People Who Died (10 Viewers)

although he passed away last month i didn't hear about it at the time ...

JAVIER OTXOA ((often spelled as Ochoa) 30 August 1974 - 25 August 2018)
Basque Cyclist, who lived most of his life near Malaga.

after turning pro in 1997 with Kelme Javier initially had a quiet career, riding
the 98 Giro and '99 Tour (86th overall).
in 2000 his twin brother Ricardo joined him at Kelme and Javier took his
first pro win in memorable circumstances....
on the first mountain stage of the 2000 Tour de France after being in
the lead all day he came on to the final climb to Hautacam alone still
9 minutes ahead of the peloton. in spilling rain he hung on to take the
stage win from by less than a minute from Lance Armstrong who had
blown away his climbing rivals. Javier also took the mountains jersey
which he held for several days until he passed it on to team mate Botero
the eventual winner of that jersey.
Javier's good form continued and he finished 13th in the 2000 TDF.
he was then offered a £300,000 contract for 2001 to change teams
but opted to stay with his twin Ricardo at Kelme.

the following February the Otxoa's were training near Malaga when they
were hit by a car - Ricardo was killed instantly and Javier was in a coma
for 65 days.
his parents were advised to turn off his life support and i remember
seeing their father being interviewed at the time in tears.

Javier had suffered a collapsed lung and serious back injuries as
well as major brain damage. he had to learn to walk, read, cycle etc. again.

but he was soon targeting the Paralympics and in 2004 he won two
medals in Athens at CP3 category -
Gold in Road Time Trial (CP3) and Silver in Pursuit on track
and medalled twice again in Beijing in 2008 - Gold in Road Race and
Silver again in Pursuit.

until his death i heard no more about Javier but he had been suffering
badly for some time with a brain tumour.

after the Ricardo was killed there was a protest in Madrid attended by
10,000 people including major cycling figures such as Indurain
to highlight a high death rate for cyclists in road accidents in Spain
at the time - a cyclist was being killed every three days.

despite being on a 200 meter straight section of road the driver
(who was the head of sport at the University of Malaga) claimed
he never saw Ricardo and Javier.
in court he was given a 1.800 Euro fine and a one year driving ban.
 
Last edited:
although he passed away last month i didn't hear about it at the time ...

JAVIER OTXOA ((often spelled as Ochoa) 30 August 1974 - 25 August 2018)
Basque Cyclist, who lived most of his life near Malaga.

after turning pro in 1997 with Kelme Javier initially had a quiet career, riding
the 98 Giro and '99 Tour (86th overall).
in 2000 his twin brother Ricardo joined him at Kelme and Javier took his
first pro win in memorable circumstances....
on the first mountain stage of the 2000 Tour de France after being in
the lead all day he came on to the final climb to Hautacam alone still
9 minutes ahead of the peloton. in spilling rain he hung on to take the
stage win from by less than a minute from Lance Armstrong who had
blown away his climbing rivals. Javier also took the mountains jersey
which he held for several days until he passed it on to team mate Botero
the eventual winner of that jersey.
Javier's good form continued and he finished 13th in the 2000 TDF.
he was then offered a £300,000 contract for 2001 to change teams
but opted to stay with his twin Ricardo at Kelme.

the following February the Otxoa's were training near Malaga when they
were hit by a car - Ricardo was killed instantly and Javier was in a coma
for 65 days.
his parents were advised to turn off his life support and i remember
seeing their father being interviewed at the time in tears.

Javier had suffered a collapsed lung and serious back injuries as
well as major brain damage. he had to learn to walk, read, cycle etc. again.

but he was soon targeting the Paralympics and in 2004 he won two
medals in Athens at CP3 category -
Gold in Road Time Trial (CP3) and Silver in Pursuit on track
and medalled twice again in Beijing in 2008 - Gold in Road Race and
Silver again in Pursuit.

until his death i heard no more about Javier but he had been suffering
badly for some time with a brain tumour.

after the Ricardo was killed there was a protest in Madrid attended by
10,000 people including major cycling figures such as Indurain
to highlight a high death rate for cyclists in road accidents in Spain
at the time - a cyclist was being killed every three days.

despite being on a 200 meter straight section of road the driver
(who was the head of sport at the University of Malaga) claimed
he never saw Ricardo and Javier.
in court he was given a 1.800 Euro fine and a one year driving ban.
nice one. I saw this on the cycling sites when it happened, and found it very sad. I remember the Otxoas well from their time at Kelme. I remember that win to Hautacam well, and the story shortly after about the accident that claimed his brother's life.

It's a lot of tragedy for one family to take.

RIP
 
yeah, very exciting stage Javier won - already hated Lance.
LA destroyed everyone else that day. i had thought '99 win was
a bit lucky without Ullrich and that stage was a big sign of years
of horror ahead.
Ullrich and Pantani lost a lot of time in particular.

found a copy of Cycling Weekly from the time (2001) which contained a lot
the info in the last two paragraphs (which was helpful for fact checking).
Ricardo rode for ONCE prior to 2000 which i didn't remember.

apparently Javier was going deaf and blind as he was dying.

huge respect to Javier for overcoming his injuries and making
the very best of his situation.
like everyone else who remembers him I feel very heartbroken
for the Otxoa family.
as you said Scutter the word 'tragedy' was never more appropriate.
 
KEVIN BEATTIE (1953 - 16 September 2018)
Footballer w/ Ipswich and England.
played for Ipswich mostly as a central defender from 1972-81
under Bobby Robson.
the first winner of the Young Player Of The award in 1974
he was an FA Cup winner in '78 (1-0 against Arsenal)
he last played for Ipswich in April '81 when a possibility of
a treble was falling apart as they lost most of their last ten
matches while in a duel with Aston Villa and a cup semi to Man City.
he then missed the clubs 1981 UEFA Cup final win.

Beattie is regarded as one of the best, (if not the best) players from Ipswich's golden era.
he was very gifted psychically and scored a lot of goals for a defender
often with headers.

but Kevin had many injuries and finally knee problems ended his career
- although he did attempt to keep playing at lower levels.
he also was candid about his drinking and poverty after football
in his autobiography - 'The Greatest Footballer England Never Had'.
he won 9 caps (1 goal) between 1975-77 - but it should been many more.

he continued to live in Ipswich until his sudden death on Sunday ( Heartattack ).
he had as usual worked as a broadcaster covering Ipswich Town
on local radio the previous day.

trivia :
while on the set of the football movie Escape To Victory he beat Sly Stallone
at arm wrestling w/ his right and left arms.
Kevin was a body double for Michael Caine in the football scenes.
totally daft film.
 
Wasn't there a whiff of scandal involving Gorta funds resting in Bunny's account? Or was that someone else?
 
that's it.
i first heard of this rumor when my father mentioned it to me 25 years
back saying charities weren't always to be trusted.

also a during the summer i saw that the estate of Don Cockburn was
valued at 1.7 million ( in Sunday Business Post - i think).
 

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