RIP: José Maria Jimenez 1971-2003

[Fausto]

A well-known and popular Spanish pro cyclist.

Spanish cycling lost a major figure Saturday when José Maria "el Chaba" Jimenez died of an apparent heart attack at a psychiatric hospital in Madrid, Spain. Jimenez, 32, had been suffering from depression, which had kept him from riding professionally since 2002. Jimenez had hoped to return to the peloton, but his inactivity eventually prompted iBanesto.com to suspend his contract last year.

Jimenez rode his entire career for the Banesto formation, earning a reputation as an explosive climber and aggressive rider. Often tipped as an outside for victory in the Vuelta a España and Tour de France, Jimenez never reached the top step of the podium but succeeded in winning numerous stages in the Vuelta and the mountains classification on three occasions.

"He was a rider in the old style," former teammate Miguel Indurain said of Jimenez. "When things went well, they went very well. When things didn't go well, they didn't go at all. He lost a lot due to reasons beyond his work, leaving cycling like that... all of the sudden."

Jimenez will be buried in his hometown of El Barraco on Monday.

So sad. So much potential derailed by depression and now we'll never know how good he could have been.

 

[Fausto]

Bump for the morning crowd.

 

[NFS4]

Isn't Jose Jimenez that dude from the 50's that used to do a comedy routine on TV?

I'm not old off to remember that, but I remember them making fun of it in the movie "The Right Stuff"

 

[Red]

Did he overwork his heart bicycling and cause an early heart attack?

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Redhotjrm
Did he overwork his heart bicycling and cause an early heart attack?

No one knows yet. It does seem a little weird that someone who had such massive aerobic fitness all his life would then just keel over once he quit riding.

 

[Snapster]

For a person who has been training day in day out all their life to just suddenly stop I'm not surprised. If you're gonna quit after all those years, you should do it gradually to let your body get back to a 'normal' expected workrate.

*edit* Sad and unfortunate. RIP

 

[freegeeks]

I heard it yesterday on the news, a sad day

a very talented climber and he had the potential to become the new indurain

I remember him kicking ass in the vuelta at the end of the 90's and in 2001

 

[MaxDepth]

Hmm, I wonder if the anti-depressants had something to do with it? I guess not all countries do an autopsy.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: MaxDepth
Hmm, I wonder if the anti-depressants had something to do with it? I guess not all countries do an autopsy.

He died Saturday and I haven't seen any follow-ups yet so I don't know if they're doing an autopsy or not.