20 years without 'Chava' Jiménez: ''I'm going to make my brother immortal''

In a cardboard box, next to an easel with a canvas by ChavaJiménez, rests a manuscript with the secrets of the idol that disappeared 20 years ago.. A treasure ready to see the light. Juan Carlos, brother of the cyclist who died on December 6, 2003 in a clinic in Madrid where he was undergoing treatment to combat anxiety, has prepared the outline of a book that collects unpublished facts and experiences of the charismatic runner.. A work written during the last five years.

«Even though my brother left 20 years ago, for me he is still here. I have him present every day. I'm four years older than him, but we were always very close. In recent years I have painted many paintings and molded sculptures in memory of him.. I have also written thousands of pages about his life and my own career.. It is a first-person account of some unknown and documented events.. At the moment I don't want to tell much more details, everything will come in its time,” warns Juan Carlos Jiménez, painter and sculptor.

«With these written pages I want to make my brother immortal. May your memory always remain alive. “I have it all written down,” says the artist and custodian of the Chava sanctuary.. Juan Carlos, a former student of the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid and the Massachusetts School, has a studio in what was the former runner's chalet in El Barraco (Ávila). There are piled up paintings, portraits, photographs, trophies and sculptures of the brilliant climber.

José María Chava Jiménez never won one of the three great races but his legacy, steeped in legend due to his premature death (32 years old), remains very much alive.. He died at 10 pm on December 6, 2003, shortly after showing his photo album to the patients at the San Miguel clinic in Madrid, where he was admitted.. The winner of four Vuelta Mountain Awards (1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001) and Spanish road champion in 1997 was an excessive character, capable of the greatest feats and the most unexpected collapses.. He lived to the limit and never deprived himself of anything. At the beginning of 2002 he fell into the abyss. «With depression I only feel sad and want to cry…. It's a lie that I have a drug addiction problem.. “That's rumors and nonsense,” he said in an interview with the Crónica supplement of this newspaper in September 2002.. “He died as he ran, in an attack and suddenly,” confessed Antonia, his mother, at the wake set up at that time in Madrid.

Two decades later, fans continue to remember the exploits of the former teammate of Pedro Delgado and Miguel Indurain. He was a marvelous climber, third place in the 1998 Vuelta and winner of nine stages in the Spanish round, for the most famous pages in history was the victory in Angliru, in 1999, climbing under the fog and surpassing the Russian Pavel Tonkov in the last breath. He made his professional debut in 1992 and always played in the Banesto team structure of José Miguel Echavarri and Eusebio Unzúe.

FLOWERS IN THE CEMETERY

«People come here from all over, from Malaga, from Santander, from Barcelona, from Valencia…. They pass by the house where my brother lived, take photos next to his bronze bust, go to the cemetery and leave flowers. 20 years have passed and they still remember him. It is alive in everyone's memory. People remember his exploits and love him for his way of being,” emphasizes the author of two gigantic sculptures dedicated to his brother and erected in roundabouts in El Barraco and Ávila.

In the upper part of El Barraco, next to the mountain, there is a street and a roundabout in honor of José María Jiménez, in front of the memorial monument is Chava's studio and sanctuary. His sister Piedad, wife of former cyclist Carlos Sastre, also lives in that area.. Your chalet is located a stone's throw from the sports center named after the 2008 Tour de France winner.. Very close to there there is a street that pays tribute to Ángel Arroyo (second in the 1983 Tour de France). The aroma of cycling surrounds this Avila town of just over 1,800 inhabitants. Friends and colleagues from Chava also passed through Víctor Sastre's school, such as David Navas, Paco Mancebo, Curro García and Pablo Lastras.. The last one who points out excellent conditions is Yeray Sastre (19 years old, son of the winner of the Tour de France), who has a style very similar to his uncle Chava. The Vuelta a España honored him on the tenth anniversary of his death, with a trophy for the winner of the stage completed in the port of Ancares.

His brother never won the Vuelta, Giro or Tour, but they continue to remember him for his performances. He got people to sit in front of the television or listen to the radio.. Many gathered in the bars to see what he was doing. He never went unnoticed, when many considered him defeated, he resurfaced. I remember one time when they said on television that he was going to retire in one stage, I think it was in the Sierra Nevada.. He listened to him and came out to give a great show. Two decades have passed and it seems that everything is still the same. It's already been 20 years, but he is still present in my mind. Every day I remember him. I have painted dozens of paintings of him, I keep many of his trophies and personal things from his time as a runner: caps, bibs, shaving foam, gels… The emotion and feelings remain very intense. “The passage of time does not affect.”

The 56-year-old versatile artist explains that the family was always very close to the cyclist, in good times and bad. «I don't like to remember his last stage, with depression and his time in the clinic. Here we are all passing through. We all have one day and whatever has to happen will happen,” he explains, while placing a portrait of his brother in his house in El Barraco.

«On this 20th anniversary we are all excited, but especially my mother. He has a hard time today and every day, because the death of a child is impossible to accept. It is something irrecoverable. My brother left when he was 32, but there are children who die shortly after birth or in wars, as we are seeing now.. It's awful. My mother goes to the cemetery every week, prays, cleans the grave. I accompany her sometimes, but I go to the door. I stay out because I don't like going to those places, when I go it's to stay forever,” emphasizes Juan Carlos, a brother who never forgets.