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.
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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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