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Wikipedia / José Luis Rubiera

José Luis Rubiera Vigil (born 27 January 1973 in Gijón) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. He last rode for the UCI ProTour team . Rubiera won his first professional race at the 1997 Giro d'Italia, winning stage 19. He won another stage in the 2000 Giro d'Italia and was part of three consecutive team time trial (TTT) stage wins in the Tour de France.

He has also finished in the top 10 of both the Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia, on two occasions apiece.

His climbing ability was instrumental in leading Lance Armstrong to five of his Tour de France victories, most famously leading Armstrong up the start of Alpe d'Huez in 2001. It was also on this stage that "The Look" incident happened between Armstrong and Jan Ullrich just prior to Armstrong's launch of his attack. In reality, Armstrong was not looking at Ullrich, but rather at Rubiera as he was checking to be sure Rubiera would be there to save him if he cracked and his attack failed.

He earned an engineering degree in 2004, while balancing his race schedule and studies. Rubiera was elected as deputy to the cyclists' representative council of the UCI ProTour.

Career achievements

Major results

  1. 1997

  2. 10th Overall, Giro d'Italia

    1. 1st, Stage 19

    1999

  3. 1st Overall, Volta ao Alentejo

    1. 1st, Stage 3b (ITT)

    6th Overall, Vuelta a España

  4. 2000

  5. 1st, Subida al Naranco

  6. 8th Overall, Giro d'Italia

    1. 1st, Stage 13

    2001

  7. 2nd Overall, Vuelta a Burgos

    1. 1st, King of the Mountains

    7th Overall, Vuelta a España

  8. 2002

  9. 2nd Overall, Vuelta a Burgos

  10. 2003

  11. 1st, Stage 4 (TTT), Tour de France

  12. 2004

  13. 1st, Stage 4 (TTT), Tour de France

  14. 2nd, Châteauroux Classic

  15. 2005

  16. 1st, Stage 4 (TTT), Tour de France

  17. 3rd Overall, Volta ao Algarve

  18. 2006

  19. 3rd Overall, Vuelta a Castilla y León

  20. 9th Overall, Paris–Nice

  21. 10th Overall, Volta ao Algarve

  22. 2007

  23. 1st, Stage 8, Tour of Qinghai Lake

  24. 2008

  25. 1st, Stage 2, Vuelta a Murcia

  26. 2009

  27. 10th Overall, Tour of California

  28. 2010

  29. 10th Overall, Vuelta a Castilla y León

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

References