After the defeat of the Republican faction in the Spanish Civil War, his family suffered discrimination in the White Terror for their political views, with his father being banned from formal employment and forced to report to the local police station every two weeks.

According to Ruiz, he first competed unknowingly in a cycle race as a teenager when he came across a group of riders going in the opposite direction to him, and spontaneously decided to follow them, unaware that they were in competition.

He took a breakthrough win at the Valencia regional championships, organised by the Franco regime's sole legal party, the FET y de las JONS, whilst still a teenager.

After they received abuse from Spanish Republican exiles, Ruiz and his teammates withdrew from the race on the fifth stage and left to compete in the Volta a Portugal.

[1] After retiring from competition, he became a directeur sportif, including for the Faema team, where he managed Federico Bahamontes, despite the pair having previously engaged in fistfights: Ruiz stated ahead of the 1960 Vuelta a España that "we mutually tolerate one another".

[1] Alasdair Fotheringham has described him as "an accidental pioneer for post-Civil War Spanish professional cycling", through his international success at a time when Spain was experiencing economic hardship during the early years of the Franco era, paving the way for countrymen such as Federico Bahamontes.