 | BOTERO FACTFILE DOB: 27/10/1972 Nationality: Colombia Best Tour: 2001 - 4th overall |
The last two years have not been kind to Santiago Botero but in 2005 he has recaptured the sort of form that used to rile Lance Armstrong in the Tour. Last year he finished 75th overall, while the previous year he retired from the race, and brought an early end to his season, with stomach problems.
But a switch from T-Mobile where he appeared to be stagnating to Phonak seems to have done the trick.
He won the Tour of Romandy and was second in the Dauphine Libere.
In the latter, he finished ahead of Armstrong and, more importantly perhaps, beat the Texan in the event's time trial.
Botero has been one of the few riders to regularly defeat Armstrong against the clock, which could again be a key to how he fares in the race.
But the Colombian, one of the natural climbers in the peloton, too often has a solitary dire day to cost him an real chances in the overall classification.
His best result in the race was fourth in 2001.
MMIX
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