IMPRISONED AND TORTURED IN HIS CHILEAN HOMELAND FOR HIS ‘CRIMES’ AGAINST PINOCHET’S DICTATORSHIP, JORGE SANDOVAL ESCAPES TO A NEW LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND. ONLY TO MEET HIS TORTURER. THERE ARE SOME STORIES FROM WHICH THERE IS NO ESCAPE.

This is an inspiring story of courage and perseverance. Jorge Sandoval has overcome huge odds to become a leading New Zealand citizen.

Jorge was still a schoolboy in Chile when arrested in 1973 in front of his bewildered family. A member of a student union and linked to supporters of the ousted president Allende, he was targeted by Pinochet’s brutal régime. Dragged off to a police station, tortured and beaten, he was confined for a year in a concentration camp.

Even after his release Jorge was a marked man. He escaped Chile via Argentina and arrived in New Zealand in 1976 as a political refugee.

Despite having no English when he got here, Jorge has succeeded as a sportsman, cycling promoter and businessman, culminating in his award of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006.

He has conducted all 21 International Tours of Wellington as well as two women's World Cups events, four women's international events and two Auckland to Wellington international tours.

Peter Bidwell was a sports writer at the Dominion when he met Jorge Sandoval. He covered several of Jorge’s cycle races, and visited Chile as part of his research for this biography. It is his second book; his first was V8 Kiwis.

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