Juan Antonio Flecha

Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (born 17 September 1977) is an Argentine-born Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2000 and 2013.

Flecha had a reputation of being a Classics specialist and to ride with an aggressive style as he was keen on participating in breakaways.

His major victories include winning a stage of the 2003 Tour de France, successes at the two defunct classics Züri-Metzgete and Giro del Lazio in 2004, and the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2010.

He was also known for his numerous high placings in important one-day races, most notably Paris–Roubaix, where he finished in the top ten eight times without registering the victory.

In the Grand Tours, he was often assigned to a role of domestique.

Flecha spent his early years in Argentina.

His father died in a car accident when he was four years of age.

He moved to Spain with his mother when he was eleven, where they lived in Sitges, near Barcelona.

He gained fame in 2003 when he became the first rider born in Argentina to win a Tour de France stage while riding for.

As he rode across the finish line he performed a unique victory salute: he pantomimed releasing an arrow from a bow in homage to his family name ("Flecha" is the Spanish word for "arrow").

Although he said in a French interview, "Je dédie ma victoire a toute mon équipe", (I dedicate my victory to my whole team), it was also reported that he said after the race: "My win here is special, and it belongs to me and nobody else!"

The 2004 season saw him as a co-leader in the Italian team for the Classics and one-day races, with notable finishes in various races from the Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and victories in Züri-Metzgete and the Giro del Lazio.

He often shared team leadership with Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara, with whom he said he was working very well.

In Züri-Metzgete, he won a 30 rider bunch gallop in front of Italian Paolo Bettini.

This victory helped him achieve the fifth position of the 2004 UCI Road World Cup, a classification that was calculated over ten major one-day races.

The following season with Fassa Bortolo in 2005 saw Flecha involved in a controversial finish at Gent–Wevelgem, where he had to settle for second.

Nico Mattan of attacked the leading group with 9 km left in the race and only Flecha and Baden Cooke had the resources to follow.

Flecha then placed an attack of his own and dropped the two men.

It looked like he was on his way to success when Mattan got back to him in the last kilometer by using the slipstream produced by the race's cars, which is not allowed, and beat Flecha for the line.

A couple of days later, he finished on the third step of the podium in Paris–Roubaix, a confirmation of his skills in the cobbled classics.

He entered the Roubaix Velodrome with Tom Boonen and George Hincapie, but his sprinting speed was not sufficient to get the win.

rider Egoi Martínez said in an interview that in a race "one should have a head and an attitude like the one Juan Antonio Flecha has", in tribute to his perseverance and positive attitude in racing.

When the Fassa Bortolo team closed down after the 2005 season, Flecha moved on to Dutch team.

In 2007, Flecha took 2nd in the prestigious Paris–Roubaix race by winning the sprint contested between the 4 riders who were chasing the winner, Aussie Stuart O'Grady.

In the Vuelta a España, Flecha displayed his sense of humor as he stole the "Elk Man"'s American flag and rode playfully with it for 200 meters.

In October, he grabbed his first victory since joining the team in the four-stage race Circuit Franco-Belge.

He was fourth at 18 seconds before heading in to the final stage, which was contested in heavy rain and cold temperatures.

He escaped from a group of 24 riders with Sébastien Rosseler of and finished in second position of the stage, putting enough time between him and the former leader Jürgen Roelandts to be awarded the overall classification win.

Flecha took the third step of the podium in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, formerly known as the Omloop Het Volk.

He was part of a group of chasers who caught the two escapees Heinrich Haussler and Sebastian Langeveld in the final meters, as the duet didn't want to cooperate.

Haussler's teammate Thor Hushovd won the sprint as Flecha finished third while a crash occurred in the finale, implicating Langeveld and Filippo Pozzato.

In the third stage of Paris–Nice, he was outsprinted by Sylvain Chavanel and took second place, while he was part of a break of seven riders.

Flecha participated in the cobbled classic Paris–Roubaix, and was in a good position to seek victory as he was in the leading group with five competitors, Tom Boonen, Leif Hoste, Thor Hushovd, Filippo Pozzato and Johan Van Summeren.

About 15 km away from the Roubaix velodrome, Flecha crashed in a left bend on the Carrefour de l'Arbre, a particularly tough cobbled section.

He could not rejoin the leaders and finished sixth, while Boonen won the event.

With again no victories in the 2009 season, Flecha declined a new offer from team Rabobank.

He felt it was time for a new challenge.

In 2010, he joined.

At the beginning of the season, he participated in his squad's victory at the Team time trial of the Tour of Qatar.

He got his first major one-day race victory with his new team in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, becoming the first Spanish rider to win the event.