Miguel Indurain slides his rangy legs beneath a table at a hotel in the Italian Dolomites, smiles bashfully and exchanges a softly spoken ‘hola’. The legendary Spanish cyclist is an elusive but endearing enigma, a man about whom cycling fans know everything yet nothing at all. He’s the humble farmer’s son who became cycling royalty, the attention-fleeing introvert who won the global extravaganza of the Tour de France a record five consecutive times between 1991 and 1995 to join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault in the pantheon of five-time winners. A double Giro d’Italia winner, former World and Olympic Time-Trial Champion, and World Hour Record holder, he still enjoys fixing broken tractors and hunting. By nature modest and reserved, his arrival at our interview is so discreet I’m reminded of a comment made by his ex-teammate, Jean-Francois Bernard: ‘When he comes down for his meal, you don’t even hear him move his chair.’
Standing 6ft 2in tall and weighing 80kg in his prime, ‘Miguelon’ (Big Mig) was as strong and powerful as the bulls of his native Pamplona. Science says he should have floundered in the mountains but his Zeppelin-sized lungs, piston-like femurs (his coach Jose Miguel Echavarri claimed his long thigh bones were his secret weapons) and fabled resting heart rate of just 28 beats per minute (the adult norm is between 60 and 90bpm) enabled him to dilute the challenges of gravity. Venerated for his devastating speed in time-trials, in person his every hand movement, footstep and blink appears to play out in super-slow-motion – a charming lifelong trait confirmed by his contemporaries. It’s as though the Spaniard was equipped with a Formula One-style kinetic energy recovery system that stored up his energy during life’s quieter deceleration phases, ready to be unleashed in fury the next time he accelerated on a bike.
Still athletic at the age of 51, with neat greying hair, retro sideburns straying down his tanned cheeks (not quite Wiggins-esque but there is a definite nod to nostalgia) and dressed in a simple polo shirt and jeans, Indurain remains a glorious mystery. He rarely grants interviews but has agreed to meet Cyclist at the chic La Perla hotel in Corvara, nestled between the jagged pinnacles of Alta Badia, where he is hosting rides for customers of cycling tour operator In Gamba, which runs exclusive tours from the hotel.
It seems only right to begin by discovering some truths behind the legendary figure, starting with that 28bpm resting heart rate. Is it true? ‘Some of the stories are true and some of them are a little bit exaggerated,’ says Indurain. ‘Normally I had a resting heart rate of 30 or 32bpm. The coaches used to measure it in the morning and in the afternoon to see if I was recovering. One day we did a medical test and it read 28, so there is some truth in it. But normally it was a little bit higher.’
Various other extraordinary figures have been affixed to the Indurain legend, including a VO2 max (the maximum rate of oxygen consumption during exercise) of 88ml/kg/min and a cardiac output (the volume of blood pumped by the heart) of 50 litres per minute – both double the human norm.
‘We used to have tests of oxygen consumption, heart rate, body fat percentage and things like that, but I cannot remember them all. There were other people with physical conditions like mine, but you need to know how to bring those qualities out – to squeeze the orange a little bit. You can do nothing with your physical condition because you are born with it, but you need to know how to get a better performance out of it. There are cycling champions who have less peak fitness than their opponents, but more motivation. Others have great fitness but don’t want it as much.’
The silent assassin
Indurain’s Grand Tour victories were neatly planned and efficiently executed. He would wait patiently, chasing down attacks only when necessary, seldom going on the offensive himself, matching but rarely beating his rivals in the mountains, and calmly extending his lead during individual time-trials. Ten of his 12 Tour stage wins and all four of his Giro stage victories came in time-trials.
The Spaniard’s style drew both praise and criticism. Teammates admired his quiet authority, metronomic consistency and composure, and fans like the young Bradley Wiggins were enchanted by his elegant style and inscrutability. Others were less impressed by what they saw as a negative approach: Indurain was not a man for dazzling recklessness. Off the bike he defused press conferences with polite platitudes. Bernard Hinault commented in 1992, ‘Indurain is the best rider of his generation, but he has won this Tour quietly.’
The man himself explains that his style was the inevitable product of his personality, physical stature and the circumstances in which he raced. ‘The way I rode is the way I am,’ he says. ‘Ultimately when you are out on the road that is also the way you are with other people. Some say I could have been more aggressive and got more victories but if you don’t behave the way you are, you don’t feel comfortable with yourself.’
The likes of Hinault and Cavendish display a certain killer instinct, but with Indurain it’s only possible to identify a quiet but sincere confidence – a will to win but not to crush. He says his diffidence was a strength: ‘You have to be a thoughtful rider. You have to preserve your energies. You have to be aware of your rivals. You have a lot of details to think about. Ultimately you are going to be racing at a very high intensity so you still need to have the capacity to think about your energy, your rivals and your plans. You need brains to stay at the front.’
Indurain also knew he had to make the most of his unique attributes and opportunities. During his era, time-trials were significantly longer – often covering 120km during a three-week Tour compared to the solitary 13.8km time-trial in the 2015 edition. ‘In my time big riders had an advantage because we had long time-trials of 60-70km each and that is where we made the difference over the climbers and the smaller riders. Later on in the mountains, we weren’t going to make any big gains, but we could still perform well and stay close.’
From the farm to France
Miguel Indurain was born on 16th July 1964 and grew up on his father’s farm in the village of Villava, now an outlying area of Pamplona, with his three sisters, Isabel, Maria Dolores and Maria Asuncion, and his younger brother Prudencio, a fellow cyclist who competed in the Tour de France four times.
‘From a very young age I was on a bike,’ he says. ‘Not a road bike, just a town bike in my village. I remember always having a bike at home. I did athletics and football but I didn’t find the right discipline for me until I signed up to do road cycling at the age of 12.’
After joining his local cycling club, CC Villaves, Indurain took part in his first race in July 1978, finishing second. ‘It wasn’t until I won the Spanish Amateur Road Championships in 1983 that I realised something was possible in cycling. Until then it was just a hobby. After that, people encouraged me and told me I should try to become a professional. From then on I dedicated myself fully to this profession.’
He turned professional with the Reynolds team in 1984 (which was renamed Banesto when the Spanish bank took over sponsorship in 1990) and sampled his first Tour in 1985, pulling out after the fourth stage. ‘I wasn’t supposed to go but my teammate Angel Arroyo got ill so they took me instead. It was a surprise. I wasn’t expecting it. Everything was new. Everything was different. It was a huge shock.’
Indurain completed his first Tour in 1987, finishing 97th. In 1988 he helped his teammate Pedro Delgado to win the yellow jersey and in 1989 he won his first Tour stage – a 147km mountain stage from Pau to Cauterets. In 1990 Indurain won the 215km stage 16 from Blagnac to Luz Ardiden and finished 10th overall, but many claim if he hadn’t been helping a struggling Delgado – who finished fourth – he could have won the general classification himself.
‘I don’t think so,’ says Indurain with characteristic humility. ‘Mentally, I wasn’t prepared to be a leader. When it went well it was because I was feeling calm that I was doing my work for Delgado. If I did well, it was good, but if I didn’t do well, nothing would have happened either. There was no pressure. I had tranquility. Later on, when I was a team leader, I had to handle the responsibility of doing well. That eats away at you all day long. That year I wanted to help Pedro and I did well but it could easily have gone wrong.’
Five-star champion
At the 1991 Tour, Indurain was ready to step up and won the time-trials on Stages 8 and 21 en route to victory. ‘The first Tour win was the most special,’ he says. ‘Since I had decided that I liked cycling and I wanted to dedicate myself to it, I had looked at the best race in the world, which is the Tour de France, and I knew I wanted to do what Bernard Hinault did. So when I got my first victory that was the most important one.’
In 1992 Indurain secured the first of his two Giro and Tour doubles, becoming part of an elite club of seven riders (now nine) who have won both in a calendar year. He repeated the feat in 1993. ‘The doubles were very hard – the training as well as the actual races – and you have to be very focused to win both. Maybe 1993 was the hardest. I got a cold in the stage in Andorra and it was harder for me to get to Paris. Achieving it is something I am very proud of. The mountains are harder in Italy but the level of racing and expectation is not as high as at the Tour where you get the best riders in their best form.’
Indurain enjoyed riding in Italy and still does. ‘I come to Italy often and I had a lot of relationships here because almost all my sponsors, apart from Banesto [Spanish] and Time pedals [French], were Italian manufacturers.’ Indurain rode Pinarello bikes with Campagnolo gears. At La Perla hotel there is a special Pinarello lounge that contains one of Indurain’s time-trial bikes. ‘We rode in the Dolomites a lot during the Giro so I have great memories of the place and the people. Italians live for cycling with great passion. In England cycling is a new passion but in Italy it has been like this for years. From races to bicycle manufacturing, cycling is in their hearts.’
Indurain secured his fourth Tour win in 1994 and set a new World Hour Record in the same year, beating Graeme Obree’s record with a distance of 53.040km. He pushed so hard he momentarily lost all feeling in the right side of his body. In 1995 Indurain won his final Tour and triumphed in the World Time-Trial Championships in Duitama, Colombia. What drove him to keep on winning? ‘It is simple, he says. ‘I had ambitions and dreams so I kept trying hard every year.’
The Spaniard attempted a record sixth Tour win in 1996 but fell short, finishing 11th. He won the first ever Olympic Time-Trial title in Atlanta two weeks later, before retiring in January 1997, declaring, ‘My family are waiting.’ Indurain now lives near Pamplona with his wife Marisa and three children.
Speed machine
The story of Miguel Indurain will always be entwined with the speed and power of the time-trial. In his book A Race For Madmen, Chris Sidwells wrote, ‘Amid the flat backs and skiers’ crouches, Indurain rode like a Spanish galleon… [he] was the Bugatti Veyron of cycling: his engine was so big that aerodynamic subtlety didn’t matter so much.’
The Spaniard says the time-trial suited both his physical and psychological strengths. ‘It’s very complicated,’ he says. ‘It’s a very personal challenge against the time and the kilometres. It’s you against the rest. It’s about training, experience and motivation. During a time-trial you’re in a bubble where you’re against everyone and everything. You’re responsible for whether it turns out right or wrong and you have to manage yourself. That is something I always liked.’
He says he was disappointed by the lack of time-trials at this year’s Tour. ‘It is a shame because that is what I really like, as a fan. At the Vuelta I only go to watch the time-trial stages. I don’t go to the mountain stages. To me, the time-trial is the discipline in cycling where you can really see who is strongest. There wasn’t much time-trialling in this year’s Tour and I feel as though it was missing something.’
Which modern riders does he like to watch? ‘I like the ones who give a good show but I feel more inclined towards riders who are complete – the ones who can climb but also time-trial. Of course, as a Spaniard, Contador and Valverde are riders I know and like, but I identify more with riders who are more complete. In Bradley Wiggins’ time, he was very similar to me. Now there is nobody – perhaps Chris Froome is also a time-triallist and a climber. Froome defends himself well in all terrain. I see him perhaps a little bit under pressure. He goes all day with high revolutions so from the outside it’s as though he is under pressure.’
Would Indurain like to be a pro rider today? ‘Practically it hasn’t changed that much. The races are more controlled, but the mountains are the same. What I least like is how much they travel to places like Australia, America and Qatar. I didn’t like to travel. In my time it was mainly in Europe but I don’t think I would have enjoyed long flights to places like Qatar.’
We finish the interview with a walk around the hotel gardens, glancing up at the serrated peaks of the Dolomites high above. Indurain strolls around languidly, smiling and chatting. His shoulders are gently rounded, whether from years spent hunched over a bike or shyness, it’s hard to say. But after an afternoon with him it’s clear that Indurain is one of the sport’s finest gentleman champions. He says he is already looking forward to riding his bike tomorrow.
‘When I cycle now it is just like when I was cycling before. During my career there were hard times but I always did what I enjoyed. At first cycling is your hobby. Then it is your passion. Then it becomes your job. But I will always be happy when I am on my bike.’
Miguel Indurain is an ambassador of La Perla’s Leading Bike Experience. Visit hotel-laperla.it