Jose Jaime Gonzalez Pico, alias Chepe Gonzalez, was born in Sogamoso, a little town in the province of Boyaca, in central Colombia, 25km from Duitama, where the last world championships were held. Like him, two of the best Colombian cyclists of the last decade -- Henry Cardenas and above all Fabio Parra (third in the 1988 Tour) -- grew up in Sogamoso. Down there, people work hard -- when they have work at all -- at a cement factory or in the lime kilns.
His father abandoned the family home a long time ago and Chepe -- in Colombia the diminutive form of Jose -- left school at 9 years old to help his mother make ends meet, working 10 hours a day in a shop selling tools. Chepe worships his mother, to whom he immediately dedicated yesterday's irresistible flight. And in Sogamoso he's been given an extra surname: "el ocho mujeres" -- he's the man with eight wives.
A rather small gentleman, he weighs 56kg and is 1.67m tall -- and not 1.57m since he has been shortened in error by 10cm in the official Tour statistics! He always lives close to his "eight wives": his saintly mother, his five sisters, his wife and his daughter. He's the patriarch, the only man in the house.
It wasn't poverty he knew -- it was abject misery. In September's Velo magazine where he presented the Duitama worlds, our friend Guy Roger, an expert on Colombian cycling, bears witness to Gonzalez's bare existence. Chepe worked at little jobs for years, and when his mother used to slip 40 pesos (around 20 centimes) into his pocket so he could take the bus, the lad would immediately secrete it in a hole in his mattress. It used to be thought he went to town running behind the bus [the translation may have gone into a ravine here!] but his savings enabled him, after some months -- and hundreds of kilometres -- of sacrifices to buy himself a second-hand bike frame.
"Between 1980 and 1985," Gonzalez recalls, "cycling was a very big sport in Colombia. Lucho Herrera and Fabio Parra were everybody's heroes -- our heroes. They made us dream by going to take part in big races in Europe, notably the Tour de France. In July we heard about their exploits, ears glued to transistor radios. They gave me the urge to become in my turn a racing cyclist, and today I particularly thank Henry Cardenas for his help."
One day the little Gonzalez had a bad crash on his makeshift bike, ending up with 37 stitches in his face -- hence the big scar he carries to this day. The accident threw his brave mother into a terrible rage. Near dead from fear, she destroyed his bike. Chepe cried his eyes out and it's then that Henry Cardenas took pity on him, offering him one of his old bikes -- on which he won his first village race.
So Chepe Gonzalez has come a long way -- a very long way -- from another world. Do we then have the heart to condemn him for having so often hidden on the wheels of his seven breakaway companions yesterday? Or for having -- him the climber -- left three-metre gaps [in the line] in front of him, in a side wind, obliging the others to do extra work? At the end he awaited "the most important victory of my life". A victory, above all, over himself and his modest condition.
Certainly he won "his" Tour of Colombia twice (in 1994 and 1995) but it's a Colombia where cycling is in decline, before last year finishing 15th in "his" world championships in Duitama. In sum a fine enough performance, but greeted with criticism from his country's media, to which he had seemed a big hope. "Before the worlds, the press put an enormous load on our backs, trying to make the country believe that we could grab the title," he said. "It was completely unrealistic. We aren't riders with depth [diff to translate: nous ne sommes pas coureurs de fond." maybe "we aren't riders with all-round skills"], and it's impossible for Colombians to compete with the best in the world over 265km. What's more our cycling is going through a bad patch. There are no longer any stars, and so there are no longer any big sponsors, and back home the press only writes very negative articles."
There were only five Colombian starters in the Tour [7 in 1995, in 1994, 4 in 1993, 10 in 1992, 11 in 1991, 14 in 1990, 13 in 1989, 11 in 1988, 20 in 1987, 27 in 1986, 10 in 1985, 15 in 1984, 10 in 1983], all in Keme jerseys, and there have been only four since Hernan Buenahora -- the best among them -- abndoned after a fall in the first stage in the Netherlands. The Colombian radio reporters of RCN and Caracol aren't exactly yelling at the finish lines any more. Ten years ago there were around 30 on the Tour. this year there are only four. And the 1996 Tour hasn't attracted a single special correspondent from the Colombian print press!
In Bogota the newspaper editors could well have been biting their fingers. They would have had a thousand things to tell their readers. To start with, the fact that their compatriot nearly lost it altogether in the last climb, the col des Limouches, less than 40km from the finish where, very paradoxically, this man of the mountains almost got dropped! Then, above all, that Chepe is a holy terror. Before the eight-man sprint that was taking shape, nobody felt the need to be on their guard against him. He laughs: "The others must have said to themselves that a Colombian couldn't win like that, and I played on the surprise effect."
How? Right at the last moment, by attacking under the [1km] red kite, down the right-hand side of the road, just before a 90-degree bend that preceded a sweet little climb that was just his style. Did the little devil know all about the last kilometre? Yes, but by the purest chance. "In the escape, the directeurs sportifs of Mapei and MG came up to their riders [Fernandez-Gines and Elli] to explain to them the final stretch of the route and the tactics to follow. I simply overheard what they were saying."
And that's how Chepe will soon be hiding in his holey old mattress a cheque for 50,000 French francs [about US$10,000], the prize for a stage winner.
Born July 28 1968 at Sogamoso, Colombia Amateur: Stage winner in Tour of Colombia 1990 Two stages of Clasico RCN 1991 and 2nd overall Pro in 1992. Teams Postobon 1992-94, Kelme 1995, Kelme-Artiach 1996 Sixteen victories: Tour of Colombia overall 1994, 1995 Tour of Colombia stage wins: 1 in 1992, 3 in 1994, 2 in 1995 One stage of the Tour de France 1996 (Valence) Two stages of the Clasico RCN (1 in 1995, 1 in 196) One stage of the Clasica Occidente 1993 One stage of the Clasica Marco Fidel Suarez 1993 One stage of Clasica Boyaca 1994 Two stages of El Garda de Montana 1995 Principal Placings: 2nd Trofeo Luis Ocana 1995 3rd Clasica Cundinamarca 1993 5th Tour of Colombia 1993 and 1996 6th Subida a Urkiola 1992 7th Championships of Colombia 1994 7th GP Pony Malta 1994 7th Clasica Boyaca 1994 8th Tour du Limousin 1992 15th World Championships road race 1995