Morancho Trophy, 40 years since Indurain’s first amateur stage race

Before winning his five consecutive Tours between 1991 and 1995, the Spaniard Miguel Indurain He had to travel the path of development to become the historic cyclist that everyone knows, and some of his first steps were taken in Aragon, the first winner of the XV edition of Radio Morancho Trophy.

Wearing the mauve, blue and white jersey of Ciclos Larequi-CC Villavés, in 1982 Miguel Indurain (Villava, 1964) with his teammates and the director José Barruso achieved victory in a test that was then held inside of three weekends. week but in which he did not gain any slight success.

In fact, in the list of race winners organized by the Aragonese Cycling Club, it includes the names of Javier López Izkue or Jaume Vilamajó, names that were in the professional peloton when Indurain won it or as others did at other times, such as José Antonio Casajús or David Canada, among others.

In a conversation with EFE, Indurain clearly remembers his presence in the three stages that “were in some weekends and were not observed”, in addition to the fact that at that time “they did not run laps like those present now”.

“It is important and different from what is there and it is one of the first races of a season where we will get to know the Aragonese cyclists. and study the rivals, as we have already done in the races in the Basque Country. We want to meet other cyclists. They are the first outings we have done since we started with babies and cadets,” he explained.

“In addition, there was always the issue of the wind, which had to be more attentive to the race and we also ran in some circuits,” he recalled, of a year in which in Aragon he was able to win several races, such as the Fiestas del Pilar Trophy until the end of the season.

Another significant achievement was achieved at the end of August in Borjawhere he ran a rather convoluted circuit and where he received the cup at the trophy ceremony from the town’s mayor, the Olympic athlete Luis María Garriga.

At that time, Garriga became everything in the Spanish high jump after he became the first national athlete to fly over two meters and was included in the Olympic Games in Tokyo and Mexico, while the story of Indurain was in his first sketch in the bicycle world.

“We have mentioned it several times when we have the chance, almost always in the Spanish Olympic Committee”, commented Indurain of a fact of which there is graphic evidence.

As an end to that 1982, the award they received “for the results we have achieved”, Indurain and his colleagues closed the year with the Ascent of Montjuic, for which they had a bitter memory because “We went to eat and there was a commotion because they ‘cleaned’ some bicycles from the car and some materials” so the return to Navarra was nothing special, apart from remembering that in the mountains of Barcelona he did not achieve a good result because “for me the type of race of getting up and starting doesn’t happen”.

“I have run a lot in Aragon, both in juniors and amateurs as well as professionals”, he commented on his time on the Aragonese roads as he also achieved one of his only two laps on them in the amateur category, the fourth edition. of the Aragonese Week next to the Vuelta a Salamanca. “Back then there were a lot of races in Aragon but now a few years have passed since there aren’t many”He says.

Already in the professionals, Aragón used to be in its first seasons the starting point for the preseason where Panticosa Spa is the center where all the parts of the Reynolds team, at that time, coincide to start the physical preparation.

“We went two or three years in the preseason to Panticosa in the thermal baths and we did what was done before, starting training in gymnastics, physical activity, cross-country skiing, going to the mountains and also playing soccer in a gentle way,” he said.

The calendar in which the Navarrese took his first steps in the elite went from almost exclusively European to worldwide. “Then it is not like today, the season ended in October with the Giro de Lombardía for the next riders and even before and until February the first races did not come and it could only be done on the track, where I ran the 6 Days of Madrid or the 6 hours of Euskadi, or cyclocross. You can now run from January to December”.

“From the experience on the track, where I hardly competed, the one who taught me the most was the Australian Danny Clark who moved to the banks and the group,” he said.

Return to Aragón, the victory that could not happen

In the Vuelta a Aragón, “I ran it for several years”, he also has good memories although “I was always not on the podium a little bit and one was taken from me by Escartín, who was very good and I couldn’t spare. of time anywhere.”

“It is a unique race up the mountain and down the where the wind always blows and where I won the time trial in Barbastro”, he pointed out.

Before reaching the elite, it also gave him the occasional “bad memory,” due to a 100-kilometer team time trial championship in Spain (two consecutively held in 1983 and 1984, starting and ending in Zaragoza, which went through Farlete, Monegrillo and Osera) where there was a lot of wind, heat and it was very long”.

The other presence of Indurain in the Aragonese lands, in addition to passing “in different places with the Vuelta a España”, is his presence in an event in Príncipe Felipe with a mountain bike or in recent years in Quebrantahuesos cycling tour, where he was also honored, or the Sesé Bike Tour, in addition to various promotional events with Banco de Santander.

With his start in the professional field, Miguel Indurain was one of the first to go through the Aragón Sports Medicine Center built by José Luis Terreros with a large team and where Periko Delgado became a regular, although in the end where the most complete follow-up was done at the Clínica de Navarra. This is not in Indurain’s memory but the now director of the Spanish State Agency Commission for the Fight against Doping in Sport confirmed it to EFE and where there are also graphic evidences.

Another story, although it is well known, is that the great coup de grace in which it became his first victory in the Tour, began in Jaca.

“So the Tour doesn’t leave France much and coming to Jaca feels like doing it at home. It was quite an event. Everyone likes the show. It was a great memory because the next day at the Jaca-Val Louron stage I got my first yellow jersey”, he recalled.

What remains is the great story of one of the best cyclists in the world that has filled pages and pages and even books.