For years after he retired, if you ever requested an interview with Spanish cycling pioneer Bernardo Ruiz, who died late last week aged 100 in his hometown of Orihuela, he would always tell you to meet up for morning coffee in the town's venerable former casino.
A tall, solidly built and stately figure with an eagle-like stare, Ruiz would sit bolt upright in a high-sided armchair in one of the 19th-century building's wood-panelled reception rooms, puffing away on one cigarette after another and relating the highlights of his 17-year professional career. Listening to what Ruiz had to say – with the harsh clack of domino tiles from different games on glass coffee tables, played by his equally senior peers, occasionally intruding from the background – always felt like an immense privilege, as by the time he reached his nineties, he'd become one of the very last living links to the 1940s and 1950s professional racing scene.
