Hawkeyes Jr and Sr, Khappinghat State Forest

This is myself (right) and my cousin (left). When I visit my elderly dad in Forster, I usually organise to go see my cousin in Old Bar for a bit of trail riding. We lose ourselves for hours in the forest back of Old Bar, usually on fire road but there's a fair bit of singletrack if you know where to look. We try to be discreet so that the moto's don't see us and rip up the singletrack, as they're usually fauna trail strung together into a loop by the local trail fairies.

This guy is a bit a hero of mine. Besides being an all round nice guy and top bloke, he's a cycling madman. Whatever time we arrange to ride for, we usually end up being out for double that. Whenever the trail points uphill, he leaves me for dead while hardly breaking a sweat. He;s built like a whippet. And he can handle a bike.

Each year he does a two-day mountain road race that covers 320km, and is always the oldest competitor to finish. He was talking about his HR sitting at about 180bpm for the whole one of the climbs that runs for 25km, and sometimes hitting 200 in the sprints. While I was busy thinking he added "Yair, the doctor said so long as it came down again it wasn't a problem."

Not bad for a bloke of 71. I hope to be as fit as him... never mind the age!

A true gentleman.