Indurain, Miguel (1964-…), a Spanish cyclist, became the first person to win the Tour de France bicycle race five times in succession. The Tour de France is an annual international road race that covers about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) through France and neighboring countries, much of it over grueling mountainous terrain. See Tour de France.
Indurain’s victory in the 1995 Tour de France was his fifth Tour win in succession. That streak stood as a record until Lance Armstrong of the United States won the Tour six years in a row, from 1999 through 2004. Indurain won his first Tour de France in 1991 by 3 minutes 36 seconds. In his 1994 victory, over a course that was one of the Tour’s most difficult, he won by 5 minutes 39 seconds. His 1995 win was by 4 minutes 35 seconds. In 1996, he finished 11th in the Tour de France, then decided to stop racing when he dropped out of Spain’s national tour, the Vuelta a España.
Indurain was born on July 16, 1964, in Villava in the region of Navarre, Spain. Until 1993, he lived near the city of Pamplona. He was a professional cyclist for about seven years before he won a major race. His many victories include the gold medal in the road time trial at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta and winning the World Individual Time Trial Championship in 1995. He broke the world hour record in 1994 with a distance of 53.040 kilometers (32.958 miles). Other races won by Indurain include the 1992 and 1993 Giro d’Italia.
