Vitoria-Gasteiz
Being a cyclist, the Podcast of the chain being dedicated to the two wheels, receives this week one of the most recognizable voices of Spanish cycling: Carlos de Andrés (Barcelona, 1967), journalist, director of the sports channel of RTVE, Teledeporte, from 2008 to 2020 and narrator of the great deeds about the asphalt for more than three decades.
The talk starts with the rigor question: What was your biggest fall, Carlos? “Luckily, few,” he replies with a smile. “The oldest, a scapula fracture. And, as a cyclist, I always say it wasn’t my fault.” Although his professional career has been linked to communication, from Andrés he recognizes “athlete of a lifetime”, with a past jumping from sport, football, tennis, athletics, swimming, until cycling, pushed by friends and the work environment itself, crossed his way. “The bike hooks. It gives me peace of mind, relax.
Cycling, between suffering and show
Andrés has narrated the greatest triumphs and defeats of Spanish cycling, and recognizes that the hardness of this sport is not for everyone. “Professional sport is very hard. Although cycling is team, it is very individual. The phrase” wanting to be power “does not convince him:” In sport, and more in cycling, that is not true … not everyone is worth it “
On the eternal debate of whether it is now suffered more or less than before, the journalist believes that “suffering, always suffers” although he recognizes that “everything is much more measured, more calculated”, and that, sometimes, subtracts spontaneity to the show.
Pogačar, the cyclist who changes everything
impossible not to talk about the phenomenon Tadej Pogačar. Andrés points to economic inequality as one of the great challenges of current cycling. “The problem is not just Pogačar, it is that teams like the UAE have budgets that double or triple others … They win all the races of the week. A money has appeared that everyone seeks … if there was a budget limitation, the show would be different.”
More information
Television, tour and audience that rules
As director for years of teleport, from Andrés he knows well the ins and outs of broadcast. “In Spain there are two cycling: that of the tour and the return, that drag millionaire audiences, and the rest, which is very niche. People want to see the great deeds, mythical names and historical ports. The event continues to weigh more than the protagonist.”
On his own career, he is grateful: “What I liked has been commenting most has been
Demand, friendship and a very special group
Juan Carlos García, a fellow professional fatigue in the TVE team on the motorcycle, recalls an anecdote in the 2024 Vuelta after a victory of Pablo Castrillo: “I saw a very close, very demanding Carlos with work. That demand is what makes everything go well, although sometimes it is not seen from the outside.” From Andrés he recognizes it: “I am very demanding and critical with myself. If I am here it is because I want to do it very well. when I cannot, it will be time to give way to others.”
Javier Guillén, organizer of the Vuelta and other cycling races, reminds him of his taste for colorful shirts and an anecdote in Lagos de Covadonga. Also the birth of her granddaughter, which brings out Carlos’s most human side: “I have always liked those shirts, and we arrived first because we only did 40 kilometers … Being grandfather is overcoming all my expectations, we live for Martina.”
We visited Pablo Lopez Barajas, grupeta partner and outings on the bicycle, and the Catalan journalist does not hide the good atmosphere that reigns in that closest circle. “We have a little group of friends, Jose, Paco, Lluis, Patxi, Juan Carlos, who gathered to bike three or four days a year. We laughed a lot, even in the WhatsApp group,” he confesses between laughs.
Social networks: “At my age, I don’t care what they say”
On the pressure that social networks can exert in the communicators, from Andrés he is quiet: “I suppose that when I started there were the networks, I would have had a bad time, but now it catches me at a time when you know how you are doing it … I have 60 tacos and it does quite the same, if I do not do it well, my bosses will already take me away.” And he adds with his usual broadcast: “Social networks are corrosive … if you don’t have a haater, you’re nobody.” The journalist also recognizes that Twitter uses mainly during the big laps.
Reducing runners in large laps is not the solution
The voice of cycling in the SER chain, Íñigo Markínez reminds him of an anecdote about donkey tests in the Basque Country, and more seriously, he intersects him about the possibility of reducing the number of runners per team in the big laps.
From Andrés, he states that Markínez is who has laughed with, and affirms that “I do not think that a corridor would help both to match the races and the control of the budgets. It cannot be that a team has 15 to 18 million euros and is unbeatable. The best thing for cycling would be more equal, to return to what had been.”
Anecdotes, friendships and the importance of professional distance
The current person in charge of Fisios del Lidl Trek, Joaquín González, “Chopi”, in its beginnings in the Class team, gracefully remembers the football matches in which journalists, auxiliaries, technicians were mixed … “He is a good friend, another great uncle …”, although he confesses that “over the years I have learned that it is good to generate a certain distance to be more objective as a journalist.”
On his relationship with Perico, he does not doubt: “He is aware that he has been fortunate in life, has been a great athlete and has the ability to like people well. It is easy to live with him. I have always seen him happy, he knows how to break the tension, and he understands that I have more pressure. More than colleagues, we are friends and I am very happy.”
More information
Cycling is entertainment
From Andrés he acknowledges that sometimes, the popularity of the Segovian in a stage output is overwhelming and that they ask for photos incessantly, “Perico has been coming out on TV … was so well known or more than a Real Madrid footballer.” And he reflects, “to popularity you have to give its fair value, the important one is not Carlos de Andrés, but the seat he occupies.” And it is clear: “I have to be aware of who is listening to me, our work is to make transmissions, entertain. If we do not have fun, it is impossible for people to do it. I have learned to comment for the general audience, not only for the very understood.”
“The first thing I will do when I retire will be to see the tour at the road”
Despite the years in the cabin and motorcycle, he confesses that he is still passionate about cycling. “The day I leave it, the first thing I will do will be to see a few stages of the tour of the road.
I would go on tandem “with my daughter Carlota, who likes to go by bike.” And I would not do it with anyone, “I am very little spiteful, I have the virtue of forgetting. There is no one who would not go in tandem. If they continue to run things that have happened 20 years ago you have a problem.”
The great Aragonese cyclist Fernando Escartín puts on the table for the memory of the 2016 tour lock in Mont Ventoux and the race at the foot of Chris Froome. “That is one of the great moments without a doubt … for being giving the fifth or the sixth classified, the French TV ate the fall and the first image they show us is a cyclist running without a bike … It was one of the most shocking moments as a commentator.”
And he acknowledges that “Valverde’s victory was very exciting in the world Cup, it is one of the few times I was excited, he deserved it … In that Sprint we didn’t see the goal arrive.”
More information
He says goodbye to recognizing a bird “a stage that ended in burdening light, that I did not feed enough, and at the end, I almost fainted.”
Being a cyclist is the Podcast of the SER chain on the world of bike, with Nerea Sáenz de Lafuente.
Related news :