amusing to watch . One time while I am out leading on the road , he glides past me on the inside , unexpectedly for fun . It ’ s highly dangerous , but humorous , and I find myself pulling the same move on the outside of a sponsored rider a few days later just to wake him up .
Not long after Jhoop ’ s accident , as I sit at the end of the special , desperately trying to rehydrate after changing a tyre in the 35c sunshine , Nico pulls up beside me . I rant in pure exhaustion for a few minutes , while he patiently listens and smokes a cigarette . I finish with ‘ why do I do this stupid fucking shit to myself
- why am I here ?!’, whereupon he immediately answered without any hesitation : ‘ because you are a warrior ’.
This is enough to pick myself up again and chase him through several fields and tracks for a few hours before we separate on the final special of the day . I go first , as I expect to be slower on the stage and for him to pass me , but I end up taking a wrong turn , and doing some heroic riding over a downed tree , down a dry riverbed and up a treacherous steep dirt trail . I can see a road above me and climb higher and higher still , into some tall grass , desperately trying to reach the tarmac , but like a plane climbing too steeply , I slip on the grass , stall , and crash out , shattering my windscreen into pieces . I try for thirty minutes to lift the bike and get out , but I am stuck and need rescue .
Even the support crew admire the difficulty I got into , and it takes four of us to lift my bike out . Back at the bivouac , as I ’ m recounting my story , the support crew arrives and hands me back my windscreen in pieces , when Nico offers to buy it off me for € 50 . I was embarrassed by breaking it , but in hearing this , I realise it ’ s a memento that I will never let go of . I
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