Mariano Cañardo

Mariano Cañardo

Personal information
Full name	Mariano Cañardo Lacasta
Nickname	The Catalan of Olite
Born	(1906-02-05)5 February 1906 Olite, Spain
Died	20 May 1987(1987-05-20) (aged 81) Barcelona, Spain
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional teams
1927	FC Barcelona
1928	Elvish-Wolber
1929	FC Barcelona
1930	Styl
1931-1933	individual
1934-1935	Orbea
1936	Colin-Wolber
1937	France Sport-Dunlop
1938-1940	individual
1941-1942	FC Barcelona
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 1 individual stage (1937) Vuelta a España 3 individual stages (1935, 1936) Stage races Volta a Catalunya (1928, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1935, 1936, 1939) Tour of the Basque Country (1930) Tour du Maroc (1937, 1938) One-day races and Classics National Road Race Championships (1930, 1931, 1933, 1936)

Mariano Cañardo Lacasta (5 February 1906 – 21 June 1987) was a Spanish professional road racing cyclist. He won a record seven editions of the Volta a Catalunya in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as four Spanish national championship titles and one Tour de France stage win. Born in Olite, Navarra, his nickname was the Catalan of Olite.^[1]

Cañardo grew up in Navarra, but, orphaned since 1919, he moved with his sister to Barcelona, Catalonia, where he discovered the bike. He was professional from 1926 until 1943, excelling mainly in the early Spanish stage races. An excellent climber and time triallist, Cañardo was next to invincible in the Volta a Catalunya, which he won seven times in addition to two second and two third places. In 1928 he won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and in 1930 he became the first Spaniard to win the Tour of the Basque Country.

In 1935 he finished second overall to Belgian Gustaaf Deloor and won stage 5 in the first Vuelta a España. He won two stages at the 1936 Vuelta a España and one stage in the 1937 Tour de France.^[1] He won the first two runnings of the Tour of Morocco in 1937 and 1938. His career was hampered by the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939 when all racing in Spain was suspended, and World War II, which disrupted racing in the rest of Europe. He ended his career in 1943.

After retiring, he started a successful career as a sports director and race organizer. He was sports director of several cycling teams, among which the Spanish national cycling team, which entered the Tour de France from 1951 to 1953. Later he became race director of various Catalan races, including the Setmana Catalana and the Circuit Català. He was a member of the board of directors of the Spanish Cycling Federation and was president of the Catalan Cycling Federation from 1969 to 1974. He received the Medalla Forjadors for his merit in the sports history of Catalonia in 1987.^[2]

Grand Tour	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938
Vuelta a España	No race	2	10	No race
Giro d'Italia	Did not contest during career
Tour de France	9	—	6	30	16

• Mariano Cañardo Lacasta at Cycling Archives (archived)
• Mariano Canardo – official Tour de France results (archive)