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Federico Bahamontes:

**Federico Bahamontes**
Personal information
Full name	Federico Martín Bahamontes
Nickname	El águila de Toledo
Date of birth	July 9, 1928 (1928-07-09) (age 80)
Country	Spain
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Retired
Rider type	Climber
Professional team(s)
1953–1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962–1965	Splendid Terrot-Hutchinson Giradrdengo-ICEP Mobylette Faema-Guerra Kas Faema VOV Margnat-Paloma
Major wins
1st overall Tour de France 1959 6 x Tour de France KoM 1 x Giro d'Italia KoM 2 x Vuelta a España KoM
Infobox last updated on:
April 1, 2008

Federico Martín Bahamontes (born 9 July 1928) is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist.

1 Biography
2 Palmarès
3 Teams
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Bahamontes was born in Santo Domingo-Caudilla (Toledo).

Renowned as a climbing specialist and nicknamed the Eagle of Toledo, he won the Tour de France in 1959, and won the Tour's "King of the Mountains" classification six times (1954, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1964). He also took second and third places overall in 1963 and 1964 respectively. In total, he won seven Tour stages.

He was also second in the 1957 Vuelta a España, and won the mountains competition then and the following year, 1958, when he finished 6th. He also won the mountains competition in the Giro d'Italia in 1956.

Bahamontes was not initially considered a contender for overall honour in the 1959 Tour de France, but he benefited from an early escape on a stage in the Pyrenees, and then won a mountain time trial to the Puy-de-Dôme. Into the Alps, he combined with fellow climber Charly Gaul to extend the lead into Grenoble, and although French riders Henry Anglade and Jacques Anquetil cut their deficits, neither made up enough time to threaten Bahamontes' overall lead. He won by just over four minutes from Anglade, and took the "King of the Mountains" too.

In 1963 and 1964 Anquetil exacted revenge, beating Bahamontes into second in the 1963 Tour de France. Bahamontes and Anquetil performed well in the Alps and at one stage were first and second overall, three seconds apart. However, the Spaniard's efforts to retain his mountains leadership rebounded on him. He was unable to break away from Anquetil on the stage to Chamonix and Anquetil's victory in the time trial sealed his fourth Tour win, with Bahamontes 3:35 behind. A year later, Anquetil took his fifth victory and the margin over Bahamontes in third was 4:44; Raymond Poulidor took second place. Bahamontes at least had the satisfaction of his sixth mountains win and two more stage wins (bringing his total number of Tour de France stage wins to seven).

He is mentioned in the French film Le Fabuleux Déstin d'Amélie Poulain, known in English as Amelie. Amélie finds a box of toys left behind by an owner of her flat. She returns them to the owner - by now a middle aged man - and he is reminded of his childhood, part of which involved watching Bahamontes ride to victory in the 1959 Tour de France.