Pioneers: Raul Alcala, from Capoater Van Monterrey

Leprechaun of Monterrey: It’s not an ideal title for a climber. But for Raul Alcala, who is 5ft 7in, it made little difference. Once on a bike, he wanted to climb the biggest mountain peaks. His hometown of Monterrey is exceptionally suited to this: after all, the Mexican industrial city is surrounded by mountains. Nothing mountain city Nickname for this northeastern city. mountain city.

Alcala dreamed of becoming an inspiration to his countrymen. Monterrey’s mountain environment was an ideal training ground, but his Mexican heritage also had a downside. The National Cycling Federation could not regularly send Alcala to the World Cup – Mexico was only a cycling country.

So Alcalá decided to build its cycling future outside of Mexico. He did this by joining the American 7-Eleven, a time he later described as his happiest. He described it as one of the highlights of his career, the white jersey he wore with the US Cycling Team.

Dutch Shepherd

In 1989 Alcalá joined PDM, the cycling team of Jan Gisbers. The PSV captain, who was not himself active as a cyclist, made sure Alcala could go to the World Cup after all. Despite the financial problems in the Mexican Cycling Federation. It was like this: if the federation did not have enough resources to send him to the championship, he helped Gisbers financially. In contrast, Alcalá served the interest of the PDM.

With the Dutch cycling team, Alcalá has developed into a classification rider and wearer of the polka-dot jersey. But his time with the Dutch cycling team also had its low points. Take the Intralipid case, a bacterial infection forced the entire Tour team to give up. So is the calla.

At the age of 30, Alcalá decided to say goodbye to cycling. But it wasn’t a real goodbye. He could never completely distance himself from the bike; Five years after his retirement, he thus decided to ride the Tour of Mexico. In 2008, now at the age of 44, he was a starting chihuahua. Two years later, he became the Mexican time trial champion.

Stolen medals

Glory years were behind him at that time. Just like his physical memories of the tour, by the way: his medals were stolen, as well as jewelry worth twenty million pesos. The 59-year-old cyclist’s glory days live on largely in his memories.