta 1996 and winner of several shorter stage races, like Tour of Romandie in 1996 and Critérium International and Tirreno–Adriatico in 2000.
Amateur career Olano started racing 11 years old at the Oria Cycling school, and already at junior level he won several races. Later, Olano went to track racing. He became Spanish Champion in pursuit (together with Etxegoyen, Pérez and Juárez), in the 1 km with standing start and in sprint. In road racing, he started as an amateur for Kaiku and AVSA. He was specialized in sprinting.
Professional career In 1992, Olano started his professional career at CHCS. This team shortly after disbanded, and he moved to Lotus. With Lotus, Olano won his first professional race, the Gran Premio de Villafranca de Ordizia in Gipuzkoa.
In 1993, Olano switched to CLAS Cajastur, which was later merged with Mapei. Here, he started to win important races, such as the Vuelta a Asturias and the Spanish National Road Race Championships, both in road race and time trial.
In 1995, Olano won three stages in the Vuelta a España, finishing second in overall classification to Laurent Jalabert. Later in the year Olano was a vital part of a hugely successful Spanish team at the World Cycling Championship in Colombia. In the time trial, Olano took silver, finishing second to Miguel Induráin. In the road race, the top two positions was reversed, with Olano taking the championship and Indurain silver. The route for the road race was one of the hardest courses ever for a World Championship, and Olano showed his stamina by riding the last kilometer solo with a flat tyre.
Olano established his abilities in stage races in 1996; he won the Tour de Romandie, finished third in the Giro d'Italia (leading the race at the second to last day), and finished ninth in the Tour de France. He also won the silver medal in the time trial at the 1996 Olympic Games, losing out to Miguel Induráin by a margin of only 12 seconds.
Amongst the pre-race favourites, Olano finished fourth in the 1997 Tour de France, taking 1 stage win – a long time trial on the penultimate day in Disneyland, finishing the stage 45 seconds ahead of the eventual Tour winner Jan Ullrich, and the performance moving him ahead of compatriot Fernando Escartin in the overall standings as the top-finishing Spaniard.
In 1998, Olano won his only grand tour, the Vuelta a España, fighting off furious challenges from mountain specialists Fernando Escartín and Roberto Heras as well as fellow all-rounders Laurent Jalabert and Alex Zülle, all at the height of their careers. Despite the victory, Olano was reportedly not happy with the support from the Banesto team and management. Banesto's own mountain specialist José María Jiménez took 4 stage wins, on several occasions leaving Olano alone on the climbs, and even taking the Yellow Jersey from his team captain. Olano won back the jersey on the second time trial, but the events and subsequent media speculation soured his relationship with Banesto, and he decided for a switch to the ONCE team for the following season.
Olano finished 1998 in style, winning the World Championship time trial in Valkenburg, ahead of compatriot Melcior Mauri. Olano was the first male rider of the modern era to win the World Championship in both the road race (1995) and the time trial (1998).
In 1999, Olano was back to defend the Vuelta title. In the prologue, severe rains put the late starters (including most of the GC contenders) at a big disadvantage, but Olano nevertheless managed to take 2nd place. In the stage 7 time trial, Olano won with a clear margin to main challenger Jan Ullrich, taking the top spot on the GC and the Yellow Jersey. Olano defended his lead through several mountain stages, but a crash on the stage to Alto de Angliru cost him a broken rib, and he was eventually forced to abandon the race.
In 2000, Olano made a shift in focusing on shorter stage races, and won Tirreno–Adriatico and Critérium International, among others. He would make his last mark at the grand Tours with a 2nd place in the 2001 Giro d'Italia. He retired from racing in 2002.
On account of results early in his career, a Basque background and some physical similarities, Olano was seen by many supporters as the successor to five-times Tour de France winner Miguel Induráin. The comparison would haunt Olano for all of his career, as he went on to have a career that was very successful by almost any other standard. Olano was one of the very best time trialists of his generation, and a rider with enormous stamina. However, he was a reluctant climber, and a tendency to lose valuable time to the specialists on the steepest and highest climbs, would keep his number of Grand Tour wins to one.
Doping revelations Olano is one of the people responsible for designing stages for the Vuelta a España. He was fired from this position after a report from the French senate revealed that he had delivered a suspicious sample during the 1998 Tour de France, indicating use of EPO. In 2013, the International Olympic Committee chose not to upgrade his fourth place finish in the 2000 Olympic Games time trial after the bronze medalist Lance Armstrong had returned his medal for doping offences, with the bronze medal left vacant in Olympic records.
Later life In November 2006 Olano ran the San Sebastián marathon in a time of 2:39:19. In October 2015, he took over as new national coach for Gabon, with the task of building the national team "from scratch".
Major results
1992 1st Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia 3rd Clásica de Almería 6th Circuito de Getxo 1993 2nd Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León 7th Trofeo Luis Puig 1994 National Road Championships 1st Road race 1st Time trial 1st Overall Clásica Internacional de Alcobendas 1st Overall Vuelta a Asturias 1st Stage 2 (ITT) 2nd Trofeo Foral de Navarra 5th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships 6th Overall Volta a Catalunya 1st Stage 1 (ITT) 7th Trofeo Masferrer 1995 UCI Road World Championships 1st Road race 2nd Time trial 2nd Overall Vuelta a España 1st Prologue, Stages 7 (ITT) & 20 (ITT) Held after Prologue & Stage 1 Held after Prologue 3rd Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 4th Overall Paris–Nice 5th Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme 9th Overall Euskal Bizikleta 10th Overall Tour of Galicia 1996 1st Overall Tour de Romandie 1st Prologue & Stage 6 (ITT) 1st Overall Tour of Galicia 1st Stage 5b (ITT) 1st Circuit de l'Aulne 2nd Time trial, Olympic Games 2nd Road race, National Road Championships 2nd Grand Prix of Aargau Canton 3rd Overall Giro d'Italia Held after Stage 20 3rd Overall Tour of the Basque Country 1st Points classification 3rd Grand Prix des Nations 4th Telekom Grand Prix (with Johan Museeuw) 6th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 7th Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme 8th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships 9th Overall Tour de France 1997 1st Overall Euskal Bizikleta 1st Stage 4b (ITT) 1st Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 2nd Overall Vuelta a Burgos 1st Points classification 1st Stage 4 (ITT) 2nd Overall Vuelta a Asturias 1st Prologue 2nd Gran Premio de Llodio 3rd Overall Vuelta a Aragón 4th Overall Tour de France 1st Stage 20 (ITT) 4th Trofeo Foral de Navarra 4th Classique des Alpes 5th Road race, National Road Championships 8th Overall Tour of the Basque Country 1998 1st Time trial, UCI Road World Championships 1st Time trial, National Road Championships 1st Overall Vuelta a España 1st Stage 9 (ITT) 1st Overall Vuelta a Burgos 1st Stage 1 (ITT) 1st Overall Euskal Bizikleta 1st Stage 4b (ITT) 1st Overall Vuelta a La Rioja 1st Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 2nd Overall Tour of Galicia 1st Stage 2 2nd Overall Escalada a Montjuïc 6th Overall Volta a Catalunya 1999 1st Overall Vuelta a Burgos 1st Points classification 1st Stage 1 (ITT) Vuelta a España 1st Stage 6 (ITT) Held after Stages 5–11 1st Stage 2b (ITT) Vuelta a Asturias 1st Stage 4b (ITT) Euskal Bizikleta 2nd Grand Prix Breitling (with Laurent Jalabert) 3rd Overall Tour of Galicia 6th Overall Tour de France 2000 1st Overall Tirreno–Adriatico 1st Stage 5 (ITT) 1st Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 1st Stage 5b (ITT) 1st Overall Critérium International Vuelta a España 1st Stage 9 (ITT) Held after Stage 9 1st Stage 4 (TTT) Tour de France 4th Time trial, Olympic Games 5th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships 8th Overall Tour Méditerranéen 8th Grand Prix EnBW (with Laurent Jalabert) 2001 1st Overall Clásica de Alcobendas 2nd Overall Giro d'Italia 7th GP Primavera 2002 1st Stage 4 (TTT) Tour de France 2nd Road race, National Road Championships
General classification results timeline Grand Tour general classification results Grand Tour 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Giro d'Italia — — —3 — — — —2 — Tour de France DNF 30 —94 DNF6 34 — 78 / Vuelta a España — 202 — DNF1 DNF 19 64 —Major stage race general classification results Race 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 / Paris–Nice 28 —4 24 — — — — — — Tirreno–Adriatico — — — — — — 681 31 52 Tour of the Basque Country 97 13 DNF38 DNF 40 DNF 13 37 / Tour de Romandie — — —1 — — — — — — Critérium du Dauphiné — — — —2 — — 18 — — Volta a Catalunya — 21 DNF — —6 11 — — — Tour de Suisse 29 — — — — — — — — —
+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish
Notes
References
External links Tour de France results