It's been 25 years since Oscar Sevilla made his professional debut with Kelme back in 1998 but the Spaniard is somehow still going strong, winning the Tour of Hainan a week after his 47th birthday.
The veteran has raced for teams including Phonak, T-Mobile, Relax, Rock Racing, Gobernacion de Antioquia, and EPM-UNE during his long career but has settled at another Colombian squad, Medellín-EPM, for the past seven seasons.
The overall win at the 2.Pro-rated race, taken after second places on two early hilly stages, is the 49th of his career. His palmarès dates back to a stage of the Tour de Romandie in 1999 and taking in plenty of lower-ranked races around South America in the past 15 years, including two editions of the 2.2-rated Vuelta a Colombia.
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Sevilla, who earlier this year won a stage of the Tour of the Gila and the Guatemalan stage race, the Vuelta Bantrab, took the overall win by one second from Israel-Premier Tech second-year pro Sebastian Berwick, who wasn't even born when the Spaniard made his professional bow.
Former IPT man James Piccoli (China Glory) rounded out the podium at eight seconds back, while familiar names Ben Hermans (Israel-Premier Tech) and Valerio Conti (Corratec-Selle Italia) rounded out the top five.
Once upon a time, Sevilla was a Grand Tour contender, finishing seventh at the 2001 Tour de France and taking second at that year's Vuelta a España behind Angel Casero. However, in 2006 he was among a number of names linked with the Operación Puerto doping case and was promptly fired by T-Mobile.
He made a comeback with the Spanish second-division team Relax the following year before moving to the controversial American squad Rock Racing. While racing for the team in 2010 he caught a half-year ban after testing positive for blood plasma expander Hydroxyethyl starch.
Upon his return to racing in 2011 he turned up in the Colombian peloton, immediately winning the Vuelta a Mexico and placing second in the Vuelta a Colombia. At the age of 35, a second career was launched, and Sevilla has never looked back.
He's still racing and still winning even as he approaches 50. It was a marker the late Davide Rebellin remarkably passed last season before he called time on a 29-year career and tragically passed away after being hit by a truck driver while out training just a month later last November.
