Date:17/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/17/stories/2007101756082100.htm

Sport - Cycling

Pereiro gets yellow jersey

MADRID: Oscar Pereiro finally got his hands on the winner’s yellow jersey from the 2006 Tour de France on Monday.

“Finally, we have a winner and it’s Oscar,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme said. “Oscar, you have won the Tour out on the road.”

The Spaniard moved up from second to first after the disqualification of Floyd Landis for doping.

“I have the feeling of arriving at the end of a thriller, after having spent 14 months thinking about it and not being able to concentrate as I should have on my job,” Pereiro said. “It is essentially a kind of release.”

The International Cycling Union formally declared Pereiro the winner on September 21, one day after a U.S. arbitration panel voted 2-1 to remove the title from Landis.

First time in history

It’s the first time in the 105-year history of the race that a winner has been stripped of the title. “The moment I received the profit of my work, I had mixed feelings, something between satisfaction and regret for what we were deprived of,” Pereiro said. — AP