Miguel Indurain

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Miguel Indurain

Personal information
Full name	Miguel Ángel Indurain Larraya
Nickname	Miguelón, Big Mig (English)
Date of birth	July 16, 1964 (1964-07-16) (age 43)
Country	Spain
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder
Professional team(s)
1985-1989 1990-1996	Reynolds Banesto
Major wins
Tour de France, 5 overall and 12 stage wins Giro d'Italia, 2 overall and 4 stage wins Olympic Time-Trial Champion (1996) World Time-Trial Champion (1995)
Infobox last updated on:
January 16, 2007

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

Contents 1 Biography 2 Physical advantages 3 Career highlights 4 Quotes 5 Notes

[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 Cauterets (1989) and Luz Ardiden (1990) in the Pyrenees. He was often accused of not fighting hard enough for wins in mountain stages in which he arrived in the lead group, while others respected this as a sign of a gentleness and gratefulness to his rivals who were thus helping him to keep ahead on the overall race.

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. Riis later admitted having used EPO to win and the organisers of the Tour de France have since stated they no longer consider him to be the winner (although UCI have thus far refused to change the official status).

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.

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 compare him to an extraterrestrial or a robot. He was also known to be exceedingly generous with his teammates. In 1992 fans reported overhearing him say "Mi baño es tu baño" (My bath is your bath) after big stages concluded especially to fellow countryman and domestique extraordinaire, Pedro Delgado.

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 and the Cape Argus Pick & Pay Cycle Tour in Cape Town, South Africa.

[edit] Physical advantages

At the top of his career, Miguel Indurain had a physique that was not only superior when compared to average people, but also when 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 6 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

Medal record
Competitor for  Spain
Road bicycle racing
Olympic Games
Gold	1996 Atlanta	Time Trial
World Championships
Gold	1995 Duitama	Elite Men's Time Trial
Silver	1993 Oslo	Elite Men's Road Race
Silver	1995 Duitama	Elite Men's Road Race
Bronze	1991 Stuttgart	Elite Men's Road Race

[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

Sporting positions
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
Preceded by Chris Boardman	World Time Trial Champion 1995	Succeeded by Alex Zülle
Awards
Preceded by Incumbent	Vélo d'Or 1992 – 1993	Succeeded by Tony Rominger
Preceded by Kevin Young	United Press International Athlete of the Year 1993	Succeeded by Johan Olav Koss

v • d • e Tour de France Yellow jersey winners

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 · 1913-1914 Philippe Thys · 1915-1918 World War I · 1919 Firmin Lambot · 1920 Philippe Thys · 1921 Léon Scieur · 1922 Firmin Lambot · 1923 Henri Pélissier · 1924-1925 Ottavio Bottecchia · 1926 Lucien Buysse · 1927-1928 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 · 1940-1946 World War II · 1947 Jean Robic · 1948 Gino Bartali · 1949 Fausto Coppi · 1950 Ferdinand Kübler · 1951 Hugo Koblet · 1952 Fausto Coppi · 1953-1955 Louison Bobet · 1956 Roger Walkowiak · 1957 Jacques Anquetil · 1958 Charly Gaul · 1959 Federico Bahamontes · 1960 Gastone Nencini · 1961-1964 Jacques Anquetil · 1965 Felice Gimondi · 1966 Lucien Aimar · 1967 Roger Pingeon · 1968 Jan Janssen · 1969-1972 Eddy Merckx · 1973 Luis Ocaña · 1974 Eddy Merckx · 1975 Bernard Thévenet · 1976 Lucien Van Impe · 1977 Bernard Thévenet · 1978-1979 Bernard Hinault · 1980 Joop Zoetemelk · 1981-1982 Bernard Hinault · 1983-1984 Laurent Fignon · 1985 Bernard Hinault · 1986 Greg LeMond · 1987 Stephen Roche · 1988 Pedro Delgado · 1989-1990 Greg LeMond · 1991-1995 Miguel Indurain · 1996 Bjarne Riis · 1997 Jan Ullrich · 1998 Marco Pantani · 1999-2005 Lance Armstrong · 2006 Óscar Pereiro · 2007 Alberto Contador

v • d • e Cycling at the Summer Olympics | Olympic Champions in Men's Individual Time Trial
1896-1992 | 1996: Miguel Indurain | 2000: Viatcheslav Ekimov | 2004: Tyler Hamilton