A day in the footsteps of Oscar Freire: Rabobank anecdotes, Call of Duty gas stations and his son racing for a top team

Oscar Freire may have retired from professional cycling a litle while ago, but as a person, the former Rabobank rider hasn’t changed one bit. The three-time world champion is present at the AlUla Tour as a VIP and media driver, and IDLProCycling.com got the chance to join him for a day trip from Hegra to Tayma—which turned out to be an incredibly entertaining experience.

During his Rabobank days, Freire was never known for being particularly punctual, and 15 years after leaving the Dutch squad, not much has changed. The meeting with our "pilot" Freire was set for 11:15 AM in Hegra, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed town that hosted the stage start for day three of the AlUla Tour.

11:15 AM – No sign of Freire.

11:35 AM – Freire finally appears.

"Ah-ha, good morning! I didn’t know I was supposed to be here, so I was waiting over at the team paddock. But anyway, here I am," the ever-cheerful Spaniard explained.

Freire doesn't cycle much anymore, but his sprint is still sharp

With the Head of Media and an Italian journalist also along for the ride, we climbed into the car with Freire. "Do I do this often for the A.S.O.? No, no, just here. And maybe for the Grand Départ in Barcelona in 2026. I saw this race on TV last year and thought: I need to go there. So now I’m here."

"Where are we heading, guys? I don’t have a map, and I don’t really know the way here either," Freire casually says as he starts the car. Fortunately, navigation turns out to be easier than expected—just follow the rest of the convoy. Freire smoothly joins the procession, but from the back seats, we notice something odd: the Spaniard still has a sticker stuck in his hair. "Oh, take that out for me," he laughs.

The neutralized section of the stage is ridden on gravel, much like the 2028 Gravel World Championships, which will also take place in AlUla. Before long, we see Tim Merlier and Tom Pidcock suffer punctures right in front of us. "Do I like riding on gravel myself? Nah, you can mostly do mountain biking where I live."

"Mathieu van der Poel is doing that now, which is important for his sponsor, Canyon, but I was never allowed to. Even though I was actually quite good at it—in 1999, I beat Miguel Martinez (Lenny’s father, ed.) in a race. He went on to become Olympic champion in Sydney a year later, and I hadn’t even trained for it, haha," he says with a grin.

Freire doesn’t ride much at all anymore. "I can still sprint, but anything longer than a kilometer? That’s when it gets tough, haha. But I play padel. And, of course, tennis." During his racing career, tennis was a favorite pastime, especially during training camps—sometimes to the surprise of team managers and fellow riders. "Yeah, sure, just a few days before the Tour Down Under, I was still playing tennis."

"But you know what the problem is? If you only play once, you feel sore afterward. I played regularly, and then it’s actually good for your muscles, joints, knees, bones, and everything." Freire may have been ahead of his time—today, many top pros, including Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel, Primož Roglič, Wout van Aert, and Mathieu van der Poel, regularly cross-train in other sports to improve bone density.

By now, we’ve been on the road for a while in the third stage of the AlUla Tour. Before the stage, riders and team managers all hinted at a dangerous section after 70 kilometers—echelons, they warned. Freire, however, isn’t convinced. "I don’t believe it. It’s way too far from the finish. Maybe they’ll ride hard for a few minutes, but then it’ll settle down again."

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Freire turns out to be an echelon specialist

And so, we roll through the first 65 kilometers, during which Freire takes on the important task of finding a good lunch spot for his passengers. The Spaniard parks the car in the middle of the desolate landscape but then notices some buildings in the distance. "That’s where we’re going," he decides.

And so we do—only to arrive at a run-down gas station. Hardly the idyllic lunch spot one might imagine, but practical nonetheless: there’s a place for a bathroom break, and we can eat out of the wind. It turns out to be quite the experience—having a meal with a cycling champion in a setting that looks straight out of Call of Duty, GTA, or Counter-Strike.

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With our stomachs full, we drive toward the infamous section after 70 kilometers. Once there, we have some time to wait, so we ask Freire about his own experiences in echelons. "There was once a Tour de France stage where I was sitting at the back of the peloton, and the team radio told me to move up. I waited a little, saw a corner coming, and launched a single sprint to the front. I was the only Rabobank rider to make it into that front group of thirty. It’s also a matter of riding smart."

We remind him of a time when he was dropped from an echelon in the final of Gent-Wevelgem in 2010. "Yeah, okay, but you have to be willing to lose in order to win. I had already won Gent-Wevelgem before, and we were in a group with multiple Liquigas riders, who boxed me in. Fine, no problem. But I don’t race for second or third place."

That leads us to his time at Rabobank, the team where he achieved so much success between 2003 and 2011. "Sometimes, I think they focused too much on the Dutch riders. Michael Boogerd would attack in the Amstel Gold Race while I was just ten seconds behind, but he kept riding and ended up finishing second. ‘Good race,’ everyone said. But don’t you want to win? I felt like that was sometimes the wrong mentality. But whatever—I also chose to stay multiple times. Looking back, I probably should have switched teams every two or three years. That’s better for any rider."

"Pfew, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, though," the three-time world champion recalls, sharing another anecdote. "I remember riding that freezing cold edition. I quickly got into the team car and even shouted at a Dutch neo-pro from there, telling him to quit too. He kept going, and later, he arrived at the team bus completely frozen and shattered. ‘Told you so,’ I said to him then, haha."

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Freire never became Spanish national coach, but he is a cycling dad

Meanwhile, Freire’s prediction about the echelons turned out to be correct. The section riders had warned about was extremely nervous, but afterward, things calmed down again. "That’s how it often goes with these so-called crucial moments. It’s still way too far from the finish, so why would they keep going?"

With his sharp analysis, he could have easily moved into a sports director role. "But I don’t want that. I’d be open to a role in cycling, but not one that lasts all year. Becoming the Spanish national coach was an option, but in the end, they chose Alejandro Valverde instead."

Freire has another way of staying connected to the sport: his son Marcos, who at the time of stage three of the AlUla Tour was racing in the Challenge Mallorca for UAE Emirates-XRG. The 18-year-old signed a two-year contract with the development squad of the Emirati team this winter but has already been given a taste of racing at a higher level.

"Of course, as a father, you’re involved, but I support him in everything he does. Marcos is the same type of rider as me, but obviously, he’s not nearly as good yet. Sometimes, it’s tough being 'the son of'—because that’s how everyone refers to you. Right now, Adria Pericas, who’s racing here in AlUla for UAE Emirates-XRG, is the big talent coming out of Spain."

Back to the race. 45 kilometers from the finish, Freire pulls the car over along the Saudi highway. "This is the perfect spot where things could split," he observes. Fifteen minutes later, the peloton is closing in on the remaining breakaway riders, and soon after, we receive reports that the group has indeed split.

Freire listens to the updates from the passenger seat, grinning, while honking at the sparse Saudi spectators along the roadside. Two kilometers from the finish, after a few more honks, he smirks: "I don’t think they really understand that I’m honking to say hello."

What a life it must be to be Oscar Freire. Tranquilo.

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