The Silent Cyclist : Miguel Indurain Sets Off Today Seeking a Record Fifth Consecutive Victory in the Tour de France

After he won the Tour de France for the first time in 1991, Miguel Indurain went to the royal palace in Madrid to present the winner’s yellow jersey to the king, as is customary for Spanish champions of cycling’s most prestigious race. As the ceremony began, King Juan Carlos, while shaking hands with the champion’s teammates, stopped in front of one and waited.

“Not this time, your Majesty,” said Pedro Delgado, the 1988 champion, pointing to Indurain, standing timidly in the background. “This time, it’s him.”

With four triumphant visits to the palace in four years, Indurain presumably is no longer a stranger to the king. But he is to virtually everyone else. In fact, he often slips away from the finish line at the end of Tour stages by sending brother Prudencio, his support rider with the Banesto team, into crowds to sign autographs on his behalf.

Indurain’s anonymity is extraordinary, considering his absolute dominance of the Tour de France in recent years and the event’s popularity. With 15 million spectators, it is the third-largest sporting event, behind the Summer Olympics and soccer’s World Cup, and is televised in 140 countries.

In the 23-day, 2,192-mile skill and endurance test that begins today at Saint-Brieuc on the rugged Brittany coast, Indurain, who turns 31 on July 16, will try to become only the fourth rider to win it five times--Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault of France and Eddy Merckx of Belgium are the others--and the only one to do it in consecutive years.

With stamina and resolve so superior that Italian rival Gianni Bugno nicknamed him “The Extraterrestrial,” Indurain, despite his protests that he will “suffer” from the competition this year, is believed to have only one true challenger from among the 190 or so riders expected to enter.

That is Switzerland’s Tony Rominger, who, at 34, believes this could be his last serious attempt. Second in the 1993 Tour, he is ranked No. 1 in the world after setting the one-hour world record last November and winning the recent Giro of Italy. But he must overcome the psychological impact of dropping out while in second place midway through the race last year, when Indurain wore him down physically and mentally.

If the Spaniard repeats the strategy that has worked so well for him, he will cruise along with the pack until the first individual time trial on July 9, a 32 1/2-mile ride from Huy to Seraing in Belgium, where he will turn ferocious, building a substantial lead.

In the mountain stages, starting in the Alps on July 11 and the Pyrenees on July 16, he will hold his own before, if necessary, attacking again in the second individual time trial outside Limoges on July 22. It probably will not be necessary. In a race that American Greg LeMond won by eight seconds in 1989, Indurain won by five minutes and 39 seconds last year.

Perhaps history is his only obstacle.

“He’s the favorite, but the odds are against you at some point,” Lance Armstrong said. “There’s a reason no one has ever won it five times in a row.”

Armstrong, 23, a former world road champion and this spring’s Tour DuPont champion, is the United States’ most prominent and promising rider. After dropping out early the last two years, his goal is to cross the finish line on Paris’ Champs Elysees.

“A young body cannot really handle a three-week race,” he said.

He learned that from Indurain, who, under the wise counsel of Coach Jose-Miguel Echavarri, also dropped out of his first two Tours, in 1985 and ‘86, followed by finishes of 97th, 47th, 17th and 10th before his first victory.

“Miguel was incredibly patient,” said Louis Viggio, a Colombian cycling journalist who has closely followed Indurain’s career. “He really listened to Echavarri, who held him back. He had seen too many good young cyclists try to do too much too soon in the Tour de France and burn themselves out. He did not want to take a risk with Miguel’s incredible physical gifts.”

At 6 feet 2 and 176 pounds, Indurain is larger than most cyclists, and, Echavarri said, more powerful. More significant are his pulse rate, less than half that of an average man his age at rest, and lung capacity, a third more than average. As a result, he does not appear to be breathing hard at the conclusion of even the most grueling stages, a sight that maddens even the hardiest of his competitors. They compare him to a metronome, effortlessly changing speeds when necessary but never missing a beat.

“He’s one of the five most physically talented humans on the planet,” said Davis Phinney, one of five Americans to win a Tour stage. “He’s like Michael Jordan, a man who is excelling at his sport at a given time like no one else has before him.”

But unlike Jordan, very little is known of Indurain’s life apart from his sport. While in training, he rides 35-50 miles a day, with a couple of 150-mile sessions thrown in to break a sweat. Hardly surprising, he has said his only diversion is sleeping. He has said little else about himself.

“Write whatever you want,” he tells reporters. “That will be fine.”

The son of a farmer, he is from the Pyrenees village of Villava in the Navarre province, home to both Basques and Spaniards. He does not publicly take sides in their age-old political and geographical feud. He now lives with his wife of three years near Pamplona. Although he is worth more than $4 million, his only luxury is a Mercedes-Benz sedan. He has not learned another language to make himself more marketable in the rest of Europe or the United States.

“He’s dominated the most famous bicycle race in the world like no one ever before, but he doesn’t let it faze him,” Phinney said. “When Greg LeMond was winning the Tour, he had to adapt to the environment. Miguel brings his own environment with him. He’s very true to himself.”

Based on an interview with him in the International Herald Tribune after his first Tour victory, Indurain would approve of that description.

“Win or lose, I try to remain the same person,” he said. “I’m proud of what I’ve done in the Tour, but you have to keep your perspective. It’s just a bicycle race, after all.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Race Route

The Tour de France cycling race begins today with a prologue in St.-Brieuc, France, and ends after 2,192 miles in Paris on July 23, Miguel Indurain of Spain is trying to win a record fifth Tour in a row.