How did Indurain win 5 Tours?



jameshawk87

New Member
Jul 4, 2004
9
0
0
Since I have only been watching the Tour de France since 1999 ( im 16, do the math ok) I never saw Indurain win a Tour, yet I have seen Lance win 5 staright. Yet Ive heard that Indurain was not a great climber, and from what I have seen throught the years, I find it impossible to win the tour with pure TT's and flat stages, any old timer's have the answer. Please help me, its been killing me for years. Plus for some odd weird reason I seem to like Indurain more than Lance.
 
jameshawk87 said:
Since I have only been watching the Tour de France since 1999 ( im 16, do the math ok) I never saw Indurain win a Tour, yet I have seen Lance win 5 staright. Yet Ive heard that Indurain was not a great climber, and from what I have seen throught the years, I find it impossible to win the tour with pure TT's and flat stages, any old timer's have the answer. Please help me, its been killing me for years. Plus for some odd weird reason I seem to like Indurain more than Lance.
Indurain really crushed the opposition in the time trials. He generally beat the 2nd place getter by about 3 minutes. It was incredible to see. His upper body barely moved, he cranked out the big gears and never really looked like he was going hard.
Although not a pure climber, he could certainly stay with the climbers. I can't remember him winning any mountain stages but he was always in the top few places of the mountain stages.
 
patch70 said:
I can't remember him winning any mountain stages but he was always in the top few places of the mountain stages.
I think he won one a year or two before he started winning the tour, I could be wrong though, maybe it wasn't a mountain stage :confused: someone here will know :)
 
steve said:
I think he won one a year or two before he started winning the tour, I could be wrong though, maybe it wasn't a mountain stage :confused: someone here will know :)

Yep....he won at Cauterets (I think) in 1989 in the KOM jersey. He also rode his guts out to try and win the 1991 Tour of Spain (when it was held before the Tour)

On how he won 5 Tours...it's pretty simple really.

Massive lungs and super-slow resting HR
Massive power output
Incredible recuperation after maximal efforts
Super efficient TT postion
Strong Banesto team
Climbed at his own pace....responded to accelerations gradually rather than panicking
Never had "bad days" in the mountains like so many of his rivals
 
1992: Indurain, who had a resting heartbeat of 29 beats per minute and lungs which could scoop up eight litres of air, was always unbeatable against the clock but excelled himself this year when he won the time trial in Luxembourg by an incredible three minutes.
 
Marx SS said:
1992: Indurain, who had a resting heartbeat of 29 beats per minute and lungs which could scoop up eight litres of air, was always unbeatable against the clock but excelled himself this year when he won the time trial in Luxembourg by an incredible three minutes.

The "extra-terrestrial"

AWESOME ride, that.
 
jameshawk87 said:
Since I have only been watching the Tour de France since 1999 ( im 16, do the math ok) I never saw Indurain win a Tour, yet I have seen Lance win 5 staright. Yet Ive heard that Indurain was not a great climber, and from what I have seen throught the years, I find it impossible to win the tour with pure TT's and flat stages, any old timer's have the answer. Please help me, its been killing me for years. Plus for some odd weird reason I seem to like Indurain more than Lance.

He was a better climber than he tried to be. His strength was in the TT. He tried to minimize the loss in the mountains by watching the good climbers and not allowing them too much time. Relative to the competition, he rested in the mountains. Then, when the TT came along, he would blow everyone away because he hadn't worn himself out in the mountains. He was such a smoothe TT rider.
 
gntlmn said:
He was a better climber than he tried to be. His strength was in the TT. He tried to minimize the loss in the mountains by watching the good climbers and not allowing them too much time. Relative to the competition, he rested in the mountains. Then, when the TT came along, he would blow everyone away because he hadn't worn himself out in the mountains. He was such a smoothe TT rider.

I agree with all of the points that have been posted.
As regards BigMigs climbing, I was at Alp D'Huez and Guzet Naige when Marco
Pantani literally blew the field way in both stages in 1995 TDF.
Marco flew by us that day and BigMig had to chase.
Marco passed us at a greater tempo but the initial gap that Marco opened
never stretched.
BigMig blasted by us - it was a very very impressive piece of climbing.
So although he was not at the MP level of climbing ability (and there are very few people who were at that level), his climbing was very impressive.

Indurains ability to win other stage races as well as the TDF in the same season is also very impressive.
His two Giro wins in the 1992 and 1993 (when he also won the TDF) was
superlative.
The Giro is a tougher race than the TDF : the mountain stages are tougher.
For a big man to be able to get over those climbs and to win overall, is
simply mindboggling.
Finally, look at the quality of BigMigs opponents : Bugno, Chiapucci, Jalabert,
Rominger, Riis, Roche, LeMond (albeit after his accident), Pantani.
To beat this level of opposition too, is the sign of someone special.
It's a pity your a youngster because what we see nowadays is not a patch
on BigMig in his pomp.
 
Indurain's climbing was always underrated. I don't think we ever really saw him give it everything except perhaps at Hautacam in 94 and La Plagne in 95 when he blew away all the best climbers in the world, Pantani included whilst in pursuit of Alex Zulle. I bet Pavel Tonkov has never forgotten the way Indurain flew past him! Miguel did win at Cauterets in 89 and Luz Ardiden in 1990, beating Lemond, Lejarreta, Parra and Delgado amongst others. A champion cyclist and from all accounts a champion man.
 
mocka58 said:
Indurain's climbing was always underrated. I don't think we ever really saw him give it everything except perhaps at Hautacam in 94 and La Plagne in 95 when he blew away all the best climbers in the world, Pantani included whilst in pursuit of Alex Zulle. I bet Pavel Tonkov has never forgotten the way Indurain flew past him! Miguel did win at Cauterets in 89 and Luz Ardiden in 1990, beating Lemond, Lejarreta, Parra and Delgado amongst others. A champion cyclist and from all accounts a champion man.
A lot of people complained that Miguel was "boring" because when another climber would pair with him on a difficult stage, the other would almost always be granted the stage win. It wasn't at all obvious that this was happening because he didn't intend it to appear as such. This would have been disrespectful to the riders who would, in winning the stage, help Mig in the GC. He was always focused on the GC win, and in having this attitude toward the other riders, it was very encouraging for strong riders to come forward for stage breakaways on the climbs. They had reason to believe that he would not rob them of their stage win glory. A spectator might have wanted him to try to win every stage, even against those who had no GC hopes, but this simply was not Big Mig's style.
 
sopas said:
Indurain was a great champion, but above all, he was a real gentelman both on and off the bike. For all those interesting I have a little article about him. Feel free to download it from:

http://personal.redestb.es/jripar/indurain.zip

Yes, I've met him twice and I have to say he is the most gentlemanly person
I have ever met.
On both occasions he was extremely polite.
I was surprised though at how much he talked.
I had assumed that he was going to be quiet but he made conversation
pretty easily.
His english is quite good - my spanish is rudimentary.
He is a big Jan ullrich fan - I can tell you.
And he also gets along very well with Mr.Merckx too.
 
limerickman said:
I agree with all of the points that have been posted.
As regards BigMigs climbing, I was at Alp D'Huez and Guzet Naige when Marco
Pantani literally blew the field way in both stages in 1995 TDF.
Marco flew by us that day and BigMig had to chase.
Marco passed us at a greater tempo but the initial gap that Marco opened
never stretched.
BigMig blasted by us - it was a very very impressive piece of climbing.
So although he was not at the MP level of climbing ability (and there are very few people who were at that level), his climbing was very impressive.
In 1995, Pantani's time in Alp D'Huez was 38:04, Indurain was second at 1:24 behind Pantani with a time of 39:28. But as you said the initial gap that Marco opened on Indurain never stretched once the Spaniard began the chase. Indurain was certainly a great climber too, especially considering his huge size 188 cm and 80 kilos!!!!
 
limerickman said:
Yes, I've met him twice and I have to say he is the most gentlemanly person
I have ever met.
On both occasions he was extremely polite.
I was surprised though at how much he talked.
I had assumed that he was going to be quiet but he made conversation
pretty easily.
His english is quite good - my spanish is rudimentary.
He is a big Jan ullrich fan - I can tell you.
And he also gets along very well with Mr.Merckx too.
Hello Limerickman, I am from Spain but unfortunately I never had the opportunity to meet Indurain. But I can tell you Ullrich is also a big fan of Indurain. In fact Indurain is Ullrich's model, and in many ways he rides exactly like Indurain used to do.
 
sopas said:
Hello Limerickman, I am from Spain but unfortunately I never had the opportunity to meet Indurain. But I can tell you Ullrich is also a big fan of Indurain. In fact Indurain is Ullrich's model, and in many ways he rides exactly like Indurain used to do.

Hello to you Sopas,

I was fortunate to meet him in 1998 at the TDF when it was here in Ireland.
That's when he made those remarks about Jan Ullrich (and see JU on his website says that bigMig was his cycling hero !).

The second time I met him was at Stephen Roches training camp in Marjorca
in 2001 when BigMig came along for a training session !
He was on holiday in Marjorca at the time and Roche invited him down to give a talk about cycling and training.
There was a small group of us there - and he gave a half hour talking about cycling and preparation and training.
His wife and son came along afterwards - to collect him because he kept talking for so long !
 
sopas said:
In 1995, Pantani's time in Alp D'Huez was 38:04, Indurain was second at 1:24 behind Pantani with a time of 39:28. But as you said the initial gap that Marco opened on Indurain never stretched once the Spaniard began the chase. Indurain was certainly a great climber too, especially considering his huge size 188 cm and 80 kilos!!!!

That's right.
Marco opened up a gap that day at the bottom of the Alpe D'Huez and broke away from the field.
As Marco went, Miguel was beside his super domestique Gerard Rue.
He turned to Rue and said "pull over" and Miguel started chasing Marco
going up the Alp D'Huez.
Marco flew by us.
And as Miguel approached, I saw him doing something that you rarely saw him do.
He actually got out of the saddle when he was putting the power on.
Normally he sat when powering but this day he got out of the saddle.
he was worried about Marco that day, i think.

it was a great piece of climbng by Marco but it was even better to see
Miguel really going too.
 
limerickman said:
That's right.
Marco opened up a gap that day at the bottom of the Alpe D'Huez and broke away from the field.
As Marco went, Miguel was beside his super domestique Gerard Rue.
He turned to Rue and said "pull over" and Miguel started chasing Marco
going up the Alp D'Huez.
Marco flew by us.
And as Miguel approached, I saw him doing something that you rarely saw him do.
He actually got out of the saddle when he was putting the power on.
Normally he sat when powering but this day he got out of the saddle.
he was worried about Marco that day, i think.

it was a great piece of climbng by Marco but it was even better to see
Miguel really going too.
In fact, in 1995 Indurain was not super in the TTs (merely won the first TT by 12 seconds to Riis), but he gave in my opinion his best performance in the mountains. Remember that day in La Plagne when Zulle won and Indurain was second? We don't see stages like that anymore. I think that day in Alp D'Huez both Pantani and Indurain could have arrived together had Miguel gone with him from the start. Marco opened up the gap at the bottom and Indurain initially let him go and only later started to chase. Zulle and Riis could hardly follow him! I have asked myself many times how much "leg power" must Indurain have? A guy with a weight of 80 kilos climbing with guys with 10 kilos less!!! What is the weight of Ullrich, Armstrong, Pantani etc, etc. Just imagine a rider of 72 kilos with Indurain's legs!!!
 
he did the time trial the day before road to liege, where bruyneel won, he attacked in the cote des forges and did a 25 kms individual time trial
in the lac de vassiviere time trial he won by 48´´ over riis and over 1 minute over rominger and almost 2 over zulle
i think indurain didnt show us how good climber he was as much as he could have done, for example armstrong does it at every final climb, indurain didnt do exhibitions, he did a few, i remember one road to hautacam in 94, la plagne 95, and for me the best ever cycling stage i have ever seen, sestrieres 92, where indurain lost 1´15´´ in the last 2kms with chiappucci
what would happen if armstrong had had to fight with chiapucci, the best pantani, rominger, the best virenque, riis?? nowadays riders dont attk at all, ivan basso is the best example
 
Miguel_garcia83 said:
he did the time trial the day before road to liege, where bruyneel won, he attacked in the cote des forges and did a 25 kms individual time trial
in the lac de vassiviere time trial he won by 48´´ over riis and over 1 minute over rominger and almost 2 over zulle
i think indurain didnt show us how good climber he was as much as he could have done, for example armstrong does it at every final climb, indurain didnt do exhibitions, he did a few, i remember one road to hautacam in 94, la plagne 95, and for me the best ever cycling stage i have ever seen, sestrieres 92, where indurain lost 1´15´´ in the last 2kms with chiappucci
what would happen if armstrong had had to fight with chiapucci, the best pantani, rominger, the best virenque, riis?? nowadays riders dont attk at all, ivan basso is the best example

Indurain gave Bryneel the victory that day in Liege.
Bryneel said that it was like "drafting behind a motorbike" when he was behind Indurain !

Sestriere 1992 wa the best stage that I have ever seen - Chiappucci was great that day and so were Bugno and Indurain.
 
limerickman said:
Indurain gave Bryneel the victory that day in Liege.
Bryneel said that it was like "drafting behind a motorbike" when he was behind Indurain !

Sestriere 1992 wa the best stage that I have ever seen - Chiappucci was great that day and so were Bugno and Indurain.
And Franco Vona, he finished that tour really fit, and he was second in that stage. indurain had his biggest faintness in the tour of france, well until 1996, he lost 1´15 in the last km, and after that tour he said that if sestriere had been 3kms longer he would have lost that tour
i admire chiappucci, thats the kind of bikers we miss nowadays, 230kms runaway in that stage. and i remember that in 92 he also attacked with jalabert, lemond??, nevens...in that awful day road to brussels, he attacked evrywhere, even though he knew indurain has superior