Pablo de la Calle

Updated Tuesday, February 6, 2024-22:42

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The new magician of Athletic is an "eminence" of the University of Colorado (USA) and the creator of the new

Eddy Merckx

.

Íñigo San Millán

, born in 1971 in Vitoria, has revolutionized the physiology of sport. He is the driving force behind the rebirth of the Lezama team, which is offering a splendid course, is fifth in the League, semi-finalist of the Copa del Rey and rival of Atlético de Madrid in tonight's match at the Metropolitano. From the end of October to January 20, he went 14 games without losing, something never seen before in the last 40 years in Bilbao.

The explosion of energy in San Mamés coincides with the arrival of San Millán to the Performance section. The Basque, physiologist and

professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Colorado

since 2008, was hired last October by the Ibaigane club. «His main function will be to lead the Performance Department, whose objective is to maximize the conditions and sporting performance of the footballers - both in the men's and women's first teams and in the development of players in Lezama - in everything that "exceeds the scope of work of the coaches/trainers," explained those responsible for the red-and-white entity in their presentation.

Athletic signed San Millán after making an impact with his results in cycling. The Basque is the personal trainer of

Tadej Pogacar

(double winner of the Tour de France) and

Juan Ayuso

(the most promising rider in the Spanish peloton). He is the head of Performance for the UAE team, sponsored by the United Arab Emirates, leader in the UCI budget ranking: 60 million euros.

From Denver to Lezama

It is not the first time that Athletic has turned to a cycling specialist. In 1995 he hired

Sabino Padilla

, Miguel Indurain's coach. He also directed the marathon runner

Martín Fiz.

Padilla was at the Lezama club until 2007. During that time the Biscayan squad was fifth in the 1996/97 League (qualified for UEFA) and runner-up in 1997/98 (entered the Champions League). Padilla was accused of being responsible for

Carlos Gurpegui

's positive test for nandrolone in 2002. Padilla and San Millán do not maintain a professional or medical relationship.

In recent years, San Millán has directed the preparation of the UAE from his university department in Denver. Since last October he has moved to the Lezama offices, from there they also continue to control the preparation of the UAE cyclists.

This graduate in Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences Medicine at Colorado State University was a clever Real Madrid youth player who soon learned that football was not for him.

After six seasons in the Ciudad Deportiva, at the age of 16 he switched to cycling

and forged his future between the wheels. In Madrid he joined the Chamartín cycling club and in the youth and amateur ranks he met, among others,

David Plaza

,

Martín Perdiguero

and

Félix García Casas

. He is a restless guy and in the last 25 years he has collaborated with soccer, cycling, basketball, athletics, rowing, triathlon, swimming and American football teams. «I have worked in many sports and you always learn from everyone to incorporate new methodologies. “There are methods that can be exported from cycling to football,” said San Millán after joining Athletic. "

Football has evolved a lot

, but you can delve deeper into the internal load, knowing if a player's performance drops due to lactate, fatigue or glycolytic," added this expert in the scientific monitoring of sports performance data. .

Matxin's praise

"For me it is an honor and a privilege to work at Athletic, because of its historical DNA and what it represents for Basque society," he said on October 25 on the club's website during his presentation. The physiologist, who the club does not allow to grant interviews, has said nothing else publicly. He has not even held a press conference.

"Íñigo is an eminence, super intelligent, a true institution in his field," said

Joxean Fernández Matxin

, director of the UAE. Both have known each other since before 2004, when they met at Saunier Duval. San Millán is also a pioneer in the development of new technologies in exercise metabolism, nutrition, sports performance and diabetes. He speaks Spanish, English, French and Italian.

The versatile trainer

is committed to the fight against cancer

. Part of his profits are allocated to his line of research, focused on the novel approach of interfering with cancer metabolism. His laboratory in the US has shown that the lactate produced by cancer cells (different from exercise lactate) is a main regulator of cancer and therefore a therapeutic target. Together with his team, in two studies they have managed to block two fundamental enzymes in cancer metabolism that allow

cells to stop growing and die in 24-48 hours

. He assures that although the latest study has not been published yet, it is necessary to test on animals to continue moving forward, but he regrets that he has run out of funds for research. San Millán, a researcher with a long history.