A part of cycling in black and white leaves with the death this Thursday of Domingo ‘Txomin’ Perurena, the Spanish ex-cyclist with the most victories in his record (158) and who at the age of 79 left the victim of an illness.
Perurena was the Alejandro Valverde of his time, an off-road cyclist, capable of winning in a sprint, on gentle mountain passes and in any scenario that required his speed.
The Basque lion, a type of austere character and powerful voice, was also an outstanding sports director. Always linked to cycling, he was successful as head of Teka and Orbea, the team with which he won the Tour of Spain with Marino Lejarreta and Perico Delgado. He also led Artiach and Euskadi, the mother team of the Basque youth academy, in his early years.
Cycling practitioner since his early childhood in Oyarzún, he was an emblem of the team that put Spain on the map before the emergence of Reynolds in the Tour with Perico and then Induráin. Kas was a symbol of the sixties and seventies, a superlative group of Spanish cyclists in which, among others, Paco Galdos, Perurena and José Antonio González Linares stood out.
Perurena won 12 stages of the Tour of Spain, a Valverde from the seventies with a punch on all terrains, including the mountains. He was the red dot jersey in the Tour de France in 1974 despite not being an accomplished climber. In the Tour he always regretted not having achieved any stage victory.
In his memory also lasted that Tour of Spain that he lost in 1975 against Agustín Tamames. Perurena was the leader in his land, San Sebastián, in the last stage of the race, but he arrived exhausted in the time trial and the man from Salamanca took that edition of the Spanish round.
As a director, the ex-cyclist piloted two of the best Spanish riders of the time. With Marino Lejarreta and the historic Teka team, he won the 1982 Vuelta a España, the one that Ángel Arroyo lost in the anti-doping control and who took the ‘Junco’ de Bérriz.
And with Pedro Delgado he won the 1985 Vuelta aboard the MG-Orbea. It was the edition of that escapade with Pepe Recio through the Madrid mountains that shipwrecked the Scotsman Robert Millar.
With Perurena and manager Miguel Madariaga, the Euskadi team debuted in the professional field, giving rise to the large number of Basque professionals in the peloton.
