has ‘bean’ there, and done that
Alongside endless chick-pea stews, vegan living brings back memories for Ned
“The great Tommy Godwin was equally averse to slapping slices of dead animals in buns...”
Due to a sudden and marked increase in my intake of vegetables and pulses lately, I have, for a variety of reasons, given some thought to the curiously named and recently retired Dutch cyclist Maarten Tjallingii. A much-valued domestique on the Lotto Jumbo team (as was), Tjallingii hung up his cleats in 2016, after a very successful Giro d’Italia. I’ll come on to that, but perhaps I should first explain the connection between the cyclist and the high-fibre, very sustainable diet I have been enduring. Sorry, that should have read ‘been enjoying’.
During this period of self-isolation, my family has (reluctantly) re-assembled including some young adults who have gone out into the world and forged their own paths. In the case of one of them, this includes, quite laudably, veganism. As a result, we have largely adjusted our family meals to accommodate them and a damn good thing it is too. Lots of leeks, plenty of cauliflower and endless, I mean endless, pulses and beans. While I would be the first to acknowledge there are times when I find myself about to prepare yet another variation of a mildly spicy chick-pea stew-type-thing, sighing inwardly at the question, ‘Is this really all there is?’ I would also have to stress how generally good a meat and dairy-limited intake makes me feel. Bloating and wind are a problem, though. There, I’ve said it.
What’s this got to do with Tjallingii? Well, like a surprisingly large number of racing cyclists, Tjallingii was (and still is I warrant) a vegetarian. Not the full monty, though. Not a vegan, you understand, like Adam Hansen of Lotto Soudal. But still, he dodged meat and rightly so. In case you were thinking that this carcass-avoidance is some sort of millennial fad, you should know that the great Tommy Godwin was equally averse to slapping slices of dead animals in buns. Godwin was the World Endurance Record holder riding over 75,000 miles in a calendar year. That he did this at all is still truly astonishing: it’s an average of over 200 miles per day. But that he did it in 1939 is even more remarkable, given that the Second World War broke out when he was just over half way through. His adherence to his principles, highly counter-cultural at the time, I’d have guessed, are immensely admirable. I’ve always been fascinated by Godwin and his vegetarianism only ever made him seem more likeable.
The same is true of Tjallingii; a rider I knew only by name and position on a bike prior to the 2016 Giro, when his aggressive start to the race cast a spotlight on him that his long career of service to others had seldom otherwise afforded, despite his third place at the surprise edition of Paris-Roubaix won by Johan Vansummeren in 2011. As a commentator, I suddenly had to discover more about Tjallingii, since he featured in the breakaways on both of the first two regular stages. That year the Giro started in the Netherlands; more specifically, the Gelderland, where Tjallingii had made his home.
He took the King of the Mountains jersey on stage two, into Nijmegen. On stage three there was another single categorised climb, called the Posberg. If he got to the top of that one in the lead he’d take the jersey onto the podium in his home town of Arnhem, just a few hundred metres from his house. How we willed him to get the job done! In glorious, warm weather, it felt like the cycling world had only one centre of focus, and that was Maarten Tjallingii, in his final grand tour of a 13-year career, lumbering up this negligible climb to take the jersey. The sight of Tjallingii with his young family on the podium as the race moved out of town was a total delight.
So, it is with the spirit of Maarten Tjallingii that I approach each and every mealtime in this long period of life-in-stasis. I will chew my veg and think of the sunshine in Arnhem, and I will smile to myself.