Javier Torres: “I cycled with Merckx”

Pedal a lot or a little, long or short. But pedal

Eddy Merckx

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I run into them frequently, usually in the mornings.

Sometimes they come cycling along the Les Aigües road.

Others, along the Diagonal.

Both brothers, twins, are well-equipped, sometimes with the branding of their cycling team, KH-7, and their gaze is fixed on the horizon, intensely focused. They're going quite fast, to be honest. I've always wondered where they're headed at that time, and what time Cocina Hermanos Torres, their fabulous restaurant in Les Corts, with its three Michelin stars, opens.

Well, today a window of light has opened for me.

Right now I'm in a room at the Hermanos Torres restaurant and in front of me is Javier (54; his twin is Sergio), so I ask him:

–In the mornings, when I run into you or your brother on the mountain, where are you headed?

–We come here.

–...?

"We're here to work. We both live close to each other, at the foot of the Arrabassada road. We leave from there, head along Collserola, end up in Plaza Mireia, and from there, down to Les Corts."

–And how do you get back home?

–Same here: in the afternoon we head uphill again toward Collserola, and along its trails, heading home. That's how we add 50 or 60 kilometers a day to our weekly runs. You have no idea how much those pedal strokes do us good!

-Because?

–We pick flowers and herbs. Today I picked elderflower (when he talks about flowers, I sense he's thinking of his mother, Montserrat, a flower lover, as he told Cristina Jolonch in La Vanguardia five years ago ). Other times, fig leaves to make ice cream. What a wonderful storehouse the mountains are. They have so many good things. Instead of the engine of a car or motorcycle, we hear the birds chirping.

(True: how to overcome such a fast opening and closing of the day?)

Our parents didn't have any hobbies, but then you put money in the bank and they gave you a bike." Javier Torres Chef and cyclist

“Riding a bike is like meditating,” he tells me now.

(I look at him: Javier Torres is thin and sharp, like his brothers, ready for the challenge they have set themselves these days, their presence in the Skoda Titan Desert in Morocco, the event that starts on Thursday and runs until May 6; they are members of the KH-7 team, a gigantic squad with its 59 entrants, with personalities such as Andrey Amador, captain Melcior Mauri, Pilar Fernández, Ramona Gabriel, Léster Fernández, Lluc Crusellas or the infinite Josep Betalú and his four victories under his belt).

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“Riding a bike is like meditating,” he repeats, awakening me from my thoughts. “It takes away my problems and answers my questions. When you pedal, you make things that sometimes seem complicated seem simpler. It’s a way to breathe life into yourself.”

“You remind me of Vargas Llosa,” I tell him.

And let me explain. Vargas Llosa wrote:

“In those twenty or thirty minutes of exercise, while the body warms up and expels all kinds of toxins through sweat, the spirit sheds worries and inhibitions and achieves that tense serenity that is the most conducive attitude for reflection and imagining.”

Javier Torres nods.

I see parallels between the two; I mean, between the Torres brothers and Vargas Llosa. They all draw a line in what they build.

And in sport, they find peace and creativity.

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