The following feature forms part of our 'I love the 1990s series' and sees Matt Rendell track down Colombian climber Alvaro Mejia for a rare interview.
Soon after the then 26-year-old Alvaro Mejía joined Motorola in February 1993, rumours spread through the team. Out training together, Andy Hampsten, who had finished in the top five at the previous year's Giro and Tour, couldn't even stay on his wheel. They had a phenomenon on their hands.
Mejía shouldn't even have been on the team. Modest, quietly spoken and now a medical doctor and university lecturer, Mejía explains why.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I had a two-year contract with [Colombia soft drinks brand] Manzana-Postobón, but after the first season, the sponsor decided to leave cycling and move into football. A contact of mine tried to create a team in Europe with a tennis racket brand but it came to nothing. Then at the start of the following season Postobón told me that they had reached an agreement with Motorola, who owned a company in Spain called Ryalcao. They would buy space on the Postobón jersey and in exchange I would go and ride for Motorola."
Five months later, after seven stages of the 1993 Tour de France, the wisdom of the trade was clear. Mejía lay second overall. No Colombian had ever been so close to the yellow jersey, Fabio Parra never higher than third, Lucho Herrera never better than fifth. They were the riders who had inspired Alvaro Mejía to take up cycling as a 16-year-old, growing up in the village of Santa Rosa de Cabal, high in Colombia's coffee-growing region at an altitude of 1750 metres.
"Athletics was my first sport. I won a national junior title for 10,000m and the prize was sporting equipment. Since I also played football, I claimed the prize in football equipment. Then one day I saw the Vuelta a Colombia pass. It was 1983 or 1984. Lucho was there, Fabio Parra, Oscar Vargas too. I was impressed by the crowds, but also their time for the stretch between [the towns of] Pereira and Santa Rosa. A week later I started cycling.
In the form of his life for the 1993 Tour de France
Reflections on the impact of EPO
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://ift.tt/2lDzRHy
No comments:
Post a Comment