CHARLIE KELLY

Without Charlie Kelly’s 1970s Repack Downhill races – where guys would push to the top of California’s Mount Tamalpais and bomb down on their modified Schwinn beach cruisers, known as Klunkers – there might not be mountain biking as we know it. Now aged 77, Charlie is still riding, albeit in slightly more sedate fashion. Here’s what fuels him on the trails of Marin County...

“I’m big on fruit and salads, so what I really like is cottage cheese and cantaloupe melon – a lightweight summer lunch that doesn’t make you feel like you’re abusing your body.

“There are only two things I drink on a regular basis – I have coffee in the morning and I drink water from a SodaStream. We have a BRITA water filter, and before I put the bottle in the SodaStream, I squeeze in a little lime juice. After an interval of a week or two, I sometimes have a beer, but only when I’m playing music with my friends; I play guitar.

“I still ride, but they aren’t big rides. The people I ride with are all pretty much my contemporaries, and it’s not what you’d call challenging – 18 miles or so, with some climbing and a lot of dirt roads. I make it along once or twice a week, and I’ll eat whatever I was going to have for lunch that day, which is almost certainly going to be a ham sandwich!

“I barbecue sometimes, and if I’m really feeling frisky and have got a lot of money, I’ll put a leg of lamb on the Weber, along with either potatoes or corn-on-the-cob. My wife and her best friend, on occasion, have a ‘men’s dinner’, when a group of guys who’ve known each other for 60 years get together and throw a spread together that’ll knock your socks off!”