Sevilla feels redeemed by Catalunya win

By Antonio J. Salmerón

It may have been seen by some as a risk for the Spanish Professional-Continental team Relax GAM to sign Oscar Sevilla at the beginning of this season, as he was originally linked to the Operación Puerto scandal at the beginning of the 2006 Tour de France, but Sevilla has re-paid the team's confidence by taking the 'queen' stage of the Volta a Catalunya on Thursday.

After sitting out most of the 2006 season, Sevilla feels that he has returned to full form and is confident that his cycling career has not yet finished. Sevilla said he wants "to contribute to improve cycling, that is very wounded".

The leader of the Volta a Catalunya assured that nobody in the peloton has hassled him for his supposed inclusion in Operación Puerto, nor anybody has criticized his return to competition, "although I do not know if anyone talks about it behind my back," he said.

Sevilla was grateful for the team giving him the opportunity to "feel like a professional cyclist again". Commenting on the doping scandals dominating the sport, he said, "I wish there was a solution because people are only interested in bad things in cycling at the moment and nobody trusts in cycling."