Abraham Olano

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 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.

In 1998, Olano won his only grand tour, the Vuelta a España, 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 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

2nd Overall Vuelta a España 1st Prologue, Stages 7 (ITT) & 20 (ITT)

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 Prologue & Stage 6 (ITT)

1st Stage 5b (ITT) 1st Circuit de l'Aulne

2nd Road race, National Road Championships 2nd Grand Prix of Aargau Canton 3rd Overall Giro d'Italia

3rd Overall Tour of the Basque Country

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 Stage 4b (ITT) 1st Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 2nd Overall Vuelta a Burgos

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 Stage 9 (ITT)

1st Stage 1 (ITT)

1st Stage 4b (ITT)

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 Stage 1 (ITT) Vuelta a España 1st Stage 6 (ITT)

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 Stage 5 (ITT)

1st Stage 5b (ITT)

Vuelta a España 1st Stage 9 (ITT)

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

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

+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish