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A Madrilenian from Orcasitas, the greengrocer's son, the boy who dreamed of being

Luis Ocaña

, rides alone, but no one sees him.

The French television cameras are behind, in the agony of

Bernard Hinault

.

150 kilometers of alpine colossi, engulfed one after another, without spotlights on the side to collect the feat.

In the 2,413 meters of the Col du Granon, where today for the second time in history a stage of the Tour ends -it was the highest goal for 25 years, until in 2011 the final in the Galibier (2,654)-,

Eduardo Chozas

36 years ago he starred in one of the great heroics of the Spanish platoon.

It was the cycling of the 80s, without earpieces, without so many corsets.

The first golden age of the Spanish.

And Chozas was the bravest among the brave, a specialist in what few could do: escapes, the longer, harder and more mountainous the better.

But that day... «It was total agony.

It was a stage », he recalls wistfully.

A feat with a 24-tooth crown and a 39 small chainring, sprinkled with courage and effort, but also with a point of uncertainty that raises it to the altars of Tour mysticism.

She revives Huts days before flying to France, invited by the Grande Boucle, which she does not notice in tributes to her heroes.

And in the fierce Granon, nobody like the man from Madrid.

«It is a piece of port, it has no breaks, above the average of the Alps.

It is shorter than the Galibier, the Croix de Fer or Alpe d'Huez.

But it is harder, permanent ramps of 10%, it never goes down", warns the then Teka cyclist, who had already won the Tour the previous year (he would sign up for up to four stages) and in 1983, at the age of 22, he left his signature of intrepid in the Giro en Vasto, the most special day of his entire career: «I achieved something more difficult,

win a flat stage the last 80 kilometers to a peloton that was going for me to the death.

That was almost unbelievable."

"The last three kilometers was melted"

But we must return to the Granon.

«I thought, 'I don't know if it's me or the port, which is very hard'.

It is a bare climb, without a tree.

The last three kilometers was melted, half apajarada.

He saw the flag for the last kilometer and thought: 'I'm not there, I'm not here'.

Because there was also a mess with the radio, he didn't give information.

I had a bad time psychologically, because I thought they were going to catch me, I felt like crying.

It was not so.

Chozas led

Zimmerman in more than six minutes, and

Perico Delgado

by seven

, on the day that

Greg Lemond

snatched the lead from his partner in 'La Vie Claire' Hinault, the last yellow of the Badger.

The display of Chozas is even more amazing when compared to today's squeamishness.

«I think as I ran: opportunities do not come alone, you have to go for them.

Brave people are needed.

I would not be satisfied, of course », he protests, with his eyes on the Spaniards.

That morning that the man from Madrid had signed up, he launched himself out and did not look back.

“There were a thousand attacks.

But when we got to the Col de Var I thought, 'here it's not flat anymore, whoever wants to, can follow me'.

And no one could.

Because I had to be a great climber to come with me, and they were saving for later.

I needed legs and bottom to endure 150 kilometers, with a breakaway of 10 that was behind me, with

Charly Mottet

,

Anselmo Fuerte

, very good runners.

I was keeping the advantage, but from behind I didn't know what was happening...».

«I was very complete, I climbed well and was a good rider.

And it went down very well too.

In a stage like this, the peloton has to go as fast as you and it's not easy.

It is the great climbers who have to neutralize you.

Flat is something else.

If you are a good and brave climber, those escapes can come out.

Almost all of the ones I have won have been like this, ”closes Chozas, a Eurosport commentator, who is recovering from a bone marrow transplant that he underwent two years ago, another getaway with his arms raised.

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