Juan Antonio Flecha is perhaps most famous for his victory gesture as he approached the finish of stage eleven of the 2003 Tour de France. Riding alone, he sat up and fired an imaginary arrow - his name, 'Flecha', means arrow in Spanish.
But the Argentina-born Spaniard, who is universally known simply by his surname ("except by my Mum and my sister," he points out), deserves to be more famous, these days, as a classics specialist.
Flecha has done what no other Spaniard has managed by excelling in the cobbled classics, placing third at the Tour of Flanders in 2008, and going even closer in Paris-Roubaix with a second (in 2007), third (2005), fourth (2006) and sixth (2009), after a crash in the closing stages destroyed his chances of winning.
Flecha has thus gained two new nicknames - 'The Spanish Flandrian' and 'Van der Flecha'. And if he finally pulls off the big win he has been threatening at Paris-Roubaix then he will surely be crowned King Juan Antonio of the Cobbles.
"It's hard to choose between Flanders and Roubaix," he says when asked to nominate his favourite race. "Let's say Roubaix is more like going into the past, into cycling history. Flanders is more hectic, you have to understand the race and know the roads.
"It's true that Spain has no culture of riders doing well in these races, but I was inspired by the northern cyclists and began to follow them. When I discovered these races, I thought: this is the kind of cyclist I want to become.
"It's something no Spanish rider has done before, so I am really satisfied. Not because I want to prove anything to people but because I really love these races. For me the weather has never been a problem. I perform well when it's bad weather - I like this kind of adversity."
Perhaps with Team Sky Flecha will finally achieve the Classic win he has been threatening. "I'm 32," he says, "and so it's a moment in my career when I realise I'm not going to last another five years, and those years are going to go fast. I want to enjoy them, and be part of this nice project to build a new team - and win, of course!"
