When I catch up with Nicholas Topley in early 2024, he has just returned from a ride. Barry Island in South Wales (UK) is the venue, and the wind has been blowing hard as usual. “The wind direction is either one way or the other,” he says. “Today it was from the east, which is not usually as bad as from the west.” He’s been trying out some new Flandrian socks, which he’s happy to report have prevented frozen toes despite the minus-four-degree winter windchill.
Battling chilly, windy training rides is a familiar scenario up and down the country – but 63-year-old Topley’s story is anything but run-of-the-mill. He is a survivor of aplastic anaemia, a bone marrow transplantee, and a regular competitor at the Transplant Games – from which he has brought back a host of medals since he began competing in 2019.
