Indurain

A Tempered Passion

Spanish prize-winning novelist Javier Sánchez takes us on an emotional journey through the prodigious career of Miguel Indurain, the first cyclist to win five straight Tours de France. He recounts his exploits and great battles in the saddle, the glory moments and the disappointments, and describes his passions, his ideas, and his land.


Miguel Induráin will pass into history not just as the first cyclist to win five straight Tours de France, but also as the standard-bearer for a whole nation. While Spain lived through the dream of his repeated victories the country came to a standstill, for Induráin stole people’s hearts not just by the number, but by the manner of his victories.

Seeing him on the road or away from the action, the gallant loser or the strong, calm victor, the Spanish gained hope, and then faith.
And so did many others, for it was the dignity and modesty that Miguel Induráin invariably displayed, in victory and defeat, that endeared him to us all. A farmer’s son from a small village in Navarra, he never strayed far from his roots, nor did he allow his extraordinary success to go to his head.

Javier García Sánchez is a prize-winning novelist with a passion for cycle racing. In this biography of Miguel Induráin he takes us on an emotional journey through Induráin’s prodigious career. He recounts his exploits and great battles in the saddle, the glory moments and the disappointments, and describes his passions, his ideas, and his land.

‘Not often has a book as insightful as this been written about a leading cyclist - the first biography that fully explains the tempered passion that made Induráin such a great competitor.’ John Wilcockson, Velonews