Julián Berrendero

Julián Berrendero Martín was a Spanish road racing cyclist. He is most famous for having won the third and fourth editions of the Vuelta a España in 1941 and 1942. He won the 1941 race after having spent 18 months in a Francoist concentration camp. In addition, he won a total of three mountains jerseys at the Vuelta and the Tour de France“Berrendero was a marked man, a public figure who had supported the Republican cause. As soon as he reached the Spanish border, Franco’s men arrested him and threw him into a concentration camp, where he remained for 18 months. He survived the camps, which were characterized by disease, malnourishment and frequent beatings, but to what physical and mental cost? He was only 27 and should have been at the height of his cycling career.”