In a Tour de France that has offered very few satisfactions to Movistar (the best result was the third place obtained by Raul Garcia Pierna in the fourth stage), the finish line crossed on the Champs-Élysées by Nelson Oliveira certainly represented for the historic Spanish team a valid reason to celebrate the conclusion of the three weeks of racing in Catalan-French territory.

Like no one else in history before him, indeed, by reaching Paris the experienced Portuguese cyclist has completed the twenty-fourth consecutive Grand Tour in his career without ever registering withdrawals or disqualifications, thus touching a record that, before the Grande Boucle just archived, he held jointly with Sylwester Szmyd.

This record, with all the numbers correlated to it, highlights the impressive adaptability of the thirty-seven-year-old from Anadia to an effort like that of Grand Tours and his incredible ability to dodge all the unforeseen events and obstacles (crashes, illnesses, physical problems) that during the three weeks of racing usually jeopardize the permanence in the race of athletes.

From the Vuelta a España 2011 to the Tour de France 2026, however, Oliveira has made light of all this by completing the remarkable feat of ten Tours of Spain, ten Tours de France and four Tours of Italy without premature abandonments or exclusions imposed by the jury, a result that, wearing the jerseys of RadioShack, Lampre-Merida and Movistar, has led him in fifteen years to compete in 500 stages covering a total distance of 80,489 kilometers equivalent to over two laps around the Equator.

Among all the stages covered, the one to which the Portuguese rider (never leading an official classification in the three major stage races) owes the sweetest memories is undoubtedly the Calatayud-Tarazona stage of the Vuelta a España 2015, that is, the only one that, with a solo attack about twenty kilometers from the finish, saw him raise his arms to the sky conquering the only victory (so far) of his career obtained outside his home country and the second (out of five in his palmares) in a road race.

For the rest, Oliveira has worked diligently for the cause of his leaders and teammates, becoming an indispensable team player and point of reference within Movistar where, from 2016 to today, he has never failed to provide advice and support (on the road and off) to those who asked for it: precisely for this reason and, in general, for how he has dedicated himself to others in seventeen years of career, the record signed yesterday at the conclusion of the Tour takes on an even more special value and undoubtedly deserves to be properly highlighted.