When I saw this I thought of Limerickman! I know he likes Indurain!
-Stuart Stevens. "He Is Miguel, of Course".
Everybody, it seems, has a theory about Miguel Indurain.
Take, for instance, the thighbone theory, an ostensible favorite of his longtime coach, José Miguel Echavarri. "The secret's in the length of his build," he says. "His legs provide more power than other riders can generate."
Then there's the temperament theory. Temperament, as in the placid demeanor that Indurain manages to maintain even in the most trying of moments. Temperament, as in his uncanny ability to mask his emotions (read suffering) from his opponents. And temperament, as in patience, a point that teammate Andy Hampsten stresses. "Miguel was willing to work his way up through the ranks of his team," he says, "even though he was already good enough to be the star. It helped him develop without burning out too early."
There is also the heart-and-lung theory, one that I'm a bit partial to. True believers in the heart-and-lung theory insist that Indurain's heart beats once a day or so and that his lungs are the size of a pair of Honda Civics parked side by side. Sports Illustrated was quite taken with this notion, promising in a 1993 article that Indurain's lungs were "so huge that if you look carefully at his lower back as he pedals a bike, you can make out their gentle heaving."
Or the weight theory, advanced by Spanish cycling journalists like Inglo Munoyerro, who has followed Indurain since he was a teenager. "He used to be a little heavier," Munoyerro says. "It makes a big difference."
When I first saw this I thought “That´s the god damn ´Urban Myth´”, but I read it again and saw it was about Big Mig and not LA!
Max Testa, now director of sports performance at the University of California at Davis, figured out the optimal ratio of power to body weight for cyclists, based on his studies of past Tour winners (The Golden Ratio). To reach it, Indurain had to shed only 12 pounds. Which he did. The next year he won his first of five consecutive Tours.
Wasn´t Indurain a client of the first Dr. Frankenstein? That was a pretty big transformation! Then he goes on to win 5 straight TDF´S! I don´t buy it.
Footnote Disclosure:
Just for the record, Dr. Frankenstein is Francesco Conconi and his wacky criminal assistant, Michele Ferrari, NOT Max Testa.
Indurain was a client of Conconi/Ferrari as was Claudio Chiapucci and Tony Rominger. Berzin and Armstrong both followed this golden pathway of illegal doping and its Warlocks from the University of Ferrara, Italy. The only thing unique about Lance was 1) his cancer recovery 2) his sponsors financing a Team TDF ONLY approach to bike racing, super specialization.
Yup!