We met in a bar in Ordizia next to Iñaki Azanza, at the junction that connects Avenida de los Gudaris with the Paseo de los Fueros, very close to the end of the Ordizia Test since 1961. Created a century ago, next year is the 100th edition, which was crushed by the war in 1936 and 1937. The year 2023 will launch a book that will pick up the career path. "Through cycling you can tell the story of a village, in which I have tried," he says. We have spoken with the excuse of the book, but the colloquium has given more laps than cyclists in the port of Alpe D’Huez. Because it has so many things to tell Azanza!

Being from here, she has a special "affection" to the Ordizia Test. To that of Ordizia, and to many other corridors that are carried out, or were, in the surroundings. We regret that in recent years we have not been taking sufficient care of the nearby races: “I’m critical of some things that are happening. For example, they will spend money to bring the Tour de France, which I think is wonderful, but looking at the environment and... The Spring Classic, for example, has let death and has a history behind it.” In addition to the career of Amorebieta-Etxano, we can mention others such as the Euskal Bizikleta, the Grand Prix de Laudio, the Ascension of Urkiola or the Basque Tour of Women, missing due to lack of economic support or lack of organizational relief.

Knife in base

Just as the punctures in the calendar have expanded, the young cyclist quarry is breaking, according to Azanza: “The other day I was watching the Juvenile Classic of Gipuzkoa and there would be not many Basque cyclists who qualified in the first 30-40.” He says that there are three or four young amateurs who are ordained in the Basque Championship, but when they go out to compete or to the Spanish Cup, they hardly stand out about the others. "Sometimes I wonder why is this happening? ".

Although he has no fat theory, he tells us that it can be related to our life. “In Euskal Herria we have a high per capita income, a lifestyle in which leisure has a considerable weight, which can collide with the sacrifice required by endurance sports. A cyclist, or runner, has to spend a lot of time on training and a workout is good when you have recovery time. Rest is fundamental and I do not know if young people are willing to do so. I've seen it all around me. Good young athletes who cannot resist temptation when their friends spend the night.”

It is also increasingly expensive to form a group. Azanza tells us about the experience of a friend who knows the panorama of the 1980s well: “He says that if at that time he organized a dinner and there was an entrepreneur who was fond of cycling, if he raised the issue of funding with the second whiskey, it was very possible that at two or three days he would be given 100,000 pesetas, because he bought clothes.” He tells us about the Navarro group Reynolds, “thanks to the money of four entrepreneurs”, a project created in 1980. Cycling also did not experience a good time in the Spanish state, and Reynolds was one of the driving forces behind the recovery. Today, much more money is needed, even to form a continental group.

Azanza shows the future of mud even blacker than on the road: “The Ciclocross is very low. It's a discipline I have in my appreciation, in the 1960s, a brother competed and I've seen careers since I was a kid. Gorka Izagirre has saved the cyclocross in our country, which has given him prestige. There is nothing else, starting with the base. The organizers have a great merit, that of Christ! Instead, they are the actors who receive less recognition. Almost everything is done here on a voluntary basis and it is difficult to attract young people. What happens when the four old people move passion?” There is another complicating factor, according to Azanza. With exceptions, some professional groups, such as Movistar or Euskaltel Euskadi a few years ago, do not allow their cyclists to make the cyclocross. “If the professional teams block, it will be difficult to solve.”

Seen, suffering covered

On how cycling lives in Euskal Herria, the ordiziarra tends to make an interesting nuance between the figures of “forofo” and “follower”. This is the one who works, who is close to helping. “There are fewer of them.” It tells us that the hobby here is one of the best in the world, but that they have a greater involvement in Italy or in Flanders, that they experience careers differently.

I've told her that a few years ago I went with my parents to see the San Sebastian Classic as well as Miraculous, and that my brother, a Los Angeles fan, was beginning to tell the cyclist Pedro Delgado about the edge of the road, and how my father gave him coconut, because in a race you never have to insult the cyclists, whether or not. “Well done,” Azanza tells us. We asked him whether he thinks that cycling has caught the line of football, as some people have criticised, because fans are increasingly showing less respect for cyclists. “I have the impression that there has been above all something related to the Tour de France,” he says. “You see ugly things, but rarely. Where there are so many people, half a meter away from athletes -- it's significant that almost nothing happens. Following the anecdote that you told me, I have a friend who hated a cyclist, always talking badly about him, and when at one stage of the Tour he saw his car nephew go ahead, how he encouraged him! ". Every amateur has felt the same thing when they see that a cyclist, whether it's ocular or not, suffers, but also when he goes on the wood, shouts of mood, emotion coming out of the interior of oneself.

Suffering, sacrifice, effort. These are characteristics inherent to cycling. It has given us the excuse to start talking about the development of this sport in these years. The history of the Ordizia Test shows that not only the preparation, the material, the feeding or the ways of competing have changed dramatically, but also the way of understanding cycling. Azanza tells us one of the curiosities he collects in his book: In the 1930s, many cyclists signed as "XX" in the exit registration, for not putting real names, because in some areas it seems that it was not well seen to be a cyclist.

In 1922 and in the following two or three years, like so many others at the time, Ordizia’s career was “small”, it was called local and nearby people, until in the middle of the decade a few close professional runners also began to participate. The recovery would come a little later, II. During the Republic there were races in Eibar and other localities. Why that boom in the Republic? “I think it can be because sport, like culture, grew a social level, to say the least. It was given prestige and access to many sports,” explains the photographer.

Reporter sense

Ordiziarra speaks with intensity. He knows a lot of racing, cyclists, trainers and organizers. Speaking of each other, we have almost forgotten to ask about the activity of the photographer. In 1978 he first visited the Tour de France. From Ordizia to the Alps, there were only 200 kilometres of motorway at that time. “The same journey was an adventure.” In the 1970s, Azanza competed in various races from childhood to amateur. He trains with José Nazábal and remembers the excitement he felt that day of 1978 when he witnessed Zaldibian at the port of Alpe D’Huez. “Then I realized the grandeur of the Tour.” And then he took one of his favorite photos (below): Michel Pollentier, a mountain jersey.

A few days after the interview the Ordiziarra was going to go to the Giro d'Italia: “As a photographer, it is done in an unbeatable time, although some stages may be interrupted by time.” He's been in Senegal running, in Costa Rica... In any case, when he talks about a monument like Paris-Roubaix, he shows himself with a special appreciation for the great classics. “Last year, held in October, it was exciting. All this mud was very photogenic. People tell you. 'Wasn't this going to be so much? '. It's been different, but it's also nice. Whatever the condition, as a photographer it is essential to adapt to the situation, to be a reporter and to capture what at every moment can”.

He has collaborated in various media, besides the margin of the road, photographing the bike for about fifteen years, including the Emakumeen Bira. We asked him how he sees female cycling. “The sports level is increasing, the races are more entertaining. On the other hand, it seems to me that perhaps women’s sport in general is being exaggerated, with a lot of public money. Investing is fine, of course, but it can be dangerous, because aid can disappear overnight and then ... Funding is needed, but other things need to be looked after from the bottom.” He tells us that proof of this are some male careers, lost by public sources of income when the flow was reduced, as they deserved by not considering other factors.

Azanza learned to reveal his black and white photographs in his home bathroom at the age of 12. With thousands of images saved, it's impossible to calculate them, especially since it started in digital. “In some stages I have come to take 2,000 photographs, although then a lot is erased.” He says that a few years ago photography was better valued. “People now want improvisation, more than quality. The same is true of reading. I have passed the draft of the book that I have in my hands to a friend of editorial Sua to give his opinion. What and did you not tell me that you have too much reading? Too much? But it's 101 years!"

There is something else that has worsened over the years, in his words: “If the race starts at 10:00, up to five minutes before the riders do not get off the bus. I don't like that remoteness. I can understand it, but ... Some are always ready for the photos! It’s a matter of nature.” In this respect, you have told us that it is not fair that a hot cyclist who does not want to be photographed or signed to fans at the end of the race is killed because a bad day may have passed and failed. “They are professionals and they have to take care of those things, but you have to know how to choose the moment.” Iñaki Azanza witnesses her photographs. We have collected a few images on these pages, which someone will tell us we have written too much, but in the Internet version of the report you will find a dozen more.

----------------------------------------------------------

CYCLAMANTE

Azanza recalls that, at the age of five, Brother José Luis climbed his bike and went to the Ibars crossing in Ordizia to see the Eibar Bike. He has abstract memories of what he lived that day, but inside he has nailed, a reflection of a passion that has not disappeared over the years: colors, sounds, cries of amateurs, emotions... He not only knew cycling as a spectator, but also from the inside of the platoon, participating in various races between 1973-80. After leaving the competition, he remained attached to the bicycle, following the photographic camera leading to mountain excursions. Today he combines his photographic work with his needs for growing plants and flowers in Zaldibia.

Around 2004, her niece visited her home and when she saw that her uncle had a bunch of slides hidden in the closet, she shortened it: "People have to see all this." "And what do you want me to get out on the balcony? please Azanza. No, the niece thought about the web. Soon after the virtual photo album was created Zikliamatore.com.