Pedro Delgado facts for kids
.jpg)
Delgado in 2016
|
|||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Perico | ||
| Born | 15 April 1960 Segovia, Castile and León, Spain |
||
| Height | 1.71 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in) | ||
| Weight | 64 kg (141 lb; 10 st 1 lb) | ||
| Team information | |||
| Current team | Retired | ||
| Discipline | Road | ||
| Role | Rider | ||
| Rider type | Climbing specialist | ||
| Major wins | |||
|
|||
Pedro Delgado Robledo (born 15 April 1960), often called Perico, is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. He was a very successful cyclist who won the Tour de France in 1988. He also won the Vuelta a España twice, in 1985 and 1989. He finished in the top 10 of eighteen major cycling races called Grand Tours.
During the 1988 Tour de France, Pedro Delgado had a test that showed a substance called Probenecid. At that time, this substance was on the Olympic Committee's list of banned items, but not yet on the list for cycling's main organization, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). Because of this, he was allowed to keep racing and was not found to have broken any cycling rules.
Today, Pedro Delgado works as a sports commentator for Televisión Española, sharing his knowledge during big cycling events.
Contents
Pedro Delgado's Tour de France Journey
Pedro Delgado competed in the Tour de France eleven times. When he was 23, in his first Tour, he reached second place overall after stage 17. However, he later fell back in the race.
In 1983, Delgado was a young rider for the Reynolds team. That year's Tour had many time trials and mountain stages. After stage 17, Delgado was second overall, just over a minute behind another young rider, Laurent Fignon. But Delgado got a stomach cramp after drinking some bad milk. He lost a lot of time that day and finished 15th overall.
His Close Race in 1987
Delgado had a very close competition with Stephen Roche during the 1987 Tour de France. The winner was decided in the second-to-last stage, which was an individual time trial. Roche won by only 40 seconds, which was one of the smallest differences ever in the Tour's history at that time. Delgado was known as one of the best time-trialists that year.
Winning the Tour in 1988
Pedro Delgado won the 1988 Tour de France by a large amount of time. After stage 17, news came out that a substance called probenecid was found in one of his tests. This substance was on the list of banned items for the Olympic Games, but not yet on the list for cycling's main organization, the UCI.
Because the substance was not on the UCI's banned list at that time, the race officials decided that Delgado had not broken any cycling rules. He was allowed to continue racing. Some people involved in the Tour and other riders were not happy with this decision. However, Delgado wore the yellow jersey for eleven days and passed all other tests. He finished the race with a lead of over seven minutes.
The Challenging 1989 Tour
At the 1989 Tour de France, Delgado had a very difficult start. He arrived 2 minutes and 40 seconds late for the first stage, which was a short time trial. This meant he started the race in last place, far behind the leader. He later said he was very nervous and couldn't sleep the night before.
The next day, he felt weak and lost even more time in a team time trial. After these early stages, he was still in last place overall, more than seven minutes behind the leader, Laurent Fignon.
Despite the bad start, Delgado rode very aggressively for the rest of the race. He started to gain time back in the individual time trial on stage 5. In the mountain stages, he attacked and gained more time on his rivals. By stage 17, he was in third place overall. Even though he rode very well, he couldn't make up all the time he had lost at the beginning. The final battle for the win was between Laurent Fignon and Greg LeMond, who eventually won.
Major Wins and Achievements
Pedro Delgado had many important wins throughout his career. Here are some of his biggest achievements:
- Tour de France:
* Overall winner in 1988 * Won 4 individual stages (1985, 1986, 1987, 1988)
- Vuelta a España:
* Overall winner in 1985 and 1989 * Won 5 individual stages (1985, 1989, 1992)
- Other Races:
* Vuelta a Burgos (1991) * Vuelta a Murcia (1981) * Vuelta a Aragón (1983) * Clásica de Sabiñánigo (1982) * GP Miguel Induráin (1988, 1990) * Subida a Urkiola (1991) * Clásica a los Puertos (1991) * Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme (1993)
Grand Tour Results Over the Years
This table shows how Pedro Delgado finished in the three biggest cycling races, called Grand Tours, each year he competed.
| Grand Tour | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Vuelta a España |
29 | 15 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 4 | DNF | 1 | 2 | DNF | 3 | 6 | 3 |
 Giro d'Italia |
— | — | — | — | DNF | — | 7 | — | — | 15 | — | — | — |
| Tour de France |
— | 15 | DNF | 6 | DNF | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 9 | — |
| — | Did not compete |
|---|---|
| DNF | Did not finish |
See also
In Spanish: Pedro Delgado para niños
