La Volta a Catalunya remembers the figure of Muç Miquel in Perpinyà

March 23 rd 2022 - 12:01

(Perpinyà, 23-03-2022).- Taking advantage of the start of the 3rd stage of the race from Perpinyà, the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya has carried out this morning a tribute in memory of the figure of Muç Miquel, winner of the Volta in 1924 and 1925 and remembered as a martyr of the French resistance in the Second World War.

Rubèn Peris, president of the Volta Ciclista in Catalonia, took part in the event, along with the deputy mayor of Perpignan City Council Sébastien Menard, the municipal councillor for mobility of Perpignan City Council David Tranchecoste, the director of the Casa de Perpignan Alfons Quera, the organiser Claude Soubielle, and Stéphane Roger on behalf of the French Cycling Federation.

At 10 am, before the start of the stage, a tribute was held at the West Cemetery of Perpinyà, where Muç Miquel is buried, where a wreath was laid at his grave. Afterwards, a visit was made to Rue Mucio Miquel, the street named after the cyclist in Perpinyà.
Muç Miquel, born on 3 December 1902 in Barcelona, in the district of Les Corts, eventually moved to Perpinyà, where he lived and began his relationship with cycling that would lead him to achieve great results. In fact, Miquel became the first cyclist to win the Volta a Catalunya twice (1924 and 1925, the 6th and 7th editions, respectively), at the age of just 22. In 1927 he became Spanish champion on the road.

As a member of the PSUC and the Communist Party, Miquel ended up taking an active part in the Franco-tireurs et Partisans Français group of the French Resistance. He was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp (Germany) on 22 May 1944. Muç Miquel finally died in May 1945 in Lübhteen hospital in Germany. The Neuengamme concentration camp was liberated in April, but Miquel died of poisoning in the hospital along with about twenty other prisoners, who were buried in the Western Cemetery, remembered as martyrs of the French Resistance.

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