Indurain: "It's going to be a year of looking for that Spanish benchmark"

The five-time Tour champion, Sports Santander ambassador, hopes to find the 'hook' for fans in the 'post-Valverde' year

THE BOAT OF VALDEORRAS (ORENSE), 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Ex-cyclist Miguel Indurain, five-time Tour de France champion, stated that 2023 will be the year "to look for the benchmark" for Spanish cycling after the void left by the withdrawal of Movistar Team leader Alejandro Valverde, and predicted a "fighting" course between Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel for the world title.

Almost three decades after his last Tour, that of 1995, Miguel Indurain, currently an ambassador for Sports Santander, leaves a trail of admiration around his 188 centimeters. He passed, again, after traveling with a group of journalists, guests and bank employees the last 68 kilometers of the third stage of O Gran Camiño.

It was his second presence in the Galician round, sponsored by Banco Santander, although the good weather last year gave way to sleet, wind and puddles on the route that anticipated last Saturday the 'Juliette' storm that has become this week a white mantle the Iberian Peninsula.

Despite being born in Villava, 4.5 kilometers from Pamplona and its Sanfermines, the five-time Tour champion never did well with the cold. "Muscularly, the cold is not good for me. The warmth is bad for me, because the cold blocks me. I had injuries as a professional. I have never liked it, and in some Tour of the Basque Country it forced me to retire," he said in statements to Europa Press.

The Navarrese champion rescued these memories from memory in the Town Hall square of O Barco de Valdeorras, a town in Orensa just hours after the O Gran Camiño peloton led by the brand new Tour winner, Jonas Vingegaard, who exhibited himself early in the morning the afternoon on the slopes of 22 percent of the Enciña da Lastra Natural Park, in Rubiá.

"Cycling is a beautiful sport because of the landscape, but you face extremes of heat or cold. The weather has been a shame, but the organization has adapted and reacted by skilfully modifying the route," he said about the changes caused by the snow storm and blizzard that ruled out the final stretch of the first day or the ascent to 'Santa Mariña' of the penultimate one.

In the absence of that national idol to be venerated by the fan, Indurain acts as Ambassador of Santander Sports and of an 'orphan' Spanish cycling. "People who are not very fond of cycling do not have a reference. Those who are follow the entire peloton. It will be a year to look for that figure. Every sport, not just cycling, needs an idol that engages to the fan and this year we will try to find him. There are young values", he confided.

When mentioning the 'movistar' Enric Mas, Indurain corrects with a lapidary sentence. "They have all started strong. They finished strong and are still strong. This winter they have not been neglected and the good guys are still fighting for victories. Many are coming out: there are the 'top' of Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Roglic... Every year always Some come out, although there are people who, like me, have a harder time 'growing up'. At the age of 25, 26 I started doing things," he said humble.

In his opinion, it will be a "fighting year", in which there will be room for success for specialists in the spring classics such as Van Aert or Van der Poel, and for Vingegaard, Pogacar, the world champion Evenepoel and the Colombian Egan Bernal, "if he recovers" (from the aftermath of his serious accident). "There will be a small group of five to ten riders with a good level," he predicted.

The sun has already won the pulse of the dawn sleet, and the Indurain route is far away, together with the squad of Banco Santander guests around O Barco, near the white 'Santa Mariña' and crossing villages where the posters recall the fire that devastated Parque da Enciña in April 2021.

The route that meanders in the final two kilometers of the third stage of 'O Gran Camiño nevado', the one that Indurain and his peloton climbed up to the sky of Rubiá, is of that same black smut color of the mountain devastated by the flames. On both flanks, fans and caravans stationed offering water and grilled sandwiches admiring the great 'Miguelón'.

Identical blackened lunar landscape, hard roads dotted with a myriad of stones -as many as stars can be seen in the sky of the North African desert-, the ambassador of Sports Santander will find himself in the Titan Desert, the 'mountain bike dakar', which he will face between the end of April and the beginning of May.

It will be his debut in the Titán in Morocco, after having played it in another desert, that of Almería. A company from Pamplona, ​​Saltoki Home, wanted to reward his workers and Indurain will integrate a team made up of electricians, plumbers and fans of adventure and 'mountain biking'.

"The goal? I'm going to get there. I don't know Morocco, I've never been, and I want to let myself get there. They told me it's worth it and I'm going to continue enjoying the bike. We have riders in the team like the winner of the year last, the Swiss Konny Looser, who is going to fight for victory. Me, to make a bulge", said the best Spanish cyclist in history.