Many believe that the poor relations between Spain and France are just a myth, but Pedro Delgado recounts experiences he’s experienced in the neighboring country that are truly shameful. The 1988 Tour de France winner recalls that until 1983, with Ángel Arroyo ‘s second place in the French round, our cyclists always came to France with an inferiority complex.

“We always went to compete in France with a huge inferiority complex, so it was very difficult for us to see ourselves as winners, something that started to happen in 1983. We always went to the races in France, and all the Spanish cyclists said, ‘Let’s see how they’re going to hit us because here we’re only going to receive,'” comments the award-winning Spanish cyclist.

Pedro Delgado recalls the most unpleasant situation he experienced in France during his cycling career, a situation that arose when he was an amateur racer. The Segovian cyclist was treated worse than dogs, being denied food at the hotel where they were staying.

“In France, we weren’t treated well, and I always remember a race when I was an amateur in the Pau region in the south of France. First, when we arrived, they told us, ‘Africa starts from the Pyrenees down.’ At that moment, we thought, ‘What do these French people think, these snobs?'” says the cyclist from Segovia.

Pedro Delgado recalls that these xenophobic expressions were serious, but the worst came when they went to eat at the hotel where they were staying with three other French teams.

“We heard those expressions, but the worst came at an amateur race. There were four amateur teams in a hotel, three French and ours, which was Spanish. We were waiting for food, but we saw that they weren’t giving us any, but that the three French teams were being served and given food. We kept waiting, and they just told us they’d serve us, but in the end, we were amazed because they refused to give us food. We were thinking, ‘But we’re just kids and they don’t want to feed us.’ That memory was my first really unpleasant memory, with the feeling that Spanish cyclists were treated badly in France, and it really made your stomach churn,” says the 1988 Tour de France winner.