Everyone’s dad

I hardly ever saw such a small man on a bike. If I ride next to him, I feel like a giantess. You would think he’s one of the many professionals here in Girona, because of his beautiful style. Until you look him in his face. Then you see the days of his professional career are long over.

Riding his bike every day is what Neil Martin loves the most. With his son, who followed in the footsteps of his father and now is one of the world’s better climbers. Or with a group. He just wants to ride his bike. And tell stories. Stories about the Olympics in 1980 in Moscow, how he and Peter Winnen ended up in a packed Russian disco, where they only had two records: ‘something with Moscow’ and the YMCA. They kept repeating both records the whole night long.

He teaches me useful Irish words, like ‘doorfull’ for a very large guy. A guy who hardly fits through a door, as it were, a guy who fills the door. I love that word so much that, in my…

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