Federico Bahamontes

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Federico Bahamontes bigraphy, stories - Spanish racing cyclist

Federico Bahamontes : biography

09 July 1928 –

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

Riding style

Bahamontes was a talented climber but a poor descender, sometimes taking one foot off the pedal to take mountain bends like a speedway rider. He landed in a cactus bush descending the Montserrat as an amateur and thereafter refused to descend mountains alone, once waiting at the top of a col in the Tour de France for other riders to arrive. He reached the top minutes before a chase group arrived, and famously passed the time eating ice cream by the side of the road.

He was also temperamental, throwing his bike down a ravine to stop any pressure to continue riding when he dropped out of the 1956 Tour de France on the col de Luitel. The following year he dropped out again when the retirement of his team-mate, Miguel Poblet, left him without support. He held on to his bike but took off his shoes.

Biography

Bahamontes was born in Santo Domingo-Caudilla (Toledo), of Cuban descent. His family was devastated during the Spanish civil war and Bahamontes’ father, Julián, took the family to Madrid as refugees. There Julian Martín lived by breaking rocks before opening a fruit and vegetable stall.

Bahamontes worked as a delivery boy. His hero and eventually his friend was Julián Berrendero, winner of the Vuelta a España in 1941 and 1942 and later selector of national teams.

He began racing in the late 1940s, winning his first race, wearing a baseball shirt Cycle Sport, UK, August 1998 on 18 July 1947. It was 12 years to the day before his first Tour de France triumph.

He took the mountains jersey and won the first stage of the 1953 Tour of Asturias at 23, while still not a full professional. The Spanish cycling federation picked him for the 1954 Tour de France the following year and his instructions from the national coach was "Try to win it." He didn’t win but he did win the mountains competition and finish 25th.

Bahamontes was a climbing specialist to whom reporters gave the nickname the ‘Eagle of Toledo. He rode in a distinctive upright style, staring ahead, his shorts pulled high on his thighs, his hands repeatedly changing position on the handlebars. 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 in the 1959 Tour de France, but he benefited 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 Henry 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 became King of the Mountains too.

Anquetil was whistled as he finished the Tour on the Parc des Princes because spectators had worked out that he and others had contrived to let Bahamontes rather than the Frenchman Anglade win. The French team was unbalanced by internal rivalries. Anglade was unusual in that he was represented by the agent Roger Piel while the others had Daniel Dousset. The two men controlled all French racing.Dousset-Piel, l’Age de Bronze, Vélo, France November 2005 Dousset worked out that his riders had to beat Bahamontes or make sure that Anglade didn’t win. Since they couldn’t beat Anglade, they contrived to let Bahamontes win because Bahamontes, a poor rider on the flat and on small circuits, would be no threat to the post-Tour criterium fees that made up the bulk of riders’ – and agents’ – earnings.