JAVIER SÁNCHEZ
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@javisanchez
Tokyo
Updated on Monday, 26July2021-16: 22
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Chronicle David Valero, another bronze of courage for the Spanish Mountain Bike
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"We had been working on his confidence for days, insisting that he could win a medal. These days in Tokyo he has seen many motivational documentaries, the last one, one by
Luis Aragonés
that moved him. That is why just before the race I sent him a video with images of that documentary, of films like
Braveheart
and all together with a message from his son
Marco
, who is three years old. The boy has been the one who pushed him the most. In Spain there were people who did not believe in his possibilities, who tried to convince him to that he went to secure the diploma, and I told him: 'Look at yourself with Marco's eyes, he believes in you, his mind is not contaminated, "says a
Carlos Coloma on
the other side of the phone.
broken with happiness, between silences forced by crying, after the bronze in the Tokyo Games of his friend, his old rival, his signing, his successor,
David Valero
(Baza, 1988).
Everything that Coloma did to get on the podium at the Rio 2016 Games was repeated by Valero this Monday: the bumpy start, the comeback, the final attack ... he only had the gesture of grabbing his crotch, which was changed by a scream furious with arms raised.
"Nobody knows everything David has fought, everything he has worked for ... Since March we have recorded everything and I think we will make a documentary of those that he likes", discovers Coloma and demands to go to the beginnings of Valero, that is, to the countryside, to a town of 20,000 inhabitants east of Granada.
"His family has always lived in the fields, they have a lot of land. They grow everything, tomatoes, peppers and even raise animals. There in the company of his father and his uncle [Agro-Livestock Hermanos Valero] he worked as a young man until that he came to my store, Ciclos Montoya. He was with me for four years, until he was 23. He was a mechanic and a salesman, a very good boy. Now I saw him stronger than ever. I used to go out with my son
Imanol
, who went to school with him, lifelong friends, and he would tell me: 'He's very strong, very strong,' "says
José Ramón Montoya
, who hired him before he made the leap to professionals. Valero's dream began at age 10 with a mythical BH California that his parents,
Francisco
and
Mari Carmen
, gave him
He continued through the outskirts of the town and then through the Sierra de Baza, which is known as the corridors of his house.
No scholarships or aid
With his 1.89 meters as an obstacle, a rare height for a cyclist, it took him a world to find a place in the
mountain bike
and, therefore, it took him so long to make the jump.
"He always had the illusion of being a professional, but he had no scholarships or aid. In lower categories they did not get him out, but he put a lot of effort until he was signed by Vicma, then Olympia and, before leaving with Coloma, MMR. Rio Games was already very strong, but he also got hooked at the beginning and finished ninth. I'm very happy for him, "concludes Montoya, who has not seen much of his former employee in recent months.
And it is normal.
Before the Olympic Games, Valero concentrated for six weeks in the Sierra Nevada to train at altitude and then, before traveling to Tokyo, he took shelter in a rented chalet in Altea, where he got used to the humidity and lived in a bubble anti-coronavirus with Coloma and his team.
"At the BH Templo we have made many efforts so that both David and
Rocío [Del Alba García
, competes in the women's event today] arrive in Tokyo in the best possible way. For me it is the culmination of a project that I started three years ago, when I decided that it was time for Spain to have a truly professional
mountain bike team
", explains Coloma and talks about how his professional union with Valero, for many years his rival in national competitions, was born.
Valero, during Monday's race on Monte Izu.REUTERS
"Last October, at the World Cup in Austria, he told me that he was unmotivated, that he needed a change in his life, to be in a structure that really supported him, with physiotherapists, with nutritionists and I began to move to sign him. BH made an effort to offer him a contract at his level and when we closed it I already confirmed that I should focus on accompanying him and Rocío to the Games. Until then my idea was to be in Tokyo and try to get another medal, but I already saw that my role should be different " , recognizes who was third in Rio 2016. Together, Coloma and Valero planned to the last detail and even the lived scenario: that a hitch delayed him in the first moments and he had to go back.
"In the World Cup there are many more rivals, but in some Games there are very few. That is why I told him not to worry, to do his thing and that if the race stopped, as has happened, he could catch everyone. world in panties. It's that he has released
Nino Schurter
, the current Olympic champion! ", Coloma concludes and claims that now, Valero's work be recognized, that he be supported, that he be pushed.
The boy who dreamed of a BH California, who roamed the fields cultivated by his family, who drenched himself in cycling selling and repairing bicycles and who was late to professionalism is now an Olympic medalist.
"Everything is wanting," Luis Aragonés said to his players before the 2008 Euro Cup final in the documentary.
And Valero, of course, wanted to.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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