- Miguel Indurain
-
This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Indurain and the second or maternal family name is Larraya.
Miguel Indurain Personal information Full name Miguel Ángel Indurain Larraya Nickname Miguelón, Big Mig (English) Born 16 July 1964
Villava, Navarre, Spain[1]Height 1.88 m Weight 80 kg Team information Current team Retired Discipline Road Role Rider Rider type All-rounder Professional team(s) 1984–1989
1990–1996Reynolds
BanestoMajor wins Tour de France
Overall classification (1992, 1993)- 4 individual stages
Olympic Time-Trial Champion (1996)
World Time-Trial Champion (1995)Medal recordCompetitor for Spain Road bicycle racing Olympic Games Gold 1996 Atlanta time trial World Championships Gold 1995 Duitama Elite time trial Silver 1993 Oslo Elite road race Silver 1995 Duitama Elite road race Bronze 1991 Stuttgart Elite road race Infobox last updated on
16 January 2007
Miguel Indurain 1993 Tour de France.
Miguel Ángel Indurain Larraya (born 16 July 1964) is a retired Spanish road racing cyclist. He won five consecutive Tour de Frances from 1991 and 1995, the first to do so, and the fourth athlete to win five times.[2] He won the Giro d'Italia twice, becoming one of only seven people in history to achieve the Giro Tour double in the same season. He wore the race leader's yellow jersey in the Tour de France for 60 days.[1] Indurain's ability and physical size—1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) and 80 kg (176 lbs)—earned him the nickname "Miguelón" or "Big Mig". He was the youngest rider ever to win the Spanish amateur national road championship, when he was 18,[3] at 20 the youngest rider to lead the Vuelta a España,[3] and at 20 he won a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir.[3][4][N 1]
Contents
Early career
Miguel Indurain was born in the village of Villava, which is now an outlying area of Pamplona. He has three sisters – Isabel, Maria Dolores and Maria Asuncion[5] – and a brother, Prudencio, who also became a professional cyclist.[6] His first bicycle was a green secondhand Olmo given to him for his 10th birthday. It was stolen when he was 11 and he worked in the fields with his father to pay for a new one.[3] He tried running, basketball, javelin and soccer from nine to 14. Then he joined the local CC Villaves and rode his first race in July 1978,[3][N 2] an event for unlicensed riders in which he came second.[6] He won his second race and competed every week thereafter.[6] His hero in cycling was Bernard Hinault.[7] At 18 he was the youngest winner of the national amateur road championship.[3]
Professional career
In 1984 he rode the Olympic Games in Los Angeles and then turned professional on 4 September[3] for Reynolds,.[1][6][8] He won his first professional race a week later, a time trial in the Tour de l'Avenir.[9]
In 1985 he started the Vuelta a España and came second in the prologue, behind Bert Oosterbosch. Oosterbosch lost time on the second stage and Indurain became leader, the youngest rider to do it.[10] He rode the Tour de France later that year, as he would do in each of the next 11 years, but dropped out in the fourth stage.[11]
In 1986, Indurain again rode the Tour, dropping out on the 12th stage.[11]
He started the 1987 Vuelta a España with bronchitis from the Tour of Belgium.[12]
He rode the 1988 Tour de France as team mate of the winner Pedro Delgado.
In 1989, he escaped during the ninth stage of the Tour de France. He won the stage and became leader of the mountains classification, wearing the polkadot jersey the next stage, the only time in his career.[13]
In 1990, Indurain rode the Tour de France again for Delgado, but Delgado could not win. Indurain finished 10th place, sacrificing several places by waiting for Delgado.[14]
1991: winning his first Tour
In 1991, Greg LeMond was favourite for the Tour. Indurain was a fine time trialist but considered too large to be a good climber.[15] LeMond led the race until the 12th stage. On the 13th he broke down on the Tourmalet,[16] and lost more than seven minutes to Indurain, who became the leader and stayed leader to the end.
1992: Tour-Giro double
Indurain won the prologue at San Sebastián and wore the yellow jersey from the first day. The 1992 Tour was remarkable for a long breakaway by Claudio Chiappucci on a stage to Sestriere that included six mountains. Indurain finished third, content as the French historian Jean-Paul Ollivier said, "knowing he would take the yellow jersey in the time trials.".[17] The tactic brought criticism from Indurain's boyhood hero, Bernard Hinault, who said: "Indurain is the best rider of his generation but he has won this Tour quietly, without great opposition. If the opposition coninues to let him get away with it, his reign looks like lasting a long time.".[17] Indurain finished in the time trial in stage nine, over 65 km, three minutes ahead of the second rider. Near the end he caught Laurent Fignon, who had started six minutes before him.
He won the Giro d'Italia in 1992.[1]
1993: Second Tour-Giro double
Indurain rode the same way in the 1993 Tour. He won the prologue at Puy-du-Fou, in the Vendée region, and waited until the ninth stage, the 59 km time trial at Lac de Madine, to take control of the race. He won by 2m 11s.[17] From then on, said Ollivier, he rode defensively, watching Tony Rominger, whom he considered a rival against the clock.[17] Ollivier said Indurain's wasn't a ride without effort but another historian, Pierre Chany, said it lacked audacity and that Indurain never "did anything unprovoked which would have allowed this exceptional rider to rise above the rest and excite the crowd.".[17]
He won the Giro d'Italia in 1993.[1]
1994: Tour and hour record
Indurain again won the first time trial, the ninth stage from Périgueux to Bergerac, in the south-west. He beat Rominger by two minutes. He did, however, attack in the Pyrenees, accelerating at the foot of the 10 km climb to the ski station at Hautacam. Luc Leblanc, Richard Virenque, Marco Pantani and Armand de Las Cuevas stayed with him but other rivals, including Rominger, were left behind. Indurain lost the stage to Leblanc but kept the yellow jersey to the end.
In 1994 he set a world hour record of 53.040 kilometres (32.958 mi),[1] beating Graeme Obree.[18]
Indurain entered the Giro again, but this time was beaten by Evgeni Berzin and Marco Pantani, who had solely prepared for the Giro.[19]
1995: Fifth Tour victory
He also won the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in 1995.[1]
The seventh stage of 1995 Tour linked Charleroi and Liège, both in southern Belgium. It took in the rolling roads of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Indurain attacked with Johan Bruyneel following and the rest were left 50 seconds behind. The following day Indurain won the first time trial, organised on a demanding circuit at Seraing. Jean-Paul Ollivier wrote: "It offered him another chance to assert his authority. Who could challenge him? The hierarchy established itself by itself. Indurain once again set off on a demonstration Tour. This last victory by the rider from Navarra was a model of strength, intelligence and authority, all well controlled. There wasn't an tactical error, never a scare, no moments of weakness.".[20]
Indurain won the world time trial championship.[21]
1996: Aiming for sixth Tour victory
He also won the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in 1996.[1]
Indurain aimed for a sixth victory in the 1996 Tour, but suffered from the beginning. He came seventh in the prologue. After bronchitis in a cold and wet first week, he lost time from stage seven. He said that, on the Cormet de Roseland on 6 July, "my legs started to feel odd but, because the speed of the group wasn't very high, I didn't take much notice. I even imagined attacking at the foot of the Arcs climbs."[2] He dropped out the group and lost three minutes in three kilometres. Race referees penalised him 20 seconds for accepting a bottle of drink in the last kilometre [N 3] He said the 20 seconds were nothing compared to the minute he would have lost had he not taken the bottle.[2] He later said he would stop racing. The Dane Bjarne Riis won and his teammate Jan Ullrich finished second. Indurain finished 11th and, in a stage passing through his hometown and ending in Pamplona, he finished 19th, eight minutes behind the stage winner.
He won the individual time trial in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, where professionals competed for the first time.[21]
In September 1996 Indurain rode the Vuelta a España at the insistence of his team. He dropped out unexpectedly on the Mirador del Fito,[2] 30 km (19 mi) from the end of the stage to Covadonga. Relations with his team manager, José-Miguel Echavarri, had been difficult[1] since an aborted attempt on the hour record in Colombia in October 1995. The two no longer speak.[1]
Indurain was a strong time trialist, gaining on rivals and riding defensively in the climbing stages. Indurain won only two Tour stages that were not individual time trials: mountain stages to Cauterets (1989) and Luz Ardiden (1990) in the Pyrenees.
End of career
Indurain took two months to consider his future, particularly the €4.5 million that Manolo Saiz was said to have offered him to transfer to the ONCE team.[2][4] Negotiations foundered over which races Indurain would ride and whether Saiz would pay more.[4] On 1 January 1997 he told 300 journalists and others in the El Toro hotel in Pamplona that he would not race again. "This is a long and deeply meditated decision, especially as physically I'm in condition to win a sixth Tour", he said. "In early 1996 I decided it was time to go, and I tried to win the Tour for the last time. When I didn't, I thought the Olympics would be the perfect way of bowing out, but what happened after the Tour of Spain made me change my mind. Every year it gets harder and I think I have spent enough time in the sport. My family are waiting."[4] He read a 30-line statement and left without taking questions.[2]
Physical advantages
Indurain had a physiology superior to fellow athletes. His blood took seven litres of oxygen around his body per minute,[22] compared to 3–4 litres for an ordinary person and 5–6 litres for fellow riders. His cardiac output is 50 litres a minute; a fit amateur cyclist's is about 25 litres. Indurain's lung capacity was 7.8 litres,[2] compared to an average of 6 litres. His resting pulse was as low as 28 BPM,[2] compared to an average 60–72 bpm, which meant his heart would be less strained in the tough mountain stages.[14] His VO2 max was 88 ml/kg/min; in comparison, Lance Armstrong's was 83.8 ml/kg/min and Greg LeMond's was more than 92 ml/kg/min.[23]
He consulted the Italian professor, Francesco Conconi, from 1987 and his weight dropped from 85 to 78 kg under his guidance,[5][6] "changing himself into an all-round rider", said Philippe Brunel in L'Équipe.[2] He was 10 kg lighter than when he was a junior.[24]
Retirement
Indurain lives near Pamplona and has a house in Benidorm, on the Mediterranean.[25] He and his wife, Marisa, have three children.[3] He founded the Miguel Indurain Foundation in 1998 to promote sport in the Navarra region from which he comes. He is its president. He works with the Spanish Olympic Committee, promoting Sevilla's candidature for the 2004 Olympics,[1] and the Union Cycliste Internationale. He hunts wildlife and rides a bike three or four times a week.[3] He attends cyclotourist events such as L'Étape du Tour[26] and the Cape Argus Pick & Pay Cycle Tour in Cape Town, South Africa.
Personality
Indurain resisted comparison to Tour champions of the past and said he "never felt superior to anyone". He "never had airs about himself and only reluctantly stepped into the limelight that came with the maillot jaune", Andy Hood wrote in Procycling.[25]
Indurain was a man difficult to know. He was modest and quiet, "governing his troops without ever being demanding."[2] A Spaniard journalist frustrated that he could find nothing interesting about him, asked "I wonder if his wife knows who this man is who sleeps beside her."[2] A team-mate, Jean-François Bernard said: "When he comes down for his meal, you don't even hear him move his chair."[2]
Procycling wrote:
- [His] humility seems to have spared him from some embarrassing questions that others of his generation haven't been so lucky to avoid. While the likes of Bjarne Riis have been forced to confess to using EPO and other banned drugs, Indurain remains protected by Spain's jealous media. His five straight Tour crowns paralleled Spain's coming of age following decades of repression under the dictatorship of General Franco and his face became a symbol of a new, more assertive Spain stepping confidently on to the European stage.[25]
Philippe Brunel in L'Équipe called him "humble and sublime, taciturn some days. But who was this robotic athlete who, in his streamlined helmet and his Plexiglass visor, dominated [domestiquait] the time-trials like no one before him except perhaps Jacques Anquetil?"
The magazine Cycling Weekly wrote: "He seems to do everything very slowly, as though he is trying to conserve energy even here. His eyes blink at half-speed but the gaze from his brown eyes is steady. He looks as relaxed off the bike as he does when he is on it, but you are aware that you are in the presence of a great bike rider."[27]
Indurain said the man who most impressed him was Pope John Paul II, whom he gave a yellow jersey from the Tour de France and a pink jersey from the Giro d'Italia.[3]
Assessment
Procycling wrote:
- A British journalist once asked Sean Yates what it was like riding with Miguel Indurain, who at the time was in the midst of his winning streak at the Tour de France. Yates responded that, for him, riding with the Spaniard was as hard as it would be for the journalist to keep pace with Yates. Taking into account that the former Motorola rider was himself the winner of a Tour time trial and wore the yellow jersey, his reply indicates just how special an athlete Indurain was and how highly he was regarded by his peers.
- Beyond his peers, however, the view of Indurain is less acclamatory. The former Banesto team leader is often dismissed as a rider who based his Tour victories on overwhelming advantage in the time trials and limiting his losses in the mountains. In his calculating style he was similar to Jacques Anquetil, but, unlike the Frenchman, lacked a rival with the Poulidor factor who could spark him to legendary feats of achievement. In addition, the fact that his one-day record bears not the slightest comparison with Eddy Merckx or Bernard Hinault tends to leave him at the bottom of the pecking order of five-time Tour champions. Indurain usually left spectators hoping for more but knowing they were very unlikely to get it.
- In 2000, he was voted Spain's sportsman of the 20th century, but at the same time didn't make the top 100 in L'Équipe's ranking of the world's best. Loved by his countrymen but a mystery to the rest of the world, he was undoubtedly the best of his generation.[28]
Indurain is a member of the Laureus World Sports Academy.[29]
Career highlights
- Tour de France
- 1984: Withdrew
- 1985: Withdrew, 4th stage
- 1986: Withdrew, 8th stage
- 1987: 97th
- 1988: 47th
- 1989: 17th
- 1990: 10th
- 1991:
1st - 1992: 1st
- 1993: 1st
- 1994: 1st
- 1995: 1st
- 1996: 11th
- Vuelta a España
- 1984: Withdrew
- 1985: 84th
- 1986: 92nd
- 1987: Withdrew
- 1988: Withdrew
- 1989: Withdrew
- 1990: 7th
- 1991: 2nd
- 1996: Withdrew, 12th stage
- Major results
- World Time-Trial Championship (1995)
- Summer Olympics Men's Individual Time Trial (1996)
- Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (1995, 1996)
- Paris–Nice (1989, 1990)
- Clásica de San Sebastián (1990)
- Critérium International (1989)
- Grand prix du Midi Libre (1995)
- Volta a Catalunya (1988, 1991, 1992)
- Tour de l'Avenir (1986)
- Accolades
- French Légion d'honneur
- Prince of Asturias Awards: Sports (1992)
- Active member – Laureus World Sports Academy
- 1995 ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year
Grand Tours overall classification results timeline
Grand Tour 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 
VueltaWD 84 92 WD WD WD 7 2 - - - - WD Giro- - - - - - - - 1 1 3 - - Tour- WD WD 97 47 17 10 1 1 1 1 1 11 WD = Withdrew
Notes
- ^ The race was known at the time as the Tour of the European Community.
- ^ L'Équipe reported on 8 July 2001 that 2,000 children had taken up cycling in the town because of Indurain's fame.
- ^ Race rules forbid team managers to approach riders at the end of the race to avoid their cars interfering with the race or making it unsafe.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k L'Équipe, France, 15 July 2000
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l L'Équipe, France, 2 July 2004
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j L'Équipe, France, 8 July 2001
- ^ a b c d Cycling Weekly, UK, 11 January 1997
- ^ a b Het Volk, Belgium, 31 December 1991
- ^ a b c d e Cycling Weekly, UK, undated cutting
- ^ Cycling Weekly, UK, 9 February 2002
- ^ "Palmarès de Miguel Indurain" (in French). Memoire du Cyclisme. http://www.memoire-du-cyclisme.net/palmares/indurain_miguel.php. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
- ^ "Indurain vencio la contrarelloj" (in Spanish). El Mundo Deportivo. 16 September 1984. p. 33. http://hemeroteca.elmundodeportivo.es/preview/1984/09/16/pagina-33/1455598/pdf.html. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
- ^ "Indurain: Ser lider a los 20 años" (in Spanish). El Mundo Deportivo. 26 April 1985. p. 29. http://hemeroteca.elmundodeportivo.es/preview/1985/04/26/pagina-29/1123992/pdf.html. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
- ^ a b "The Tour – Miguel Indurain". Amaury Sport Organisation. http://www.letour.fr/HISTO/us/TDF/coureur/4719.html. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
- ^ "Indurain emperaza con bronquitis" (in Spanish). El Mundo Deportivo. 24 March 1987. p. 38. http://hemeroteca.elmundodeportivo.es/preview/1987/03/24/pagina-38/1154199/pdf.html. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
- ^ "1989 How it happened". Cycling weekly. 14 July 2009. http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/archive/382984/1989-how-it-happened.html.
- ^ a b "1991–1995: Big Mig's masterclass". BBC Sport. 3 August 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/tour_de_france_2004/history/3772501.stm. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
- ^ Armijo, Vic (1999). The complete idiot's guide to cycling. Penguin. ISBN 0028629299. http://books.google.nl/books?id=SqGuMRheyWUC&pg=PA32.
- ^ "78ème Tour de France 1991" (in French). Memoire du Cyclisme. http://memoire-du-cyclisme.net/eta_tdf_1978_2005/tdf1991.php. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Ollivier, Jean-Paul (1999), Maillot Jaune, Sélection du Readers Digest, France, p81, ISBN 9782709 810913
- ^ Padilla, S; Mujika, I; Angulo, F; Goiriena, JJ (2000). "Scientific approach to the 1-h cycling world record: a case study.". Journal of Applied Physiology (American Physiological Society) 89 (4): 1522–7. PMID 11007591.
- ^ "Indurain's sensible sacrifice". The Independent. UK. 11 June 1995. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/indurains-sensible-sacrifice-1585871.html. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
- ^ Ollivier, Jean-Paul (1999), Maillot Jaune, Sélection du Readers Digest, France, p82, ISBN 9782709 810913
- ^ a b "Miguel Induráin". Sports reference. http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/in/miguel-indurain-1.html. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
- ^ Danish Cycle Union profile
- ^ Greg LeMond Professional Cycling's Talented Revolutionary, Bike Race Info, ,
- ^ Cycling Weekly, UK, 10 August 1991
- ^ a b c Procycling, UK, February 2008
- ^ L'Équipe, France, 17 July 2003
- ^ Cycling Weekly, UK, Tour de France special, 1995
- ^ Procycling, UK, August 2002
- ^ Miguel Indurain – Laureus Academy Member
Awards and achievements Preceded by
InauguralVélo d'Or
1992–1993Succeeded by
Tony RomingerPreceded by
Kevin YoungUnited Press International
Athlete of the Year
1993Succeeded by
Johan Olav Koss Winners of the general classification in the Tour de France 1903–1919 1903 Maurice Garin • 1904 Henri Cornet • 1905 Louis Trousselier • 1906 René Pottier • 1907–1908 Lucien Petit-Breton • 1909 François Faber • 1910 Octave Lapize • 1911 Gustave Garrigou • 1912 Odile Defraye • 1913–14 Philippe Thys • 1915–18 World War I • 1919 Firmin Lambot
1920–1939 1920 Philippe Thys • 1921 Léon Scieur • 1922 Firmin Lambot • 1923 Henri Pélissier • 1924–25 Ottavio Bottecchia • 1926 Lucien Buysse • 1927–28 Nicolas Frantz • 1929 Maurice De Waele • 1930 André Leducq • 1931 Antonin Magne • 1932 André Leducq • 1933 Georges Speicher • 1934 Antonin Magne • 1935 Romain Maes • 1936 Sylvère Maes • 1937 Roger Lapébie • 1938 Gino Bartali • 1939 Sylvère Maes
1940–1959 1940–46 World War II • 1947 Jean Robic • 1948 Gino Bartali • 1949 Fausto Coppi • 1950 Ferdinand Kübler • 1951 Hugo Koblet • 1952 Fausto Coppi • 1953–55 Louison Bobet • 1956 Roger Walkowiak • 1957 Jacques Anquetil • 1958 Charly Gaul • 1959 Federico Bahamontes
1960–1979 1980–1999 1980 Joop Zoetemelk • 1981–82 Bernard Hinault • 1983–84 Laurent Fignon • 1985 Bernard Hinault • 1986 Greg LeMond • 1987 Stephen Roche • 1988 Pedro Delgado • 1989–90 Greg LeMond • 1991–95 Miguel Indurain • 1996 Bjarne Riis • 1997 Jan Ullrich • 1998 Marco Pantani • 1999–... Lance Armstrong
2000–present ...–2005 Lance Armstrong • 2006 Óscar Pereiro • 2007 Alberto Contador • 2008 Carlos Sastre • 2009–10 Alberto Contador • 2011 Cadel Evans
Olympic Cycling Champions in Men's Individual Time Trial 1996: Miguel Indurain (ESP) • 2000: Viatcheslav Ekimov (RUS) • 2004: Tyler Hamilton (USA) • 2008: Fabian Cancellara (SUI)
UCI Road World Champions – Men's time trial 1994: Chris Boardman • 1995: Miguel Indurain • 1996: Alex Zülle • 1997: Laurent Jalabert • 1998: Abraham Olano • 1999: Jan Ullrich • 2000: Serhiy Honchar • 2001: Jan Ullrich • 2002: Santiago Botero • 2003: Michael Rogers • 2004: Michael Rogers • 2005: Michael Rogers • 2006: Fabian Cancellara • 2007: Fabian Cancellara • 2008: Bert Grabsch • 2009: Fabian Cancellara • 2010: Fabian Cancellara • 2011: Tony Martin
Categories:- Spanish cyclists
- Tour de France winners
- Tour de France prologue winners
- Spanish Tour de France stage winners
- Giro d'Italia winners
- Cyclists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
- UCI World Champions
- Olympic cyclists of Spain
- Olympic gold medalists for Spain
- Navarrese sportspeople
- 1964 births
- Living people
- Olympic medalists in cycling
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