Abraham Olano

Abraham Olano Manzano (born 22 January 1970 in Anoeta, Gipuzkoa) 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.

Olano finished fourth in the 1997 Tour de France, taking 1 stage win – a long time trial in Disneyland, ahead of the eventual Tour winner Jan Ullrich.

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. The International Olympic Committee also refused to give the bronze medal to him, since Lance Armstrong had been doping like him.

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


 * 1994
 * National Road Championships
 * 1st MaillotEspaña.PNG Road race
 * 1st MaillotEspaña.PNG Time trial
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Clásica Internacional de Alcobendas
 * 1st Jersey blue.svg Overall Vuelta a Asturias
 * 5th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships


 * 1995
 * UCI Road World Championships
 * 1st Jersey rainbow.svg Road race
 * 2nd Silver medal blank.svg Time trial
 * 2nd Overall Vuelta a España
 * 1st Prologue, Stages 7 (ITT) & 20 (ITT)
 * 4th Overall Paris–Nice


 * 1996
 * 1st Jersey green.svg Overall Tour de Romandie
 * 1st Stage 6 (ITT)
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Tour of Galicia
 * 2nd Silver medal olympic.svg Time trial, Olympic Games
 * 2nd Road race, National Road Championships
 * 2nd GP du Canton d'Argovie
 * 3rd Overall Giro d'Italia
 * Held Jersey pink.svg after Stage 20
 * 3rd Overall Tour of the Basque Country
 * 8th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships
 * 9th Overall Tour de France


 * 1997
 * 1st Jersey blue.svg Overall Euskal Bizikleta
 * 1st Stage 4b (ITT)
 * 1st Grand Prix Eddy Merckx
 * 2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
 * 3rd Overall Vuelta a Aragón
 * 4th Overall Tour de France
 * 1st Stage 20 (ITT)


 * 1998
 * 1st Jersey rainbow chrono.svg Time trial, UCI Road World Championships
 * 1st MaillotEspaña.PNG Time trial, National Road Championships
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Vuelta a España
 * 1st Stage 9 (ITT)
 * 1st Jersey blue.svg Overall Euskal Bizikleta
 * 1st Stage 4b (ITT)
 * 1st Vuelta Ciclista a La Rioja
 * 1st Grand Prix Eddy Merckx
 * 6th Overall Volta a Catalunya


 * 1999
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Vuelta a Burgos
 * 1st Stage 6 (ITT) Vuelta a España
 * 6th Overall Tour de France


 * 2000
 * 1st Jersey yellowred.svg Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
 * 1st Stage 5
 * 1st Jersey gold.svg Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
 * 1st Stage 5b (ITT)
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Critérium International
 * 1st Stage 8 (ITT) Vuelta a España
 * 4th Time trial, Olympic Games
 * 5th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships
 * 8th Overall Tour Méditerranéen


 * 2001
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg 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