Who is Federico Bahamontes? First Spanish Tour de France winner dies aged 95

Federico Martín Bahamontes, the first Spanish professional road racing cyclist to win the Tour de France has died. Bahamontes was born on 9 July 1928 and died on 8 August 2023. He was 95.

Bahamontes won the 1959 Tour de France and a total of 11 Grand Tour stages between 1954-1965.

He won a total of 9 mountain classifications and was the first cyclist to complete a “career triple” by winning the mountain classification in all three Grand Tours.

Following his retirement, Bahamontes ran a bicycle and motorcycle shop and was named the best climber in the history of the Tour de France by a panel organized by L’Équipe in 2013.

Born in Santo Domingo-Caudilla, Toledo, Bahamontes purchased his first bike in 1946 for 150 pesetas (roughly equivalent to £250 or $342.47 in 2014) in order to transport food illegally between villages.

Note that at the time, rationing was in place due to economic ruin, leading to a flourish in the black market for food.

Bahamontes developed an unusual sickness that he mistook for typhoid after he was bitten by a mosquito while hiding from the Civil Guard, who had orders to arrest everyone involved in black marketeering (even though typhoid is not spread via mosquitoes).

After being confined to his home for two months, Bahamontes returned to black marketeering and competed in his first bike race, which was organized by two other black marketeers. On July 18, 1947, he cycled to a nearby village where the race began, and despite having only a banana and a lemon for food, he finished second.

Bahamontes first competed against professionals in the 1953 Vuelta a Asturias.

He won the Tour de France in 1959 and won the Tour’s “King of the Mountains” classification six times (1954, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1964).

He also finished second and third overall in 1963 and 1964, respectively. He won seven Tour stages in all. He also finished second in the 1957 Vuelta a Espaa, winning the mountains category both that year and the following year, 1958, when he finished sixth. In 1956, he also won the climbs competition at the Giro d’Italia.

In 2013, during his 85th birthday which coincided with the 100th edition of Le Tour de France, he was named the best climber in the history of the race, ahead of French rider Richard Virenque, by a jury selected by L’ Équipe Magazine.

Source: abtc.ng