Horrillo and Minguez to meet with federation president next week
On the road to Jaca at the Vuelta and the peloton have to deal with 40 degree heat (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Spanish Cycling Federation president José Luís Lopez Cerron has denied reports that he has selected former sports director Javier Minguez to be the federation's new road coach.
The spot fell vacant after coach José Luiz De Santos quit this winter to go and work for as director in Alberto Contador's new under 23 team, but López Cerron says that newspaper reports that Minguez will get the job, with former pro. Pedro Horrillo as his new second-in-command, looking after women's cycling and junior categories, have jumped the gun.
"We've agreed to meet up face to face some day next week and discuss it but that's as far as it goes," López Cerron told Cyclingnews.
"I've talked to both of them, but only by phone and briefly, and I've asked a number of top riders whether they would approve of that particular choice. But nothing's decided yet and it's not a priority."
After a brief career as a pro, Minguez is well known as one of Spain's top directors in the 1980s and 1990s, winning two Vueltas - with Faustino Ruperez and Alvaro Pino - and directing teams of the calibre of Zor, Amaya, Banesto and Vitalicio before turning, in 2001, to commentating on cycling for various radio stations. In latter two teams, curiously enough, López Cerron was his second in command.
López Cerron praised Minguez ability as a director and said, "He can read races really well, which is extremely important in a one-day Classic. But as for becoming new road trainer, right now I don't even know if he's available for the job."
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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
