José Joaquin Rojas: Warrior who rode around with deceased brother, metal pin in leg and Valverde friendship

December is now lurking around the corner, which means we have just over a month left to look back on the cycling year 2023. IDLProCycling.com traditionally does this by putting the riders who will not return to the professional peloton in 2024 in the spotlight one more time, this time it's the turn of José Joaquin Rojas from Movistar.

Rojas was born in June 1985 in Cieza, a place known for its peach trees. Cieza is located about forty kilometers northwest of Murcia, the capital of the Spanish province of the same name. In his youth, it became apparent that he was destined for cycling, especially due to his brother Mariano, who was twelve years older. While young José was making his first meters on the steel steed, Mariano made a name for himself as a great talent in the Indurain era.

Mariano turned professional at the tender age of twenty in 1994 with the major ONCE team, where he also made his debut in the Tour de France in 1995 as the youngest participant in that edition. The Spanish team clearly saw potential in the young Rojas, who alongside the likes of Laurent Jalabert, Erik Breukink, Johan Bruyneel, Melchor Mauri, and Alex Zülle, started strong in the Tour. However, a clavicle fracture following a fall in the descent of the Tourmalet ultimately led to his withdrawal, while at the time he seemed on track to secure the white jersey in Paris.

Death of brother Mariano inspired Rojas throughout his career

In 1996, Mariano resumed his path towards the Tour, but a severe traffic accident on June 21st led to a tragedy in the Rojas family. The all-rounder from ONCE succumbed to his injuries two days later, leaving behind, among others, the eleven-year-old José as his younger brother. "I was very young at the time, but I was aware of who my brother was and what he stood for. I want to continue on the path he had set because his journey was abruptly stopped. That is an extra motivation for me," José later recorded.

Six years after the death of his brother, José first really made his mark at the Spanish championship, coincidentally. He won the junior race, and a year later in the same category, he finished fourth in the World Championships in Canada, won by the Dutchman Kai Reus. These performances attracted the interest of Manolo Saiz's Liberty Seguros, which hired Rojas as a young talent from August 2005.

He would never regret this decision, as Rojas, with his combination of good climber's legs and fast sprinter's thighs, proved to be a warrior fit for many battles. A combination that many teams today, in the hunt for WorldTour points, would pay a lot of money for. Rojas himself also loved that style of racing, especially because of his role model Laurent Jalabert. "I was a fan of him and loved his way of racing. Also, he was always the roommate of my deceased brother Mariano," said Rojas, who, however, did not want to compare himself to the successful Frenchman. "He won so many races, so that comparison cannot be made."

Due to his wide range of qualities, his teams - Rojas moved to Caisse d'Epargne, the later Movistar, in 2007 - could deploy the Spaniard in many races. For instance, he finished a respectable ninth in Gent-Wevelgem in 2007 and was already prominently present in the Flemish races in De Panne a year earlier, while the veteran, in his first Grand Tour - the Giro in 2007 - immediately rode several top ten finishes. This turned out to be the precursor to a recurring theme in the Murcian's career: places of honor.

Rojas as a versatile competitor in Tour de France and numerous other races

In 2008, he eagerly continued on this path, achieving a third place in the Tour Down Under, a seventh place in Gent-Wevelgem, and fifth places in both Plouay and Hamburg, important ProTour races. A season later, he made his first appearance in the Tour de France, where Rojas immediately managed to finish in the top ten six times. He didn't win much in these first seasons: a stage in the Tour of Murcia (2007), the Trofeo Pollenca (2008), and a stage in the Tour de l'Ain (2009) were his only victories in the period from 2005 to 2010.

Anyone who included Rojas in their Tour de France pool team in those years invariably had a valuable asset. Take 2010, for example, the year when the Spaniard finished in the top ten in 12 of the 21 stages. He eagerly repeated this feat a year later, with six top-five finishes and a second place in the points classification. But Rojas also made his presence felt in tough races like the Tour of Catalonia: in seven stages there, he also finished in the top five six times, including a victory. Eventually, that year, the Spaniard would finish as number thirteen in the global ranking and as Spanish champion.

From 2011, Rojas' team operated as Movistar, where, at the beginning of 2012, Alejandro Valverde returned from a suspension. The regional colleague led to a turning point in the career of the fast rider, who increasingly focused on providing support for Valverde. Rojas still pursued individual success in certain races, but after several crashes, he gradually moved away from mass sprinting.

This shift was logical, as his climbing abilities improved. In 2014, he managed to finish fourth in the general classification of Paris-Nice, just a few weeks after a wrist fracture in the Tour Down Under. He left sprinting for 'heavier' stages in races like Switzerland, Catalonia, and the Basque Country. In that year's Tour, he was disqualified in the eighteenth stage for repeatedly drafting behind a car.

Rojas demonstrates the toughness of cyclists with photos of legs after crashes and tough races

After the end of 2015, Rojas was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, but following a successful heart surgery, he was able to cycle again normally in 2016. Winning another Spanish title, his last victory as a professional to this day, he headed to the Vuelta with high hopes. There, he was one of the key players in Nairo Quintana's overall victory, though Rojas did not celebrate in Madrid. On the penultimate day, he crashed into a guardrail, suffering a horrific injury: an open fracture of the shin and calf bones. The images he shared on social media of this injury are not for the faint-hearted.

In 2017, despite having a massive metal pin in his leg, Rojas was back 'normally', achieving a fifth place in the Amstel Gold Race and a 22nd place in the same year's Vuelta. After the heart problems and the severe crash, sprinting became a thing of the past for Rojas, who increasingly focused on the role of road captain. He preferred to participate in grand tours, of which he started riding two per year. In 2019, he again made international headlines by showing his legs on social media after three weeks in the Giro.

After his friend Valverde, who in 2021, following a serious fall in the Vuelta, was literally and figuratively supported by Rojas, retired in 2022 after a long, successful career, Rojas and his generation peer Imanol Erviti remained as the culture keepers of Eusebio Unzué's Spanish armada. Erviti announced early on that he would end his career after 2023, but Rojas took a little longer to decide. In mid-October, he finally announced that it was definitively over, to which his lifelong friend Valverde responded: "Welcome to the other side, friend."

However, this 'other side' is relative: while Valverde still chases victories in the professional gravel circuit, Rojas quickly announced that he would be stepping into the team management car of Movistar. His active career ends without grand tour victories, which is almost miraculous: the tough warrior from Murcia retires as the active rider who finished in the top ten most often in a grand tour (54 times) and the Tour de France (34 times) without winning a single stage.