Miguel Indurain

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Olympic medal record
Men's Cycling
Gold 1996 Atlanta Time Trial
Miguel Indurain
Personal information
Full name Miguel Ángel Indurain Larraya
Nickname Miguelón
Date of birth July 16, 1964
Country Spain
Team information
Current team retired
Professional team(s)
1985-1989
1990-1996		 Reynolds
Banesto
Major wins
5× Tour de France

    Miguel Ángel Indurain Larraya (born July 16, 1964, Villava, Navarre) is a retired Spanish road bicycle racer. He is best known for having won the Tour de France from 1991 to 1995, becoming one of the four persons to win the event five times. Indurain's ability and physical size—1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) and 80 kg (176 lbs)—earned him the nickname "Miguelón".

    Contents

    [edit] Biography

    Indurain turned professional in 1985 and entered the Tour de France for the first time the same year, ultimately entering it in each of the next eleven years. Although he dropped out of the Tour in 1985 and 1986, his standing improved steadily until his first win in 1991. He rode in support of his team captain Pedro Delgado in the 1990 Tour, even though he might have been strong enough to win it himself. He won the event from 1991 to 1995, becoming the first to win five consecutive times (Jacques Anquetil was the first to win the event five times non-consecutively.)

    Indurain is often said to have been the best time trialist in the Grand Tours, putting in large gains against his rivals on the time-trial stages and riding defensively in the climbing stages. In the 1992 Tour he finished a 65 km time trial an astonishing three minutes ahead of the second-place rider. Despite his five Tour victories, he won only two Tour stages that were not individual time trials: mountain stages to la Cambasque and Luz Ardiden in the Pyrenees.

    In the 1996 Tour, Indurain was aiming for a sixth victory, but he suffered from bronchitis after an extremely cold and wet first week of the race, and could not prevail over Bjarne Riis. Indurain finished 11th and, in a stage passing through his hometown and ending in Pamplona, he finished 19th, eight minutes behind the stage winner. Later that year he abandoned the Vuelta a España, which his Banesto team had insisted he enter, saying that his legs felt like wood and that he could not breathe. He later announced his retirement from racing. During his time with Banesto, Indurain constantly rode a Pinarello bike.

    In 1992 and 1993, years in which he won the Tour, Indurain also won the Giro d'Italia. In 1994 he set a World Hour record of 53.040 kilometres (circa 32.96 miles), breaking the previous record set by Scotland's Graeme Obree. During the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, where professional cyclists were allowed to compete for the first time, Indurain won the gold medal in the individual time trial. He also won the Dauphiné Libéré in 1995 and 1996.

    Even during the five years when he dominated the Tour, Indurain resisted comparison to great Tour champions of the past and once said that he had "never felt superior to anyone." On the bike, he seemed never to struggle or lose his composure. That, along with his quiet nature, led some to characterize him as an extra-terrestrial or a robot.

    In retirement he is a member of the Spanish Olympic Committee and of UCI's Professional Cycling Council. He is also Honorary President for the Miguel Indurain Foundation. He often attends cyclotourist events such as L'Etape du Tour.

    Miguelón, the most complete of the Homo antecessor skulls found in Atapuerca deposits (Burgos, Spain) was named after Miguel Indurain by the palaeontologist team of Juan Luis Arsuaga.

    [edit] Physical advantages

    Miguel Indurain during the XXI Criterium Ciutat de L'Hospitalet, in 1996.
    Enlarge
    Miguel Indurain during the XXI Criterium Ciutat de L'Hospitalet, in 1996.

    At the top of his career, Miguel Indurain had a physique that was not only superior to average people, but also compared to his fellow athletes. His blood circulation had the ability to circulate 7 litres of oxygen around his body per minute[1], compared to the average amount of 3-4 litres of an ordinary person and the 5-6 litres of his fellow riders. Also, Indurain's lung capacity was 8 litres, compared to an average of 5 litres. In addition, Indurain's resting pulse was as low as 29 BPM, compared to a normal human's 60-80 bpm , which meant his heart would be less strained in the tough mountain stages[2]. His VO2 max was 88 ml/kg/min; in comparison, Lance Armstrong's was 82 ml/kg/min.

    [edit] Career highlights

    [edit] Giro d'Italia finishings

    • 1992: 1st
    • 1993: 1st
    • 1994: 3rd

    [edit] Tour de France finishings

    [edit] Major results

    [edit] Accolades

    Preceded by
    Greg LeMond    		 Winner of the Tour de France
    1991-95    		 Succeeded by
    Bjarne Riis
    Preceded by
    Franco Chioccioli    		 Winner of the Giro d'Italia
    1992-93    		 Succeeded by
    Eugeni Berzin


    UCI World Time Trial Champions
    1994: Chris Boardman - 1995: Miguel Indurain - 1996: Alex Zülle - 1997: Laurent Jalabert
    1998: Abraham Olano - 1999: Jan Ullrich - 2000: Serhiy Honchar - 2001: Jan Ullrich (2) - 2002: Santiago Botero
    2003: Michael Rogers - 2004: Michael Rogers (2) - 2005: Michael Rogers (3) - 2006: Fabian Cancellara
    Cycling at the Summer Olympics | Olympic Champions in Men's Individual Time Trial
    1896-1908 | Rudolph Lewis | Harry Stenqvist | Henry P. C. Hansen | Attilio Pavesi | 1936-1992 | Miguel Indurain | Viatcheslav Ekimov | Tyler Hamilton

    [edit] Quotes

    • "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." — Chris Boardman

    [edit] Notes

    1. ↑  Danish Cycle Union profile
    2. ↑  1991-1995: Big Mig's masterclass, BBC, August 3, 2004

    [edit] External links

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