Road Cycling Career
In 2000 Otxoa won a heavy mountain stage in the Tour de France on top of the Hautacam on a cold and rainy day. He broke away with Nico Mattan with 155 km (96 mi) to race and he would ultimately drop the latter for the first time on the col de Marie Blanque, but Mattan managed to join him on the descent. Otxoa shook off his breakaway companion for good on the climb of the col de l'Aubisque and sailed through the col du Soulor on his own to attack the foot of the Hautacam with a lead of 9 minutes on the chasers. He paid for his earlier efforts on the "hors category" climb by suffering from a drop of energy, but managed to hold on to the victory by crossing the finish line with a 42 seconds advantage over his nearest competitor, eventual yellow jersey winner Lance Armstrong.
Read more about this topic: Javier Otxoa
Famous quotes containing the words road, cycling and/or career:
“Does the road wind uphill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow, dark hours begin,”
—Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)
“If all feeling for grace and beauty were not extinguished in the mass of mankind at the actual moment, such a method of locomotion as cycling could never have found acceptance; no man or woman with the slightest aesthetic sense could assume the ludicrous position necessary for it.”
—Ouida [Marie Louise De La Ramée] (1839–1908)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)