Nelson Oliveira, the Portuguese native of Anadia, is at 34 years old a well-known and respected name in the World Tour peloton.
Defending the colors of Movistar for 7 years, and after Alejandro Valverde retired from cycling, he is the voice that everyone hears within the Movistar team. A true commander.
He recently participated in the European Time Trial Cycling Championships, where he achieved an excellent 6th place (18th in the long distance test), precisely the same position obtained in the world championships in Glasgow, Scotland. He opened the book about his performance in the Netherlands in a conversation with the sports newspaper "O Jogo".
"After the Vuelta I was in Madrid with my family, I missed my mother, my wife and my daughters. It's refreshing after three hard weeks." adding "I didn't finish the Vuelta badly and, being focused on work, I knew I could do well in the European Championship."
"If we work well, when the day comes, it pays off. I'm happy with sixth place, but I always want more", he observes, with a mix of satisfaction and ambition.
"I always lack that bit of luck for the medal, as I already have many Top 10s. But I know where it came from (Vuelta) and how it was. The others are good and were fresher."
Nelson looks at the ITT and emphasizes that "There is now a fantastic young generation in chrono." which makes your dream of obtaining a medal increasingly difficult to achieve, as age passes and does not forgive.
Looking at the Vuelta, Nelson is honest and very open in his opinion "Our objective fell far short of what we intended, which was the podium with Enric Mas, and we didn't achieve it." he considered.
Nelson says he is not worried about the future, nor about the request for reinforcements from the leader of the Spanish team, Enric Mas. " I took this news naturally. Enric Mas had already said that, even to the team. It's up to me to do my job ", he said, also revealing that he still doesn't even think about the races he plans to do next year " Next year? I'll wait let my future be announced and then we'll see what comes out of it." he completed, enigmatically.