"I was the one who provided victories, but I wasn't Dutch" - Oscar Freire looks back at the complicated times at Rabobank

Óscar Freire was one of the leaders of the Rabobank team. He looks back on his years in Dutch service. His son Marcos has inherited his father's genes and is considered one of the greatest junior talents in Spain. Father Óscar hopes his son will find more luck in his professional career than he has at Rabobank.

In an interview with Bahamontes, the three-time world champion says that he'd have never signed for the team again had he known how little support would he have there: "They made choices that I didn't agree with. I could have won the Amstel Gold Race, but for them a second place for Boogerd was more important. And when I led the classification after a stage win in the Tirreno-Adriatico, the team was only concerned with Thomas Dekker."

Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2004 was the same, says Freire. "I was the one who provided victories, but I wasn't Dutch. Liège-Bastogne-Liège, another one. In the long straight to the finish, Boogerd was ahead with Rebellin. I was in the group right behind, with two other guys from our team. Boogerd was of course not fast enough at the finish to beat Rebellin, but instead of letting him stop and us working to catch up with the leaders, the team still went for that second place. And afterwards we were all so happy..."

In the Tour de France, the Spaniard also had to go his own way. "In the Tour, too, a seventh or eighth place in the classification for a Dutchman was more important than a victory for me. No, I didn't get a train for the sprint, the team was put together to finish eighth in Paris. The times the team put me in a good position for a sprint, I usually won. But they did that very rarely. And second places didn't count for me, I only went for the highest."