When Francisco Mancebo began his professional career in 1998, the euro had just been introduced as a currency, Google was still a research project, and social media didn't exist. Now, 27 years later, Mancebo is drawing a line under his sporting career. The organizers of Tour de Kyushu announced on X that Mancebo ended his career after the final stage.
Mancebo, born on March 9, 1976, was a talented junior and U23 rider in the mid-1990s. His 1997 season was impressive – he won a stage at the Vuelta Navarra and achieved a top 10 finish at the U23 World Championships, which earned him a spot in the main squad of the Banesto development team in 1998.
In his first professional year, he won the GP Miguel Indurain, ahead of experienced cyclists like Stefano Garzelli and Davide Rebellin. This was the first of his 38 career UCI victories. The Spanish climber won the best young rider classification at the 2000 Tour de France and finished 9th overall. He reached the podium of the Vuelta a España in 2004 and finished fourth in the 2005 Tour.
Mancebo achieved his first and only Grand Tour stage win in the 2005 Vuelta a España, when he won the 10th stage in a mountain finish, ahead of Roberto Heras and Denis Menchov. However, before he could achieve further major accomplishments, he became embroiled in the Operación Puerto doping scandal.
In 2006, Mancebo moved from Banesto to the French team AG2R Prévoyance and was set to be their general classification leader in the Tour. But the scandal broke before the first stage, and Mancebo, suspected of being involved in a doping program with Eufemiano Fuentes (EPO and blood transfusions), was unable to start, along with other riders on the list – such as Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich.
Although Mancebo was never officially sanctioned in the Operación Puerto case, he rode for the Relax-GAM team in 2007, but this was his last season at the highest level.
After that, he focused on smaller teams and continued to compete in several continental teams. He rode for Rock Racing in the USA in 2009, winning a stage at the Tour of California. From 2011 to 2013, he continued with American teams before moving to compete in Asia for an extended period.
For the last seven seasons, Mancebo rode for the Japanese team Matrix Powertag, achieving a few more victories. His last triumph came in January 2024 – at the age of 48, he won the first stage of the Tour du Sahel (Category 2.2), becoming the oldest cyclist to ever win a UCI road race.
Now, at 49 years old, Mancebo is ending his career two years younger than Davide Rebellin was when he retired. The Italian, also involved in a doping scandal, finished after the 2022 Veneto Classic but passed away six weeks later.
