As Alberto Contador prepares for his attempt at the Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double, Procycling asks the only rider to achieve the feat two years running, Miguel Indurain, whether his young compatriot can succeed. The notoriously reticent Spaniard has a surprising amount to say on the subject…
Alberto Contador never saw Spain’s only winner of the Giro-Tour double, Miguel Indurain, racing ‘live’ in Italy when he won sensational back-to-back Giro-Tour doubles in 1992 and 1993, before suffering a stinging defeat in 1994.
“The first year I was interested in cycling on TV was 1995 and I don’t think they had the Giro on television that year,” Contador recalls to Procycling. He’s right: Spanish TV had stopped broadcasting the Giro d’Italia following Indurain’s defeat by Evgeni Berzin and Marco Pantani in the 1994 race, and the Spanish star’s non-participation in the Giro the following year.
“However, I did see those Giros later on because my brother brought me the video tapes,” he continues, “and then from about 1998 or 1999, I started watching it on the internet.”
Contador is too young to remember that Indurain’s impact in the Giro d’Italia was – and remains – enormous. He was the first Spaniard to win the Giro and his back-to-back victories there, in 1992 and 1993, make Indurain the only rider ever to net a ‘double double’ of Giro-Tour victories in two straight years.
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In 1992, the Giro’s final time trial – a 66km affair on the last day – was a huge concession by the organisers in Indurain’s favour. But long before that, Indurain had already moved into pink and was looking good to win.
Far better against the clock than his key rivals – Claudio Chiappucci and 1991 overall winner Franco Chioccioli, not to mention outsiders Andy Hampsten and Laurent Fignon – Indurain started to forge his second Grand Tour victory by winning stage 4’s 38km time trial. He then defended the leader’s jersey for the rest of the race.
Eighteen days later – game over. Okay, it wasn’t actually quite that simple but almost. Key mountain stages, such as the summit finish of the Terminillo on stage 10 or the two days in the Dolomites at the end of the second week, couldn’t crack Indurain. The trio of set-piece mountain stages in the race’s final week – to Pian del Re, Pila and Verbania – equally failed to dent Indurain’s advantage. “They are attacking me less and less,” he said in one of his typically brief press conferences after stage 18.
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