Federico Bahamontes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Federico Martín Bahamontes (born 9 July 1928) is a Spanish former professional cyclist.

[edit] Biography

Bahamontes was born in Santo Domingo-Caudilla (Toledo).

Renowned as a climbing specialist and nicknamed the Eagle of Toledo, he won the Tour de France in 1959, and won the Tour's "King of the Mountains" classification six times (1954, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1964). He also took second and third places overall in 1963 and 1964 respectively. In total, he won seven Tour stages.

He was also second in the 1957 Vuelta a España, and won the mountains competition then and the following year, 1958, when he finished 6th. He also won the Mountains competition in the Giro d'Italia in 1956.

Bahamontes was not initially considered a contender for overall honours in the 1959 Tour de France, but he benefitted from an early escape on a stage in the Pyrenees, and then won a mountain time trial to the Puy-de-Dôme. Into the Alps, he combined with fellow climber Charly Gaul to extend the lead into Grenoble, and although French riders Henri Anglade and Jacques Anquetil cut their deficits, neither made up enough time to threaten Bahamontes' overall lead. He won by just over four minutes from Anglade, and took the "King of the Mountains" too.

In 1963 and 1964 Anquetil exacted some measure of revenge, beating Bahamontes into second place in the 1963 Tour de France. Bahamontes and Anquetil performed well in the Alps and at one stage were first and second overall, just three seconds apart. However, the Spaniard's efforts to retain his Mountains leadership rebounded on him. He was unable to break away from Anquetil on the stage to Chamonix and Anquetil's victory in the time trial sealed his fourth Tour win, with Bahamontes 3:35 behind. A year later, Anquetil took his fifth victory and the margin over Bahamontes in third was 4:44; Raymond Poulidor took second place. Bahamontes at least had the satisfaction of his sixth Mountains win and two more stage wins (bringing his total number of Tour de France stage wins to seven).