From The Vault #5: The Angel in the Forest
Charly Gaul, Bahamontes no. 14, and the quiet gravity of a vanished champion
On my desk lies the fourteenth issue of Bahamontes, the Belgian cycling magazine that has long understood what few publications dare to attempt: that the truth of the sport hides in stories rather than summaries, in digressions rather than data. This particular issue appeared in the summer of 2016. As ever, it gathers the most striking tales the editors could unearth — from the golden past and the shifting present, from loyal domestiques to flawed champions, from heroic triumphs to humiliating defeats, from the grandest classics to the smallest kermiskoersen.
The magazine draws you in slowly, like a descent into a cool cellar. And yet this time I didn’t have to wait long. As soon as I opened it, my eye caught a piece by Jeroen Denaeghel: “De engel en zijn demonen — Charly Gaul, klimmer-kluizenaar.”
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