Spain's sporting heroes - Miguel Indurain

Indurain turned pro in 1985 and entered the Tour de France starting a run of eleven straight years entering cycling's prestige event. Although he didn't finish the 1985 and 86 tours, he established himself as an excellent team rider for the Banesto and played a big part in the 1988 win of Spanish compatriot Pedro Delgado. In fact many claimed that Indurain could have bettered his 10th place finish in 1990 or even gone on to win, but Indurain refused to eclipse his team captain Delgado. The break through finally came in 1991 when Banesto built the team around Indurain as he started his dominance of the tour, over the next few years it became an extremely familiar site to see Indurain in the coveted yellow jersey. As a cyclist Indurain did most of his damage during time trials, his powerful 6ft 2 frame earned him the nickname "Big Mig" and often left his competitors without an answer. Famously on a stage in Luxembourg in 1994, he won a time trial by a massive three minutes, powerful riding like this would give Idurain the advantage he needed over his rivals. Indurain would then ride defensively in the mountain stages, relying on his strong team to cover any threatening breaks. Critics lambasted this style as "boring" but lovers of the sport also remember some great duels with Greg Lamond in 1991 and also with the late, great Italian, Marco Pantani whose prowess in the mountain stages was second to none.

As mentioned earlier in the article, Indurain was a supreme natural athlete; his resting heart beat was 28 bpm, less than half the normal rate of an average, healthy human. Scientists hypothesized that Indurain's heart was up to 50% larger than a normal person and his huge lungs were capable of scooping up a massive eight litres of air. This freakish physical attributes led many rivals and admirers to claim there was some "inhuman" element to Indurain, further added to by his quiet nature and seemingly unshakable composure on the bike.

Away from the Tour de France, Indurain also has a big list of honours; he twice won the "Giro d'Italia" in 1992 and 93 (both years that he won the Tour as well), in 1994 he set the world hour record covering just over 53.010 km (32.96 miles) in the 60 minutes and at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 he picked up a gold medal for his country in the individual time trial event.

Liked and respected by his fellow pros, Indurain was a humble and unassuming gentleman who never boasted of his greatness even when people tried to compare him to the great Tour winners of the past. English cyclist and time trial expert Chris Boardman famously said of Indurain: "Indurain makes me sick because he's actually a really nice guy. You can't actually work yourself up, there's no hate involved, no anger. He's a really nice bloke and a true champion."

In his retirement Idurain has still kept an active role within cycling as a member of the UCI Professional Cycling Council and he's also on Spain's Olympic Committee. Despite his tour record being eclipsed by American Lance Armstrong's seven in a row in recent years, Indurain's legacy as one of cycling's greats will live on, not only in the heart's of Spaniards, but of sports fans the world over.
 
 
About the Author

Mike McDougall has five years experience working as a travel writer and marketeer. He is currenlty working to provide additional content for Babylon-idiomas, a Spanish language school with an excellent presence in Spain and Latin America.

This work is covered by a creative commons licence

Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/11592.html
 

If you wish to add the above article to your website or newsletters then please include the "Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/11592.html" as shown above and make it hyperlinked.

Some other articles by Mike McDougall

Christmas in Spain Rather refreshingly, Spain doesn't seem to start gearing up for Christmas until they get into the month of December. It's not the huge commercial circus that it is ... Spain - Europe's new culinary hotbed There are exciting times ahead for Spanish cuisine. An extremely good crop of young, ground breaking chefs are placing Spain firmly on the culinary map, even eclipsing their old neighbours to the ... Semana Santa - Malaga The Holy Week (Semana Santa) processions are the largest religious festival in the catholic world and take place from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday with the processions occurring on five days out of ... Sherry - a wine of tradition A fortified wine from Andalusia produced only in and around the town of Jerez in the Cadiz region. The Spanish producers have since registered the Sherry / Jerez / Xeres name and will prosecute anyone else ... Diego Velasquez Diego Velasquez is one of Spain's most celebrated and influential painters, born in 1599 he rose to become the leading artist in the royal court of Phillip IV. Velasquez came along during the contemporary Baroque ... The Alhambra - Grenada The Alhambra is touted by many as being the best preserved example of a Moorish palace in Europe. Located in the Andalusian city of Grenada the ancient fortress is undoubtedly ...