He gets off the bus with a smile from ear to ear, bursting with pride at parading in the polka dot jersey, the one that says he is the leader of the mountains of the Vuelta. “More points today, eh!” the fans crowded around the Euskaltel bus demand. Luis Ángel Maté (Madrid; 40 years old) keeps his grimace of joy, although he shrugs his shoulders: “We will try, we will try.” More calmly, after the signature control prior to the fourth stage, he says: “The objective was to wear this jersey one day and I have already achieved it. Now I would love to keep it, but it is complicated.” It was not possible. But that of fighting for the leadership in the mountains, in any case, is the battle that he has always fought, also the last because when he gets to Madrid he will get off the bike for good. At least to compete because, in love as he is with two wheels, he says that he will go to Marbella, where he grew up and lives, pedaling.
For Maté, cycling comes from birth, as his father was a bike lover, from the eras of Perico Delgado and Indurain. And the boy soon stood out, having to cover at least 180 kilometres every weekend to compete. “In Marbella there is no tradition and the fact that the boy wanted to be a cyclist meant a tremendous effort for the family, as well as annoying my brothers Raúl and Bea on the weekends.” But everyone was happy in the Ford Fiesta, happy to get to know Andalusia. Over time, however, his cycling evolved and so did his teams, until he joined Ávila Rojas after his junior years. At that time, he was still studying Physical Education (INEF). “But I had to stop when I became a professional,” he laments. Although not so much because he has been taking it up again for two years and hopes to finish it next year, an example given to him by his mother because he never went to school and at 40 years old he started studying until he graduated in psychology. “I intend to give the same example to my children, David and Rubén,” he explains.
In 2008 he signed for Cajasur, where he did not race much, and then for Serramenti, where in his first Tour of Andalusia he was the most combative cyclist who won the jersey from the mountains. The story of his life, the same one he tried to tell during the decade he raced with Cofidis (one year in the World Tour) and the one he now distills in Euskaltel. “It is a team that has known how to interpret my way of seeing cycling and that has allowed me to extend my career,” he emphasizes. Although it is already over. “Yes…”, he says without much conviction; “yes, yes it is over, but I have doubts because I have been doing the same thing all my life and now I will face the unknown. But when you see that you are racing with the children of the people you have raced with… You see that it is the end.” Until then, he will repeat his advice to young people: “Enjoy this, it goes by very quickly, be aware of where you are.”
He regrets that cycling has changed a lot, especially with the loss of the break, because everything is immediate. But he is happy with having fulfilled his father’s dream and his own, and also with having taken a friend like Michele Scarponi from the peloton. Although he does not know what he will do in the future. “I am not sure. I have many ideas and I will continue to be linked to the bike, but I don’t know…” The time will come. He still has some mountains to climb.
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