Just over a decade on, Oscar Sevilla looks back at Operacion Puerto and remembers the pain and disruption it inflicted on his life but, perversely, he also now sees it as the best thing that ever happened to him.
"If it wasn't for Operacion Puerto I'd probably still be in Europe, I'd have earned a lot more money, maybe more fame, but I'd never have been as happy as I am now," he tells Cyclingnews and Het Nieuwsblad in Argentina at the Vuelta a San Juan, where he's racing for his new team, Medellin-Inder.
The Spaniard, now 40 years old but still fresh faced, radiates enthusiasm as he talks about the "new life" he has carved out for himself since moving to Colombia nearly a decade ago.
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Riders come through doping scandals in a perplexing range of ways, and Sevilla has enjoyed a 'second career' on the low-key South American circuit, winning the Vuelta a Colombia three times, along with the RCN Classic. Indeed, he won more than twice as many races than any other Spanish rider in 2016.
More important than the results, though, is the optimism and joy for life he has seemingly managed to hold on to, acknowledging he could just as easily have ended up bitter and twisted.
In the end, as trite as it might sound, it was the love of a good woman that saved him. When he raced the Vuelta a Colombia for the first time in 2008 he instantly fell in love with one of the podium girls – "I was trying to be professional about the race but I was going crazy" – and vowed to win a stage so he could receive a couple of kisses. That he did, and he stayed on after the race to get to know her – to 'conquer' her, as he jokes – and he has never looked back.
Operacion Puerto
Do it all over again
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