Joaquim Fernandes Agostinho, OIH (7 April 1943 – 10 May 1984) was a Portuguese professional

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

racer. He was champion of Portugal in six successive years. He rode the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

13 times and finished all but once,''

International Cycle Sport ''International Cycle Sport'' was a British cycling magazine that covered British and European road racing. It had 199 issues between May 1968 and December 1984. History ''International Cycle Sport'' was the idea of Kennedy Brothers Publishing, ...

'', UK, 1984 winning on

Alpe d'Huez L'Alpe d'Huez () is a ski resort in southeastern France at . It is a mountain pasture in the Central French Western Alps, in the commune of Huez, which is part of the department of Isère in the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is part of th ...

in 1979, and finishing third twice. All total he finished in the top 10 of a

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

eleven times, made three podiums and won a total of seven stages between the Vuelta and Tour.

Youth

Agostinho was born in a small village, near Torres Vedras. He lived for several years in

Casalinhos de Alfaiata Casalinhos de Alfaiata is a hamlet in the parish of Silveira, in the municipality of Torres Vedras, Portugal. Joaquim Agostinho Joaquim Fernandes Agostinho, OIH (7 April 1943 – 10 May 1984) was a Portuguese professional bicycle racer. He ...

. Out for a ride as a youth, he encountered

Sporting Clube de Portugal Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional fo ...

's cycling team on a road near

–

Torres Vedras Torres Vedras () is a municipality in the Portuguese district of Lisbon, approximately north of the capital Lisbon in the Oeste region, in the Centro of Portugal. The population was 83,075, in an area of . History In 1148, Afonso I took th ...

. He began an impromptu race; the team could not catch him, even though Agostinho was riding a standard steel bicycle. Agostinho fought for three years with the Portuguese army in

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

during the

Portuguese Colonial War The Portuguese Colonial War ( pt, Guerra Colonial Portuguesa), also known in Portugal as the Overseas War () or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation (), and also known as the Angolan, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican War of Independence, ...

of 1961–1974. Jean-Pierre Douçot, who became his mechanic as a professional, said:

"It was his captain during the war in Mozambique who discovered him. When he carried messages on a heavy bike, he took two hours to ride 50km when the others took five."

Racing career

Joaquim Agostinho started racing as an amateur at the age of 25 years in some Portuguese races, wearing some borrowed cycling wear lent by

João Roque João Manuel Roque (born July 22, 1971) is a Portuguese-Angolan former featherweight Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) black belt World Champion and a retired mixed martial artist. He competed in the Featherweight division in MMA (Mixed Mart ...

. After winning some races, Agostinho signed a professional contract with

. Then, when racing with the Sporting Clube de Portugal cycling team in São Paulo, Agostinho – a rider "of average height but with the build of a rhinoceros", according to the historian

Pierre Chany Pierre Chany (16 December 1922 – 18 June 1996) was a French cycling journalist. He covered the Tour de France 49 times and was for a long time the main cycling writer for the daily newspaper, ''L'Équipe''. Biography Chany was born in L ...

– left

Jean de Gribaldy Jean de Gribaldy (18 July 1922 – 2 January 1987) was a French road cyclist and directeur sportif. He rode in the Tour de France in 1947 and 1948. Biography Born in Besançon, Doubs ''département'', Gribaldi was a professional racing cyc ...

, a team manager and former cyclist, in awe of him. They met in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in 1968, when Agostinho won the Tour de São Paulo. De Gribaldy was managing an amateur team in the race. That year Agostinho rode the world professional road championship at

Imola Imola (; rgn, Jômla or ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, located on the river Santerno, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The city is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical re ...

and came 16th after initiating the move which brought victory for the Italian,

Vittorio Adorni Vittorio Adorni (14 November 1937 – 24 December 2022) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist. Early life and amateur career Adorni was born in San Lazzaro di Parma on 14 November 1937.

. De Gribaldy and Agostinho became lifelong friends. De Gribaldy said in 1980:

"At the end of my life, if I had to recall a single place in the world, I wouldn't hesitate long. I would choose the little Brazilian hotel, insignificant, discreet, in Sao Paulo, where I had arranged to meet Joaquim. It was in 1968. I had noticed him two months earlier at Imola, at the world championship, but it was in Sao Paulo that I spoke to him for the first time. I asked him simply: 'Do you want to come and race in France?' He didn't know a word of French but in his smile I understood immediately what he was trying to answer. What a long way we went together afterwards. What memories we created together."

De Gribaldy asked him to join his Frimatic team in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, promising a ride in the 1969 Tour de France. Agostinho was already 26, a late age to turn professional, he won two stages that year. He also had one of the heavy falls that characterised his career, crashing on the cinder track at

Divonne-les-Bains Divonne-les-Bains (; Arpitan: ''Digouona''), popularly known as Divonne, is a commune in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. In 2018, it had a population of 9,788. Divonne-les-Bains is a spa town situated o ...

and being carried away with

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include loss of consciousness (LOC); memory loss; headaches; difficulty with thinking, concentration, ...

amnesia Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...

and cuts. He restarted next morning and rode as far as

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, finishing the race eighth. He rode 13 Tours de France from 1969 to 1983, came third in 1978 and 1979 and won four stages. He finished 12 times. Agostinho stayed with de Gribaldy as his teams were successively sponsored by Frimatic, Hoover, and Van Cauter Magniflex. In 1973 he left de Gribaldy to ride for Bic and then Teka before re-associating with de Gribaldy when he joined Flandria's French team in 1978.

Raphaël Géminiani Raphaël Géminiani (born Clermont-Ferrand; born 12 June 1925) is a French former road bicycle racer. He had six podium finishes in the Grand Tours. He is one of four children of Italian immigrants who moved to Clermont-FerrandColin, Jacques ( ...

said:

"Joaquim Agostinho didn't know his own strength. He was a ball of muscles of out-of-the-ordinary power. He was built like a cast-iron founder. Having come to cycling fairly late, he had trouble integrating with it. It's a shame he didn't want to dedicate himself 100 per cent to being a professional cyclist. Now and then he showed his very great physical powers, but no more often than that. He didn't want to do more. The peloton scared him, which is why he fell so often. More than that, Tinho was never aggressive enough to impose himself totally. He had a legendary kindness and his only ambition was to be good, gentle Tinho. If he'd been ambitious, he would easily have written his name into the records of the Tour de France."

Pierre Martin said in ''International Cycle Sport'':

He was a man of strange contradictions. Built like a sprinter, he was no good at sprinting. He was one of the great climbers.
Eddy Merckx Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (, ; born 17 June 1945), better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional road and track bicycle racer who is among the most successful riders in the history of competitive cycling. His victorie ...
said in 1969, the year when he and Agostinho made their debuts in the Tour de France, that Agostinho was the rival who worried him most, indeed the only rival who had worried him at all."

Agostinho was Portuguese champion in six successive years, from 1968 to 1973. He was a gifted climber and a consistent leader in both in the

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the r ...

and the

where he was a winner at

. Martin said:

"He loved the Tour de France. There were few other races which he took seriously, indeed he raced relatively little during an average season – enough to pay for and maintain life's dream, but no more. On the roads of the Tour, nobody ever knew when he would suddenly burst into action. He might be quiet for days on end, when suddenly the racing fever would grip him, not always in the mountains, and away he went. When he went, those with serious ambitions went with him, knowing that, otherwise, they would see him no more until the end of the stage. He didn't take cycling too seriously. It had brought him wealth and security, had allowed him to buy and stock a large farm about 20 miles from Lisbon. The farm and his family were his life; cycling was his hobby. When he was riding the
Tour d'Indre-et-Loire The Tour d'Indre-et-Loire was a multi-day road bicycle race held annually from 1970 to 1982 in the department of Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it ha ...
once, news reached him that 20 cows had been stolen. Off he went, in mid-race, back to Portugal to organise a posse to hunt the cattle, chartering a light plane for himself to direct the search.

In 1982 he took a whole year off to look after his farm, demoralised by a fall in form the previous season.

Doping

Joaquim Agostinho was caught three times in drugs checks: in the Tour of Portugal in 1969 and 1973, and the Tour de France of 1977.

Death

Agostinho was leading the Tour of the Algarve at

Quarteira Quarteira ( or ) is a Portuguese civil parish, in the municipality (''concelho'') of Loulé in the Algarve.Detail Regional Map, Algarve-Southern Portugal, The population in 2011 was 21,798, in an area of 38.16 km². History The settlement o ...

in April 1984 when a dog ran into the road a few hundred metres before the finish.iFrance, article, Joaquim Agostinho
Agostinho hit it and fell to the ground, hitting his head. He remounted and crossed the line accompanied by other riders. He was dazed but seemed otherwise unhurt. He walked to an ambulance, holding his head. He then went to a hotel, where his head was dressed in ice. Two hours later he was taken to hospital in Faro, where an X-ray showed he had broken the

parietal bone The parietal bones () are two bones in the Human skull, skull which, when joined at a fibrous joint, form the sides and roof of the Human skull, cranium. In humans, each bone is roughly quadrilateral in form, and has two surfaces, four borders, an ...

in his skull. He was conveyed by ambulance, four hours after the fall, 280 km to

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, the nearest city that could treat him. He fell into a coma in the ambulance and subsequently died.

Monuments & tributes

* In Torres Vedras, on top of the Parque Verde da Várzea, there is a monument built in honour of Joaquim Agostinho. Joaquim-Agostinho-Memorial Torres-Vedras-Portugal

Joaquim-Agostinho-Memorial Torres-Vedras-Portugal

* In the gardens of Silveira a monument was inaugurated on 14 May 1989. * The 'Avenida Joaquim Agostinho' (avenue) leads to the centre the Santa Cruz Beach. * In France, on the 14th curve of the Alpe d'Huez, a bronze bust (1.70 m high, 70 cm wide and weighing 70 kg), mounted on a granite pedestal three feet high, commemorates his stage victory in 1979. * In 2000 the journalists of ''A Bola'' selected Agostinho as the 4th most important Portuguese Sportsman of the 20th Century, behind

Eusébio Eusébio da Silva Ferreira (; 25 January 1942 – 5 January 2014), nicknamed the "Black Panther", the "Black Pearl" or "O Rei" ("The King"), was a Portuguese footballer who played as a striker. He is considered one of the greatest players of ...

(1st),

Carlos Lopes Carlos Alberto de Sousa Lopes, GCIH (, born 18 February 1947) is a Portuguese former long-distance runner. He won the marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, becoming Portugal's first Olympic gold medalist and setting an Olympic ...

(2nd) and

Rosa Mota Rosa Maria Correia dos Santos Mota, GCIH, GCM (; born 29 June 1958) is a Portuguese former marathon runner, one of her country's foremost athletes, being the first sportswoman from Portugal to win Olympic gold. Mota was the first woman to win m ...

(3rd). * In 1984 Agostinho was made an Officer of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator, by then

President of Portugal The president of Portugal, officially the president of the Portuguese Republic ( pt, Presidente da República Portuguesa, ), is the head of state and highest office of Portugal. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, an ...

Ramalho Eanes Ramalho is a Portuguese surname. Ramalho may refer to: People *João Ramalho (1493–1580), Portuguese explorer *Ramalho Ortigão (1836–1915), Portuguese writer * Rosa Ramalho (1888–1977), Portuguese ceramist * José Ramalho (rower) (1901–?un ...

Career achievements

Major results

Sources: ;1968 : National Road Championships ::1st MaillotPortugal

Time trial In many racing sports, an athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athlete or team sets off at ...

::1st

Road race : 2nd Overall

Volta a Portugal The Volta a Portugal ( en, Tour of Portugal), also known as Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta ( en, Tour of Portugal on Bicycle), is an annual multi-stage road bicycle racing competition held in Portugal. The competition takes place during a two-week s ...

;1969 : National Road Championships ::1st MaillotPortugal

::1st

Road race : 1st

Trofeo Baracchi The Trofeo Baracchi was a major Italian cycling race that ran for 50 years. It was created by Mino Baracchi, in memory of his father Angelo who was a great cycle racing fan. Originally (from 1941) an amateur individual time trial, from 1944 it wa ...

(with

Herman Van Springel Herman Vanspringel (14 August 1943 – 25 August 2022), also spelled Herman Van Springel, was a Belgian road racing cyclist, from Grobbendonk, in the Flemish Campine or Kempen region. He achieved podium finishes in all three of the grand tour ...

) : 1st Stage 4b

Tour de Luxembourg The Tour de Luxembourg is an annual stage race in professional road bicycle racing held in Luxembourg. The Tour de Luxembourg is classified as a 2.Pro race, the highest rating below the World Tour, by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the ...

( ITT) : 5th Overall

À travers Lausanne À travers Lausanne was a professional road cycling race held annually in Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian- ...

: 5th

Grand Prix des Nations The Grand Prix des Nations was an individual time trial An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: ''contre la montre'' – literally "against the watch", in Italian: ''tappa ...

: 7th Overall

: 8th Overall

::1st Stages 5 & 14 ;1970 : National Road Championships ::1st MaillotPortugal

::1st

Road race : 1st Overall

::1st Stages 8a, 14a, 14b ( ITT) & 16b : 1st Stage 1a

Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme The Catalan Cycling Week (''Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme'' in Catalan) was a multi-stage road bicycle race held in Catalonia, Spain. Held annually from 1963 until 2005, it was run as a 2.HC race on the UCI Europe Tour in the second half of March. ...

: 3rd Overall

Escalada a Montjuïc The Escalada a Montjuïc (in Catalan, English: ''Scaling of Montjuïc'', Spanish: ''Escalada a Montjuïc'') was a one-day, two-stage road bicycle racing race held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain since 1965. It was held in the middle of October, as ...

: 3rd Overall Trophée d'Europe de la Montagne : 6th Overall

Vuelta a Mallorca The Challenge Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca ( en, Tour of Majorca, ca, Challenge Volta Ciclista a Mallorca) is a series of four (five until 2012) professional one day road bicycle races held on the Spanish island of Mallorca in late January or earl ...

;1971 : National Road Championships ::1st MaillotPortugal

::1st

Road race : 1st Overall

::1st Stages 1, 2a, 4b, 7b, 11a, 12, 13a, 16b ( ITT) : 1st Overall GP de Sintra ::1st Stages 1a & 1b : 3rd Overall

: 5th Overall

: 6th Baden-Baden ;1972 : National Road Championships ::1st MaillotPortugal

::1st

Road race : 1st Overall

::1st Stages 8, 10, 13, 17 & 24 ( ITT) : 1st Overall GP de Sintra ::1st Stage 2 : 5th Overall

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse ( en, Tour of Switzerland) is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France ...

::1st Stages 3 ( ITT) & 8b ( ITT) : 8th Overall

;1973 : National Road Championships ::1st MaillotPortugal

::1st

Road race :

::1st Prologue & Stages 3b, 5, 9a ( ITT), 10, 11b, 15 : 5th Overall

GP du Midi-Libre The Grand Prix du Midi Libre (referred to as just Midi Libre) was a multiple-stage road cycling course in the south of France. The race, named after the newspaper that organized it, was first organized in 1949 and was an important preparation cou ...

: 5th Subida a Arrate : 6th Overall

: 8th Overall

::1st Stage 16b ( ITT) ;1974 : 2nd Overall

::1st Stages 14 & 19b ( ITT) : 3rd Overall

: 6th Overall

: 7th Overall

;1975 : 3rd Overall Tour de l'Aude ;1976 : 3rd Overall

Tour of the Basque Country The Tour of the Basque Country (Officially: ''Itzulia Basque Country'', es, Vuelta al País Vasco, links=no, eu, Euskal Herriko Itzulia) is an annual road bicycle racing, road cycling stage race held in the Basque Country (autonomous community) ...

: 3rd Overall

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana The Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (; en, Tour of the Valencian Community or Tour of Valencia) is a road cycling stage race held in the Valencian Community (''Comunitat Valenciana''), Spain. Its position in the cycling calendar means it is often ...

: 3rd Overall

: 6th Overall

: 7th Overall

::1st Stage 6 ( ITT) ::Held after Stages 6-8 & 15-16 ;1977 : 1st Stage 18
Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
: Vuelta a los Valles Mineros ::1st Stages 3a & 3b : 4th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 4th Overall

: 7th Overall

;1978 : 3rd Overall

: 3rd Overall Tour de Corse ;1979 : 2nd Overall

::1st Stage 2 : 3rd Overall

::1st Stage 17 : 6th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ;1980 : 2nd Overall

: 3rd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 3rd Overall 4 Jours de Dunkerque : 3rd Overall

: 3rd Overall Tour de Corse : 3rd Bordeaux-Paris : 4th

GP Eddy Merckx Grand Prix Eddy Merckx was a cycle race around Brussels, where Eddy Merckx was born. It was held between 1980 and 2004, disappearing after the creation of the UCI ProTour in 2005. The race was initially an individual time trial, becoming a Team ti ...

: 5th Overall

;1981 : 2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 5th Overall

Tour de Romandie The Tour de Romandie is a stage race which is part of the UCI World Tour. It runs through the Romandie region, or French-speaking part of Switzerland. The competition began in 1947, to coincide with the 50-year anniversary of Swiss Cycling. I ...

;1984 : 1st Stage 3

Volta ao Algarve The Volta ao Algarve (Portuguese; en, Tour of the Algarve) is a road bicycle racing stage race held annually in the Algarve, Portugal. Since 2017, it has been organised as a 2.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour. The race became part of the new UCI P ...

Grand Tour results

References

External links

Complete Palmarés
* *
Joaquim Agostinho and Jean de Gribaldy

Videos

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agostinho, Joaquim 1943 births 1984 deaths People from Torres Vedras Portuguese male cyclists Portuguese Tour de France stage winners Portuguese Vuelta a España stage winners Sport deaths in Portugal Tour de Suisse stage winners Cyclists who died while racing Volta a Portugal winners Sportspeople from Lisbon District

Youth

Racing career

Doping

Death

Monuments & tributes

Career achievements

Major results

Grand Tour results

See also

References

External links