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Indurain
Miguel Indurain is Spain’s greatest cyclist of all time and one of the best Tour racers in history. He is the only bike rider to have won five successive Tours de France, as well as holding the title for the youngest ever race leader in the Tour of Spain. This is his story. As the all-conquering hero of the 90s, Indurain steadfastly refused to be overwhelmed by fame; remaining humble, shy and true to his country roots. Along with his superhuman calmness, iron will-power and superb bike handling skills, he was often described as a machine. Yet 1996 saw Indurain, the Tour’s greatest ever champion, spectacularly plummet, bringing his career and supremacy to an abrupt end. In Indurain, Alasdair Fotheringham gets to the heart of this enigmatic character, reliving his historic accomplishments in vibrant colour, and exploring how this shaped the direction taken by generations of Spanish racers - raising Spanish sport to a whole new level.
320 pages, Paperback
Published May 25, 2017
18 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Alasdair Fotheringham
7 books7 followersAlasdair Fotheringham is a British foreign affairs and sports journalist, specializing in cycle racing. Based in Spain, Fotheringham works as a freelance journalist and has written articles for The Independent, The Independent On Sunday, The Guardian, The Daily Express, The Sunday Express, Cycling Weekly and Reuters. He has been The Independent's cycling correspondent since 2001, and having covered the Tour de France 17 times, Fotheringham covered the Olympic Games for the first time in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 5, 2017
"You had to interpret his silences" - Eusebio Unzué
"He's so quiet you don't even hear him" - Jean-Francois Bernard
Enjoyable biography of my second favourite sportsman (second only to the great Sean Kelly). Also a book which reminds me of two of the most iconic sporting moments I have been lucky to witness in the flesh - Indurain's shock attack on Mont Theux and his even more shocking collapse on Les Arcs (I can still remember the almost funeral hush when he road past us that day).
A very well written biography which is both unfailingly accurate in its description of events (with Fotheringham drawing extensively on contemporary reports) and provides detailed insights (from more recent interviews as part of his research for this book). The book contains however no interviews at all (other than old ones) with Indurain, not one would think because Indurain was unhappy with an unauthorised biography (his brother Prudencio has happily contributed) or as a stylistic choice by the author (as in Daniel Friebe's Mercxk book) but simply as the quotes above implies because Indurain is simply not like other sporting stars.
The book concludes with a visit Fotheringham makes to the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP_Migu...) Indurain's local one-day race and one he never missed competing in, once the Trofeo Comunidad Foral de Navarra but renamed after his retirement. Even at a race in his honour, one of Spain's top 2-3 ever sporting stars
remains just a face in the crowd. And that bizarrely enough is precisely what makes him so unusual, and, ultimately, his legacy so enduring
May 15, 2020
Esta es una biografía que repasa la vida y carrera del ciclista Miguel Indurain. Muy oficialista, tiene demasiado clara la narrativa que quiere contar y se ciñe a ella sin apartarse ni una coma.
Pasa de puntillas sobre el dopaje en la época y ni sueña con siquiera insinuar la más mínima vinculación con él. Y eso que resulta bastante sencillo abrir más de un interrogante al respecto. Además, insiste hasta la extenuación en el perfil humano de Miguel, llegando a resultar cargante y dedicando excesivo espacio a ese aspecto a costa de reducir el dedicado a otras carreras.
También me parece que se nota cierta tendenciosidad en algunas posturas, como el enfoque de Boardman hacia las cronos o las bondades del carácter de Indurain respecto a otros grandes campeones. En ese sentido creo que el autor deja demasiado claras sus posturas, en vez de intentar contar las cosas como son y que sea el lector el que evalúe y llegue a su propia opinión.
Está basado eminentemente en entrevistas realizadas a un buen puñado de personas cercanas a Miguel. Perico Delgado, Dominique Arnaud, el masajista Manu Arrieta... y así hasta una veintena aproximadamente. Me faltan declaraciones de José Miguel Echavarri y sobre todo las más importantes, las del propio Miguel. El libro acerca su figura desde las palabras de quienes le rodean, y es una lástima que no aparezcan las suyas propias.
Las entrevistas son todas posteriores al 2015, y se echa de menos una mayor investigación documental en declaraciones de la época, y además aparece algún que otro error (como por ejemplo decir que <<[Ángel] Arroyo [...] se había enterado de que era el primer vencedor de una gran vuelta al que se le desposeía del título>> cuando eso es algo que ya había sucedido en el Tour tan pronto como en 1904) que parece debido a una insuficiente labor al contrastar los datos.
Pasa de puntillas sobre el dopaje en la época y ni sueña con siquiera insinuar la más mínima vinculación con él. Y eso que resulta bastante sencillo abrir más de un interrogante al respecto. Además, insiste hasta la extenuación en el perfil humano de Miguel, llegando a resultar cargante y dedicando excesivo espacio a ese aspecto a costa de reducir el dedicado a otras carreras.
También me parece que se nota cierta tendenciosidad en algunas posturas, como el enfoque de Boardman hacia las cronos o las bondades del carácter de Indurain respecto a otros grandes campeones. En ese sentido creo que el autor deja demasiado claras sus posturas, en vez de intentar contar las cosas como son y que sea el lector el que evalúe y llegue a su propia opinión.
Está basado eminentemente en entrevistas realizadas a un buen puñado de personas cercanas a Miguel. Perico Delgado, Dominique Arnaud, el masajista Manu Arrieta... y así hasta una veintena aproximadamente. Me faltan declaraciones de José Miguel Echavarri y sobre todo las más importantes, las del propio Miguel. El libro acerca su figura desde las palabras de quienes le rodean, y es una lástima que no aparezcan las suyas propias.
Las entrevistas son todas posteriores al 2015, y se echa de menos una mayor investigación documental en declaraciones de la época, y además aparece algún que otro error (como por ejemplo decir que <<[Ángel] Arroyo [...] se había enterado de que era el primer vencedor de una gran vuelta al que se le desposeía del título>> cuando eso es algo que ya había sucedido en el Tour tan pronto como en 1904) que parece debido a una insuficiente labor al contrastar los datos.
September 17, 2019
Excellent read
As someone who watched a lot of Indurain's TDF wins in the 90's and , whisper it, thought they might have been a tad dull, it took me a while to get to this book. What a mistake. Not only was Miguel Indurain a great champion, he also comes across as one of the most thoroughly decent professional sportsmen of all time. Happiest at.home, refusing to move to Monaco for tax purposes, and thoroughly generous to his fellow cyclists, Indurain is a model pro. Many would do well to follow his example. This is an extremely well written book. Alasdair Fotheringham certainly knows Spanish cycling having also written biographies of Bahamontes and Ocana. It relies on in depth interviews with Miguel's brother Pruden and Pedro Delgado amongst others. All cycling fans would enjoy this excellent book. All sports fans would do well to read it to see what a genuine sportsman looks like.
As someone who watched a lot of Indurain's TDF wins in the 90's and , whisper it, thought they might have been a tad dull, it took me a while to get to this book. What a mistake. Not only was Miguel Indurain a great champion, he also comes across as one of the most thoroughly decent professional sportsmen of all time. Happiest at.home, refusing to move to Monaco for tax purposes, and thoroughly generous to his fellow cyclists, Indurain is a model pro. Many would do well to follow his example. This is an extremely well written book. Alasdair Fotheringham certainly knows Spanish cycling having also written biographies of Bahamontes and Ocana. It relies on in depth interviews with Miguel's brother Pruden and Pedro Delgado amongst others. All cycling fans would enjoy this excellent book. All sports fans would do well to read it to see what a genuine sportsman looks like.
August 8, 2017
Has little to say about doping in Indurain's time but can hardly shut up telling the reader how nice the subject was. And, as seems to be the norm with Fotherhingham, dreadfully shoddy on the fact checking front - someone who has covered as many Tours de France as Fotheringham surely knows that Ángel Arroyo was not "the first ever Grand Tour rider to be stripped of a title".
October 23, 2018
Bog standard bio of a cyclist told by imo one of the best cycling authors. ‘Big Mig’ was always a bit a an enigma whilst champion and this book does very well at unravelling some of the mystery around this shy cyclist.
April 22, 2019
Tanto insiste en decir que Indurain es aburrido, que el libro acaba por aburrir. Además tiene algunos errores de bulto, y las múltiples páginas dedicadas a Olano sobran, como las comparaciones con Sky o la fijación con Boardman. Empieza bien y acaba yendo en picado. Decepcionante.
June 23, 2023
This is a wonderful story of a true champion.
May 15, 2024
Gentlemen cyclist
September 21, 2022
Un repaso por la historia de este gran ciclista con opiniones de ciclistas que compartieron época con él.
Interesante aunque bastante repetitivo, recalcando mucho el carácter de Indurain, sin anécdotas personales.
Un tanto aséptico, sin gran profundidad, nos cuenta linealmente la historia de las victorias de este deportista con un estilo totalmente periodístico.
Interesante aunque bastante repetitivo, recalcando mucho el carácter de Indurain, sin anécdotas personales.
Un tanto aséptico, sin gran profundidad, nos cuenta linealmente la historia de las victorias de este deportista con un estilo totalmente periodístico.
September 2, 2022
Si eres un amante de los deportes, este tipo de libros siempre te va a gustar. No tan entretenido al principio, luego cuando llega a la época de profesional se pone mejor y pues vale la pena conocer a fondo a uno uno de los ciclistas más grandes.
August 9, 2021
Interesante por la historia pero la forma de narración es demasiado simple y repetitiva.
December 5, 2018
A bit too technical, lacking romance and lacking actual interview with Indurain. Quite repetative. On the other hand the biggest source in the man of mystery.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews