Juan Manuel Gárate

Juan Manuel Gárate Cepa, born on 24 April 1976 in Irun, is a Spanish professional road racing cyclist who last rode for the Belkin Pro Cycling team. He is regarded as a climbing specialist, and his greatest achievements came in the Giro d'Italia, where he placed fourth overall in 2002, tenth in 2004 and fifth in 2005, then won the mountains classification in 2006 while finishing seventh overall. He won the Spanish National Championship road race in 2005 and took stages in the Tour de Suisse, the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro del Trentino. In the penultimate stage of the 2009 Tour de France he finished first on Mont Ventoux. In February 2014 it was announced that he had backed out of a contract with Belkin Pro Cycling.