Haimar Zubeldia from Gipuzkoa (Usúrbil, 45 years old), an ex-professional veteran with 16 Tours de France and 12 Vueltas behind him, opened his record in a Titan Desert by winning over the leader, David Valero, in the penultimate stage and queen day of the Neom Saudi Arabia. In the fourth and last stage, a fast day is expected with 76.4 km of route with little difference in elevation, 194 meters.
The Neom Titan Desert in Saudi Arabia will therefore put an end to this 2022 edition in which it has counted among its participants Olympic and world medalist participants with an anonymous majority, of different nationalities and ages. This year, two of the brave ones, 17-year-old Pablo Galán from Rapitec and 69-year-old Antonio Rodríguez from Girona, are only separated by half a century, but they share the same desire: to enjoy cycling. Rodríguez, 69 years old and number 69, originally from Malaga, has been living in Girona for 49 years. It is “Platinum Titan” for having participated in eleven editions and having covered 5,700 km. He signs up for the desert races because he is “well, in the mood, in good health” and doesn’t want to lead an “old man’s” life like some of his friends.
Rodríguez doesn’t stop smiling and assumes his status as Titan’s “grandfather”, but his example and his message are aimed at the elderly and the young.
“I feel very good about myself, and the Titan helps me a lot with that, because if I don’t do sport I retire completely and the world can fall on top of me. With sport I am busy all day, I train in the morning, I walk in the afternoon and I spend the whole day doing something. After retirement, I continued as if I were working, I get up at the same time as always, I train every day, sport gives me life”, explains Rodríguez.
Antonio turns to Pablo to tell him “to enjoy the sport and the bicycle, not to obsess about time or anything, to come and enjoy, to forget and to arrive among the first… .» He also sends his philosophy of life for his contemporaries, especially for those who leave the activity once retired. “I recommend that older people do sports. I have friends my age who look old, I am too, but I stay fit, excited and eager to do things. And I plan to continue like this”, he says. In this sense, Galán allows himself to give advice to Rodríguez, 52 years older than him. “I would tell him to continue like this, to continue his passion for cycling and to continue to be fit for many more years”.
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