I haven't kept up with this thread so if I'm repeating, apologies.
To add to what Maasland already says, the googled info also states that: Mujica was born 18 Sept 1929 in Urretxu (Spain) and had French citizenship; he is the only Basque to be on the Paris-Roubaix podium ( with Andre MAHE Serse COPPI), in 1949. That same year he had his greatest victory: Bordeaux-Paris. Also that year he came in 3rd in Paris-Brussels, and won th e Challenge Sedis which distinguished the best French rider.
Seeing the reference to Mahe and Coppi I was curious to see who actually
came first. Well, surprise. They are both listed as winners on the official
Paris Roubaix site:
http://www.letour.fr/
Past winners are listed here:
http://www.letour.fr/
How two winners came to be is explained here:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/
Angel Garcia Verona, IT
On 4/29/06, The Maaslands <TheMaaslands@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Aldo asked about the "French" cyclist Moujica and how he died and
> perhaps some updates. Given that he was not born French, I deduced that
> his name wasperhaps not originally Moujica but rather teh more common
> Basque name Mujica or Mujika. Doing a google search in Spanish I came up
> with the following in Spanish:
>
> "En Montelimar, la localidad donde acabó ayer la etapa, falleció en
> 1950 un ciclista de Urretxu, Jesús Mujica, en cuyo honor hay una cruz
> y una lápida a la entrada del pueblo, en el lugar exacto donde
> sufrió un fatal accidente de tráfico junto a otro ciclista, Raúl
> Rey.
>
> Su historia ha pasado desapercibida casi siempre. Aunque nació en
> Urretxu el 18 de septiembre de 1929, tenía la nacionalidad francesa y
> en los libros figura como Jesus-Jacques Moujica. Y no hay motivos para
> ignorarle, ya que se trata del único vasco que ha pisado el podio de
> la París Roubaix: fue tercero en 1949, en una accidentada edición
> con dos ganadores ex aequo, André Mahé y Serse Coppi. Ese mismo
> año logró su gran victoria, la Burdeos-París, de 586 kilómetros,
> que recorrió en 17h01:49, a una media de 34,409 km/h. También fue
> tercero en la París-Bruselas. Ese año ganó la Challange Sedis, que
> distinguía al mejor corredor francés de la temporada. No corrío el
> Tour."
>
> The article says that Mujica died in Montélimar following an accident
> alongside the other cyclist Raul Rey. There is supposedly a plaque in
> his honor at the location of the accident.
>
> Steven Maasland
> Moorestown, NJ