Sanchez

Samuel Sanchez

Date of birth: 05/02/1978

From: Oviedo, Spain

Team: Euskaltel-Euskadi [since 2000]

Samuel Sanchez rider profile

Olympic road-race champion Samuel Sanchez is one of Spain's most talented hilly Classics riders - although he's hardly lacking in ability when it comes to snaffling stages in three-week races, too.

30-year-old Sanchez crowning moment of his career so far came in the 2008 Olympic Games, where he outsprinted a small breakaway group on the gruelling Beijing road-race course for gold.

Born in rainy Oviedo in northern Spain, Sanchez is a life-long rider with the Euskaltel-Euskadi squad. He would not normally be elegible for the team because he does not come form the Basque Country, like all the other riders. But the team signed him because he has ridden in the region as an amateur.

Third in the Tour of Spain in 2007 after winning three stages, Sanchez first all-out assault on the Tour de France in 2008 saw him taking a more than respectable seventh. He also won Olympic Gold in Beijing, beating Davide Rebellin and Fabian Cancellara in the road race.

Second in the 2009 Vuelta a Espana, Sanchez narrowly missed out on the podium in the 2010 Tour de France.

The following year in 2011, Sanchez took the King of the Mountains classification at the Tour. An untimely crash in the 2012 Tour saw him forced to withdraw and unable to defend his Olympic road race title in London.

Samuel Sanchez results

2012

Tour of the Basque Country; stage three

Tour of the Basque Country; stage six

Tour of the Basque Country; overall

Tour of the Basque Country; points classification

Volta a Catalunya; stage six

2011

GP Miguel Indurain

Tour de France; stage 12

Tour de France; mountains classification

Vuelta a Burgos; stage one

Tour of the Basque Country; stage four

2010

Tour of the Basque Country; stage four

Tour of the Basque Country; points classification

Vuelta a Burgos; overall

Vuelta a Burgos; points classification

Vuelta a Burgos; stage two

Vuelta a Burgos; stage five

Klasika Primavera

2009

Tour of the Basque Country; points classification

Vuelta Asturias; points classification

GP Llodio

2008

Vuelta Asturias; stage

Olympic Road Race; gold

2007

Tour of Spain; stage

Tour of Spain; stage

Tour of Catalonia; stage

Tour of the Basque Country; stage

2006

Tour of Spain; stage

Tour of Basque Country; stage

Tour of Basque Country; stage

Tour of Asturias; stage

Championship of Zurich

2005

Tour of Spain; stage

Samuel Sanchez photos

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Samuel Sanchez

Samuel Sanchez

Samuel Sanchez

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