Nathan Evington

Nathan Evington
28/02/77 - 03/11/07

About Nathan


Nathan, was a big chap in more ways than one. He was always to be found at the centre of the action, telling it exactly as it was – loudly!

In fact, Nathan was in such a hurry to make his impact on the world, he arrived on a cold February morning 8 weeks early. He was so premature that he spent his first month in hospital, and at the time was one of the youngest babies in Hedon Road hospital to survive!

Cycling played a huge part in Nathan’s life. He loved the film American Flyers and watched it many times. In it, there is a scene where the main character does the "torture test" which involved running on a treadmill for as long as possible before ending the test by hitting the "chicken" switch. After Nathan’s diagnosis of cardiomyopathy in 2004, he was actually quite excited to discover that he would be required to do his own "torture test" and spent a good deal of time psyching himself up for a good performance. In fact, he was so determined that it was ultimately the doctor, his Mum and the technician who had to drag him off, as Nathan refused to give in himself.

Cycling also revealed Nathan’s talent for remembering facts and figures. He was our very own walking cycling encyclopaedia. He loved to test his friends and show off his knowledge, and he was always the person you would want on your pub quiz team.

Nathan was determined to live life to the full, and unbeknown to his Mum he began playing in a football team a few years ago. The cat was out of the bag when a new football trophy took pride of place on the mantelpiece one evening. Nathan was very proud of himself and his team-mates, although I am reliably informed that Nathan was valued more for his enthusiastic participation, rather than his football talents – which led to his shots on goal just missing the target – 100% of the time!

Nathan was the life and soul of any party and loved to dance. He would always take to the dance floor first, and was quite happy to dance alone. However, his infectious enthusiasm always encouraged others to join him.

Nathan was a kind man, and always generous to a fault – on the benefit of his Mum and brother. He had a very special sense of humour – one he shared with his brother – and left his mark on everyone he met.


Sunday, 10 August 2008

Confessions of a cycling addict

Okay, okay - it's true! I have been to France before on cycling escapades - cycling the first time, tour watching the second and a bit of both the third! Luckily I have no evidence of the first Alpine cycling adventure back in about 1992, otherwise you'd be howling at haircuts - mine somewhat mushroom-like , Big Bruv beponytailed, and the crasher with hair! However, here's a little photo montage from the other times...


The second escapade was captured on film, which I think was 1995 - well at least the Ev Brothers were, haircut, oakleys and all! As if preparing us for the Croix de Fer it dared to be about a million degrees on this particular day whilst we sat for 4 fours on the Champs Elysee waiting for a miniscule glimpse of the pros razzing by! Big Mig won the Tour that day, along with coca-cola, hat sales and nearly some dodgy guy at the Parisian portaloo... He was maybe just a few years too early though??? You can see from the attached, Nat was in particularly good form that day... It was commonly believed that at this tender age travel outwith the boundaries of Hull didn't agree with him!


By the time I made my third escapade in 2000 you can see that Nat had clearly overcome his "out of Hull condition" and was in top form! In fact he slept so soundly in the hostel we're pictured in below that the other 4 guys we shared a dorm with (plus another 4 the second night) had the pleasure of his sonorous and anti-soporiphic tones all night. Two nights. Two very long nights... We only ended up in a hostel because of a bomb scare at the tourist info that prevented us getting sorted with a hotel.

Anyway, just like the recent Alpine adventure, this one also consisted of going up...

And coming back down again!
I think Nat does a particulary good job in the "going up" picci of hiding the absolute disgust of being made to walk up not just one tier of the Eiffel tower, but two... just to save 20minutes of queing by the ice-cream stall for the lifts! Coming down was much more fun. That particular July there was still heaps of snow up at the top of the mountains. This snow was at the top of the Col D'Iseran, just up the road from the famous Val D'Isere ski resort where we'd had lunch in the poshest ski-resort cafe in France - both of us in shorts!

There was some cycling done that trip - with I think it being the one and only time I've beaten Dez to the top of a climb on account of him taking a tumble on a wet bend on the way down from the chalet. I have no photos of the cycling - presumably because I was trying to blot the pain of those climbs out of my head...

Well, no cycling since getting back from the most recent escapade. I've promised myself a weekend off and then spent most of it twitching and fidgetting. Road again next Sunday I reckon!

Anyway, better go 'cos I still need to sort the video out!

Cheerio,

Col.
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