Ricardo Otxoa Palacios (30 August 1974 – 15 February 2001) was a Spanish cyclist.

Career

Otxoa turned professional with after riding with the team as a

stagiaire Stagiaire may refer to: * Stage (cooking) or stagiaire, a cook who works briefly, for free, in another chef's kitchen * Stagiaire (cycling), an amateur cyclist temporarily riding for a professional team * A particular type of trainee, see Europea ...

the previous year. He stayed on the team for three years, and rode as an amateur in 1999. In 2000, he returned to the professionals, and joined with his twin brother, Javier. He rode in the

2000 Giro d'Italia The 2000 Giro d'Italia was the 83rd edition of the Giro. It began with a prologue that navigated through the Italian capital Rome. The race came to a close on June 4 with a mass-start stage that ended in the Italian city of Milan. Twenty te ...

, finishing 42nd overall.

Death

On 15 February 2001, Otxoa and his twin brother Javier were hit by a driver of car during a training ride near

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

. Ricardo was killed, while his brother survived, facing severe injuries and a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

. The Circuito de Getxo has also been held as the Memorial Ricardo Otxoa in memory of Otxoa.

Major results

;1999 : 3rd Overall

Volta a Lleida The Volta a Lleida was a road bicycle racing, road cycling stage race held in the Lleida (province), Lleida region of Spain. It was a 2.2 category race on the UCI Europe Tour between 2005 and 2008. List of overall winners {, class="wikitable" , ...

;2000 : 3rd

GP Llodio Gran Premio Internacional de Llodio (also known as Clásica de Álava) is a Spanish professional cycle road race that was held in Llodio, Basque Country, between 1949 and 2011. From 2005 to 2011, the race was organised as a 1.1 event on the UCI ...

References

1974 births 2001 deaths Sportspeople from Barakaldo Cyclists from Biscay Spanish male cyclists Cycling road incident deaths Road incident deaths in Spain Spanish twins {{Spain-cycling-bio-1970s-stub