Javier Otxoa Palacios (30 August 1974 – 24 August 2018) was a Spanish

cyclist Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

who was a member of the Kelme cycling team. His name was sometimes spelled Javier Ochoa in media reports.

Road cycling career

In 2000 Otxoa won a mountain stage in the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

on top of the Hautacam on a cold and rainy day. He broke away with

Nico Mattan Nico Mattan (born 17 July 1971) is a Belgian former road racing cyclist. His greatest achievement in cycling was winning the Gent–Wevelgem classic in 2005. In 2005 Mattan won the Gent–Wevelgem in a controversial way, as there were claims ...

with to race and dropped him on the '' col de Marie Blanque''. Mattan rejoined him on the descent. Otxoa then dropped him again on the climb to the ''col de l'Aubisque'' and rode alone through the '' col du Soulor'' with nine minutes' lead as he reached the foot of the Hautacam. He paid for his earlier efforts on the ''hors categorie'' but held on to finish with 42 seconds advantage

Lance Armstrong Lance Edward Armstrong (''né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. He achieved international fame for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times fro ...

Accident

In February 2001 a driver of a car hit him and his twin brother Ricardo during training. Ricardo died. Javier survived but was in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...

for a month and became seriously disabled. He continued cycling, however.

Paralympics cycling career

In the

2004 Summer Paralympics The 2004 Summer Paralympics (), the 12th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Athens, Greece, from 17 to 28 September ...

he won a gold in the road race/time trial event and a silver in the

individual pursuit The individual pursuit is a track cycling event where two cyclists begin the race from a stationary position on opposite sides of the track. It is held at over for men and women. The riders start at the same time and set off to complete the rac ...

. Otxoa was disqualified during the preliminary round of the individual pursuit (CP 3) at the

2008 Summer Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China, from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was ...

, for riding too close behind his opponent,

Darren Kenny Darren Kenny (born 17 March 1970) is a British road and track racing cyclist and Paralympian. Kenny's results have made him one of his sport's biggest stars; his dominance over multiple Paralympics gave rise to his nickname of 'Daz the Destr ...

, who had overtaken him. Kenny stated that he was disappointed by this as he would have liked to compete against Otxoa in the final. At the time of his death in 2018, Otxoa resided in

Alhaurín de la Torre Alhaurín de la Torre is a town in the province of Málaga, Andalusia, in southern Spain. The town is part of Málaga Metropolitan Area and of the comarca of Valle del Guadalhorce. It sits at the entrance to the Guadalhorce valley on the slopes ...

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

Major results

;1996 :General Classification

Circuito Montañés Circuito Montañés is a road cycling stage race held annually in Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is call ...

;2000 :13th

::1st Stage 10 ::2nd Mountains classification : 1st

Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia – Clásica de Ordizia is a Spanish professional cycle road race held in Ordizia, Basque Country. The first edition was held in 1922. Since 2005, the race has been organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour ...

;2004 :1st Road race/time trial,

:2nd Pursuit,

;2008 :1st time trial,

:2nd road race,

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Otxoa, Javier 1974 births 2018 deaths Cyclists from Barakaldo Spanish male cyclists Spanish Tour de France stage winners Paralympic cyclists for Spain Cyclists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Paralympic gold medalists for Spain Paralympic silver medalists for Spain Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Spanish twins Medalists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Paralympic medalists in cycling