We will not see anything like Miguel Indurain in Luxembourg again
In the recurring figure of Miguel Indurain the shooting centered on two time trials, the most emblematic, the most powerful and unrepeatable. the two most famous time trials of his: Luxembourg and Bergerac.
This is not a scientific or statistical comparison, it is subjective, completely unrelated to statistics.
When we spoke with Carlos de Andrés during the hard part of confinement, who did not stop restoring cycling on Teledeporte, we asked him…
Any other that touches your heart…
«I was very excited recover Miguel Indurain’s Luxembourg time trial»
Indurain Luxembourg or Bergerac? I think you see where the shots are going
Let’s remember…
On July 13, 1992 there was a before and after.
A day that marked that Tour and the next three with fire.
A monument of sixty-five kilometers and a long hour of effort.
If “Maître Jacques” were alive, he would have dressed in blue and white, on a customized Banesto goat and a helmet with an inverted red triangle.
I remember that day perfectly. One afternoon in July. The race has already been launched, the favorites on the road, and among them the first to be operational, Miguel Indurain.
Navarro, winner last year, doubts grew during the northern days, when Lemond and Chiapucci took certain seconds, symbolic, but for many symptomatic.
That was a black people’s snack. Gambling on the cobblestones of Brussels had no greater reward than consolation for what would happen in the small duchy.
“Attention, first point, Miguel Indurain has the best time with a big advantage” shouted a Carlos de Andrés almost thirty years younger -go to 24’12”-.
Miguel had started what I consider his masterpiece.
If Luxembourg had been fatal for Pedro Delgado three years earlier, here, with one on his back and also in a time trial, the man from Villava would sign what is considered by many to be the best time trial in history.
The Luxembourg routes, whether long, narrow or on moorland, witnessed how a cyclist was able to overtake three platoon mates.
The last of them, Laurent Fignon, had left six minutes earlier. This gives dimension to the feat.
At the threshold of the arrival arch, Armand de las Cuevas took three minutes, Gianni Bugno 3’41” and Greg Lemond beyond four.
Although Pascal Lino came out in yellow that day, his was a testimonial award.
It lasted as long as the platoon took to enter the Alps.
Two years later, Bergerac…
That day Miguel Indurain flewdid it at such a level that it earned the title of the second best time in history, because in our minds we still had the one in Luxembourg, just two years before, on one of those days, 25 years later, that are never forgotten. .
The time trial between Périgueux and Bergerac is in the annals for many reasons.
It was then reported by maestro Javier de Dalmases in the pages of the former multi-sports newspaper, now it is a Barça serial, El Mundo Deportivo, whose diving through its newspaper archive is a pleasure to remember and remember.
That day in July, with the melted asphalt and danger at any turn, Miguel almost fell in two of the first cornersIndurain violated a correction that fourteen days from the end sounded like a sentence.
Only Tony Rominger, three-time winner of the Vuelta that year, remained with a halo of hope, two minutes away, beyond the four, fell Armand De las Cuevas, the wayward gregarious, the unfinished boxer.
Indurain’s feat can be explained on various levels and statistics, but if you allow us we will only give one: The Navarrese sent 123 cyclists beyond ten minutes.
That way of pedaling, that way of attaching to a machine that ran on a 54 x 12, proved impossible to manage for a vast majority of the runners, not to mention all of them except Rominger, the only one who started on the lane. the two minutes.
He even dubbed Lance Armstrong, a scene that over the years would gain value and morbidity.
Seen both, what days those were, Luxembourg is day D in Miguel Indurain’s career, beyond the differences, which were greater in Bergerac, sending Rominger to two minutes and more than four to the rest.
And it is that Luxembourg was the beginning, the first blow, everyone was waiting for him but perhaps no one in that tonedismantling the arguments of rivals who had put him in trouble in previous days or who had focused on the Tour.
Indurain already wore one in Luxembourg, he had won a Tour, others also won a Tour, but That certified the excellence and the promise that that cycle would be long, very long..
He raised the bar and would maintain it.
That happened in Luxembourg… in Bergerac it was raining And he got us so used to it.
2023-12-24 23:11:41
#Indurain #ruined #4th #Tour #descent #Ventoux
