Rider Function: The Spanish rider, Julio Jiménez, was 3 times king of the mountains and second general within the 1967 Tour, an in depth good friend of Jacques Anquetil and initiator of the nice Ávila biking college, handed away two years in the past within the Nuestra Señora de Sonsoles de Ávila hospital due accidents he suffered in a visitors accident. Jiménez was 87 years-old and had a really full and fascinating life. We glance again on an excellent biking profession of a real champion.
Julio Jiménez racing in his beloved Àvila
Spanish sports activities journalist, Carlos Arribas, wrote these phrases about Jiménez in EL PAÍS on the information of his demise:
Julio Jiménez retains wanting, his eyes alive, mischievous and surprisingly harmless on the identical time, the reflection of his life, and his reminiscence, which is already starting to enter the misty terrain the place it may start to be confused with fable. However no, it’s nonetheless sharp, exact, with contours as clear because the sure unconsciousness that guided his years as a bike owner, optimism. Just like the appeal that made him a bike owner, an individual, whom all of us cherished and whom we cry at present after we discover out that he has died as a sufferer of a automobile accident on the gates of his good friend Ángel Arroyo’s massive automobile wash in Ávila, a bike owner as a consequence of him, and an excellent bike owner like him, and in addition second in a Tour and first on the Puy de Dôme. And Chava Jiménez, the climber who died younger, grew to become a cyclists via Arroyo, Carlos Sastre, who did win the Tour, Lastras, Mancebo, Navas…
Chava Jiménez, Julio Jiménez and Carlos Sastre
Then he spent the day sorting via souvenirs, images, cups from his time, jerseys, shirts, his trophies. He lived amongst them, and every day answered a number of letters from followers who requested for autographs and devoted images, and who despatched him magazines and books, and he solely missed the pink jersey that he wore for a number of days of the 1966 Giro, and a bicycle, and different issues that he had lent Luis Berlanga for props for his movie Paris-Timbuktu, and that he by no means bought again. And he had a sorrow in his soul for that. He was a person hooked up to his reminiscence, so full, to the objects that woke it up, the chamois goats heads that had been awarded to him as the perfect climber within the Alp levels of his Excursions, the Galibier, the Télégraphe, Granier, Sestriere. And, at all times, forward, the shadow of Bahamontes, who, sure, had gained the Tour, and his envy and jealousy for the brashness of the younger man who was additionally 3 times king of the mountain, the favorite throne of the Eagle of Toledo, 93 years, and he goes on. And the rally races along with his BMW via Gredos, and the day a child from close to Tiemblo appeared amongst them and ridiculed all of them, and so Julio instructed it, at all times an admirer of the nice expertise of all of the others, by no means envious. “And Carlitos Sainz (well-known Spanish rally driver) spent sooner or later with the Gredos group along with his little gang, and he left us speechless…”
The 1967 Tour de France
Julio Jiménez was identified by followers within the Spain of the Sixties as The ‘Watchmaker of Ávila’, as a result of, earlier than changing into a good friend and rival on the Tour, of Anquetil, Simpson, Poulidor, Federico, earlier than profitable on the Puy de Dôme, on Mont Ventoux, had labored for just a few years as an apprentice, after which journeyman, in a cousin’s watch store in Ávila. Within the workshop, to anticipate the enjoyment and freedom of his bike journeys to Villacastín, he tirelessly moved his legs, rhythmically, as if peddling, up and down, below the desk. It was his first acutely aware coaching. Then he labored as an electrician in some military workshops within the neighbourhood, some massive warehouses wherein the ladies pedalled the stitching machines laborious and quick to make uniforms for the troopers, and he winks a mischievous eye when he tells it, and betrays his soul of a lifelong bachelor, of an unrepentant womaniser, there, within the workshop, the one moments of pleasure had been when he needed to grease the pedals of the machines, and he allowed himself to check out the ankles of the ladies, and that it already excited him. A bike owner of whom one may say that he was at all times there, in essentially the most memorable moments of the Tour within the 60s, however of whom not many individuals had heard, with whom it’s understood that outdated age isn’t at all times abandonment and that ladies are at all times the spice of life. Julito was a womaniser who by no means married as a result of, he says, his mom, Goya, with whom he lived till she died on the age of 90, she would by no means have permitted of the ladies he preferred to spend nights with.
A win for Jiménez and the Catigene crew
“The start was with a crew from Madrid with Rogelio Hernández, a crew referred to as the Guardia de Franco, a darkish blue jersey with an eagle. And a sure Crespo, who was from the Youth Entrance, managed us. The Vuelta a Andalucía, the Bicicleta Eibarresa. He made a cellphone name to the organisers and made some orders. A automobile for the wheels of the boys. Luis Pinel was with us, one who acted as director, a boy who was a ‘practicante’ and gave injections. We went to a Vuelta a Andalucía, and we nearly gained it with Antonio Jiménez Pareja, who lived in Puente de Vallecas and made jerseys with a knitting machine. All had been towards us and so they couldn’t take the jersey away from us…” mentioned Julito, as a result of Julio Jiménez, so cherished, was at all times Julito. “That is how we began to do our little issues. And a Vuelta al Sureste, which left Murcia and ended on the Retiro de Madrid. I’ve a photograph from that day with Bernardo Ruiz, who gained that race and retired. And the next yr he was director. The identical factor occurred to me with Miguel Poblet, who gained a Volta and retired. We had no crew and the organisers took us individually. With the sponsorship kind the Catigene firm, and with the publicity we grew. And for 1962 I selected, and I used to be unsuitable in pondering that it was extra worldwide, Faema. I debuted within the ’64 Tour, on the age of 29, turning 30 in October. I misplaced my finest years. I’d have extra drive to assault, though I’d lack reserves for the levels of greater than 300 kilometres that there have been then. The crew wherein I felt most snug was Bic. If I am going there two years earlier than, they’d have made me the perfect. It was the Bic of Anquetil, of Geminiani…”
Jiménez and Poulidor
Biking within the Sixties, earlier than Merckx, was simply the Tour and it was Anquetil, and the last decade will be summed up in two nice tales, that of the nice Anquetil-Poulidor duel within the 1964 Tour, Anquetil’s yellow panic on the descent of the Envalira from Andorra, the hand-to-hand battle of the 2 French idols on the Puy de Dôme volcano, and the demise of Tom Simpson on the Ventoux in 1967. And in each tales, Julio Jiménez, actor and witness, was there. He gained the stage of the Envalira from Anquetil; he gained the Puy de Dôme stage, forward of Bahamontes, and took the bonus that might have given Poulidor the yellow jersey that he by no means wore. And earlier than he collapsed and died there, on the recent asphalt of the Ventoux, subsequent to the devastating moon-scape, Tom Simpson, Julio Jiménez had handed by on his method to second general and the KOM.
Julio Jimenez within the Giro’66 pink chief’s jersey with Jacques Anquetil
However greater than girls, than his mom, than the bicycle, Julito cherished Jacques Anquetil, who taught him reside. “From the beginning we hit it off, particularly since Janine, his spouse, preferred me very a lot. She booked the lodge and I at all times went with them. She ordered lunches, dinners. That was in ’67 and ’68. With Bic I’d have gained the ’67 Tour for positive, which I needed to experience with the Spanish crew, a chaos of egocentric folks,” mentioned Julito. “No means would they’ve let Pingeon take seven minutes… The French press attacked Geminiani quite a bit as a result of he generally made Aimar experience to assist me. He was using for France B, and he noticed Saura, the Spanish coach, and instructed him that he needed to soar, that Pingeon was going. And the Frenchman who gained the Tour helped him like loopy Ginés García, from Murcia. He attacked to demise, after which we caught him half lifeless, and, I imply, hell, you make a getaway after which keep away. And Manzaneque additionally did the shit to me… If Fernando waits for me within the Pyrenees, in Luchon, we’ll take the jersey from Pingeon. Within the assembly the night time earlier than we agreed that Fernando would go early and since he had misplaced half an hour the French would go away him with none issues. And since he was a horse that pulls, he started to take time and extra time, digital jersey, from the stage, and when Serra passes by and tells him that Julio is coming alone, I had attacked on the second cross, and we agreed that Manzaneque would watch for me for the final 50-60 kilometres, he mentioned: ‘Rattling it, I’m going to win the stage…’ We bought alongside effectively… There wasn’t envy, every one was going to do their very own factor to look good and be the hero of his folks and earn his wage. That’s what I noticed. I didn’t get alongside badly with anybody, however nobody lent me a hand. If Fernando, that day, waited for me, on the flat earlier than the Portilhon, with the French crew using to the demise behind, I get extra, and even so I get three minutes and arrive on the Puy de Dôme two minutes late alone. The one who helped me essentially the most was Gimondi, greater than the Spanish.”
Bahamontes and Jiménez
Anquetil, Jeanine, and Annie, Janine’s daughter together with her first husband, made the triangle of the critérium, oysters and champagne, and Julio with the three discovers in France the liberty that in Spain is denied to everybody, the enjoyment, the intercourse. “I solely went all the way down to Spain after I had been unemployed for a month in a row. As Geminiani’s crew was later Ford, I purchased a Ford, as a result of I had a 1,500. They gave me a reduction. It was an enormous Taunus, the 20, with six cylinders. I needed the Mustang, like Anquetil, however Geminiani instructed me no, that within the Mustang you had been very uncomfortable, on the bottom. And within the criterium Anquetil was within the Mustang and I used to be taking Annie with me within the Ford, the stepdaughter. I did lots of that,” recalled Julito in one of many final conversations. “Then we grew to become Bic and I bought the Taunus and purchased a BMW in Clermont Ferrand. It was my flip to get pleasure from, as a result of we beat one another as much as 800 kilometres a day. And there have been no motorways…”
Jiménez racing with Ford
Away from the highways, when leaving to scrub the automobile, in an oversight of the driving force, Julio Jiménez, his coronary heart a little bit drained, his spirit at all times cheerful, died one scorching night time in Ávila. Jiménez was an actual champion.
Julio Jiménez – Flying within the mountains
# With due to Carlos Arribas and EL PAÍS and all of the photographers. #
Like PEZ? Why not subscribe to our weekly publication to obtain updates and reminders on what’s cool in street biking?
