Pereiro back in saddle

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In the year of the comeback, Oscar Pereiro is also making his way back into the peloton following his harrowing crash in last year’s Tour de France.

The 2006 Tour winner is set to make his season debut at the Tour Down Under, but he’s still nursing a few aches and pains from his fall off a narrow switchback over the Italian Alps.

“After six months of ‘stop,’ I start from zero, but with more motivation than never,” Pereiro told the Spanish daily AS. “My form right now is unknown. When I started training again four months ago, I couldn’t believe it was even my bike, but it had all the same measurements. It was really bad at first, but I know I had to be patient to slowly regain the rhythm. I hope to be competitive again at the end of April, for the Tour of Romandy.”

Pereiro’s world changed in the 15th stage of the Tour. While descending the Col de Agnelo, the Caisse d’Epargne captain crashed over a guardrail at a narrow switchback and fell nearly 20 feet down a cliff onto the road below.

Many feared the worse, but Pereiro was extremely lucky. Although his season was finished, a broken left arm was the most severe of his injuries.

“The knee and the hand are already perfect, but the left arm continues to give me some pain,” he recounted. “Anyway, considering the severity of the fall, I feel lucky. That an arm bothers you a little bit isn’t the worse thing for a cyclist.”

For Pereiro, putting 2008 behind him is his first challenge going into a new season.

Rather than constantly speak and relive the crash, the Spanish all-rounder is trying to confront the racing season with a fresh perspective.

“I cannot change what’s happened. I have to keep looking forward,” Pereiro said. “It’s a new season, a new challenge. I want to forget 2008 and I hope to have a season without problems. I don’t put any goal, I just want to enjoy the bike. I know if I do that I can come back to being with the best, like I was in the Tour in the moment that I crashed.”

For the 2009 Tour, Pereiro doesn’t hold out much hope that he can win. Instead, he’ll help teammate Alejandro Valverde and look for his own chances when he can.

“It’s a route that’s too hard for me, but there are also a lot of stages to attack from very far,” he said. “But for me my principal mission will be to help Valverde, who, for me, has more class than anyone in cycling, even with everything that Contador has won.”

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