2024 season dominator Tadej Pogačar was not even born when Oscar Sevilla made his professional debut with Kelme back in 1998. But at 48, the Spanish ultra-veteran continues not just racing but also winning, with his most recent success earlier this week in the opening stage of the Vuelta a Ecuador.
Sevilla has raced for teams including Phonak, T-Mobile, Relax, Rock Racing, Gobernación de Antioquia, and EPM-UNE during his long career, with successes including a runners-up spot in the 2001 Vuelta a España, the same year he claimed the Best Young Rider's prize in the Tour de France.
Originally from Albacete in Spain, Sevilla is a long-standing South American resident who has settled at another Colombian squad, Medellín-EPM, for the past eight seasons. One of his biggest recent triumphs came last autumn in the 2.Pro-rated Tour of Hainan ahead of the then second-year pro Sebastian Berwick (Israel-Premier Tech).
Back on more familiar South American terrain this November, his latest success has come in the shape of victory in the opening stage of the 2.2-rated Vuelta a Ecuador from Calacolí to La Concordia, finishing narrowly ahead of fellow breakaway Bryan Raul Obando (Best PC), a rider 25 years his junior.
Sevilla had an eventful stage, helping teammate Aldemar Reyes return to the peloton early on after Reyes had a bad crash on the one classified climb of the day. He then got into the final breakaway with Obando and beat him by less than four-hundredths of a second for the fiftieth UCI-ranked victory of his jaw-droppingly lengthy career.
"I still have the same enthusiasm as when I started racing and I have the discipline and self-sacrifice to go on training and looking after myself," Sevilla told local newspaper El Comercio following his latest triumph.
"I feel like I'm still a valid part of cycling and I race for that reason, because I like it, because of my passion for it. If it wasn't like that, if I was just making up the numbers, I wouldn't be racing - I'd be a team manager or have some other job."
The next day's flat stage along the Ecuadorian coastline from Valle Hermoso to Babahoyo, marked by a temporary suspension mid-way through due to road traffic issues, was won by Sevilla's teammate Bryan Sánchez. Sevilla continued to lead by four seconds on Obando, though, and with the next hilly stage on Friday, Sevilla could well remain unchallenged in the top spot overall much deeper into the week-long race.
After turning pro with Spanish outfit Kelme, Sevilla's career has been one of two parts, the first part in Europe and the United States and concluding with a spell with 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.
Come what may in the Vuelta a Ecuador, the South American event will be anything but a swansong for Sevilla, who is already under contract to keep on racing for at least another year with his current team.
