José María Jiménez

This article is about the cyclist José María Jiménez. On the Romanist see José María Jiménez de Alcalá .

José María Jiménez Sastre

To person
Nickname	El Chava / Chaba
Date of birth	February 6, 1971
date of death	December 6, 2003
nation	Spain
discipline	Street
Driver type	Mountain riders
End of career	2002
Team (s)
1996-2000 2001-2002	Banesto IBanesto.com
Most important successes
Vuelta a España Mountain scoring 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001 Scoring 2001 nine stages Other races Subida Urkiola 1996 Spanish road champion 1997 a stage of the Tour of Asturias 1998 a stage Dauphiné 1998 Classique des Alpes 2000 Tour of Catalonia 2000

José María Jiménez Sastre (born February 6, 1971 in El Barraco , † December 6, 2003 in Madrid ) was a Spanish cyclist .

Athletic career

José María Jiménez, who grew up in a village 1000 meters above sea level, was an outspoken mountain specialist. He began his cycling career in 1992 in the Banesto team , for which he rode until the end of his career and in which he acted as a helper for Miguel Induráin until 1996 . In 1995 Jiménez decided one stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya for himself.

In 1996 Jiménez competed in his first Tour de France from a total of four starts on the tour. In 1997 he was eighth in the Tour de France , now as a helper for Abraham Olano , and won the mountain classification at the Vuelta a España . In 1997 he was also the Spanish road champion on a difficult course in Melilla , the Spanish exclave in Morocco .

His most successful tour of Spain was in 1998 when he finished third in the overall standings behind his team-mate Olano and his compatriot Fernando Escartín and in front of Lance Armstrong . He also won the mountain classification again. During the tour he wore the golden jersey of the front runner for four stages and was able to win four additional mountain stages .

At the Vuelta 1999 he was fifth and again won the mountain classification. He also won the first mountain finish on one of the toughest mountains in cycling, the Alto de Angliru . In 2000 he took part in the Tour de France and finished third behind Javier Otxoa and Lance Armstrong . He was the only rider who could hold Lance Armstrong's rear wheel for a long time. In the further course of the tour he was again second behind Marco Pantani .

Jiménez won a total of nine stages during his career - both mountain arrivals - and four times the mountain classification of the Tour of Spain. There were also stage wins at Dauphine-Libere , the Tour of Catalonia and other stage races. In the meantime he became the crowd favorite of the Spanish fans and was considered a potential successor to Induráin. His nickname was El Chaba ( flail ). The Frankfurter Allgemeine wrote about him: "When he arrived at the mountain peaks, Jimenez excited the millions of Spanish cycling fans, but was able to disappoint them bitterly the next day when he apparently let some, actually weaker rivals pass him while driving listlessly."

Depression and death

Despite his success, Jiménez - like his father - suffered from depression. The last two years of his life were particularly marked by depression, alcoholic excesses and cocaine use. Jiménez went to psychological treatment, and on December 6, 2003, the former Banesto professional died in a clinic in Madrid while visiting his family. The official cause of death was heart failure . Thousands of cycling fans gave the “mountain king” their last escort in December 2003.

In honor of Jiménez, the mountain prize for the most difficult climb in the Vuelta was renamed Cima Chava Jiménez in 2014 .

Web links

• José María Jiménez in the Radsportseiten.net database
• José María Jiménez in the Tour de France database(French / English )
• radsportnews.net from December 8, 2003: Farewell to "El Chaba" ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Walter Haubrich: Driven to the abyss - and lived. Frankfurter Allgemeine, December 8, 2003, accessed January 1, 2014 . 
2. ^ Tim Maloney: Armstrong takes Maillot Jaune with magnificent exploit to Hautacam. In: cyclingnews.com. July 10, 2000, accessed July 18, 2014 . 
3. ^ Tim Maloney: Pantani powers to second stage win. In: cyclingnews.com. July 16, 2000, accessed July 18, 2014 . 
4. ↑ Guido Scholl: Drugs and depression killed “el Chaba”. radsport-news.com, December 6, 2010, accessed January 1, 2014 . 
5. ^ Libro de ruta. (PDF) Retrieved August 24, 2014 (Spanish).