Abraham Olano

Abraham Olano
Personal information
Full name	Abraham Olano Manzano
Born	January 22, 1970 (age 54); Anoeta, Spain
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	70 kg (150 lb; 11 st)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Time-trialist
Major wins
	Grand Tours Tour de France 1 Stage Vuelta a España General Classification (1998) 5 Stages One-day races and Classics Road World Championship Time Trial (1998) Road Race World Champion (1995) Spanish National Road Race Champion (1994) Spanish National Time Trial Champion (1994, 1998)
Medal record
Representing Spain
Road bicycle racing
Olympic Games
World Championships

Abraham Olano Manzano (born on January 22, 1970 in Anoeta, Gipuzkoa) is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist. His highest achievement was in 1995 when he became World Road Champion. In 1998 he won the World Time Trial Championship.

Amateur career

Olano started racing 11 years old at the Oria Cycling school, and already at junior level he won several races.^[1] 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.^[1] 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.^[1]

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 the World Cycling Championship in Colombia, ahead of his compatriot Miguel Indurain, and won three stages in the Vuelta a España.^[1] Olano was seen by many supporters as the successor to five-times Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain.

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.^[1]

Olano finished fourth in the 1997 Tour de France.

In 1998, he again became world champion, this time in the time trial, and won his only grand tour, the Vuelta a España.^[1]

In 1999, Olano switched to the Spanish ONCE team and remained there through the end of his career in 2001. His highest achievement in that period was 2nd place in the 2001 Giro d'Italia.^[1]

After his cycling career - Doping revelations

Olano is one of the people responsible for designing stages for the Vuelta a España.^[1] 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.^[2]

In November 2006 he ran the San Sebastian marathon in a time of 2:39:19.