Introducing the roomie... Danish Morten

Morten Hansen has become my go-to roomie on tour. We have struck up an unexpected bromance and something always feels a little wrong if I don't find myself rooming with Morten. 

Nicknamed Van Dam by the peleton for his propensity to wander around in his string vest base layer and his no nonsense approach to bike riding, Morten is a mid forties Dane living in Frankfurt, working as a Euro banker and married to an English woman. Morten's wife found out she was expecting their first child a week after he had committed to the Tour and she has been particularly supportive of his grand tour ambitions despite their imminent August arrival. 

I am reliably informed that according to Grazia magazine there are ten questions you need to ask someone to find out who they really are. Thanks for all that filtration work you must have carried out Grazia - the mind really boggles when I think of how many questions you must have trawled through. So, let's ask Morten the Grazia 10 to see if we can peel back the layers of this Danish hard man.

1. Who are you closest to? My wife Emma - we have been married 4.5 years and expecting a baby boy in August. 

2. What is your first memory? I was 4 years old and remember travelling in a VW camper van with my parents for holidays in Holland. 

3. What is your greatest fear? Developing locked-in syndrome so that I would be trapped in a useless body but have my mind in tack

4. What is the most important thing to you? Being a good husband and soon to being a good father

5. Which qualities in a person are most important to you? Honesty and openness

6. What is the strangest experience you have had? I use to sport a punked Mohawk hairdo when I was younger. I was clearly a rebel without much of a cause looking back. 

7. When is the most exhausted you have felt? After the TdF's first mountain stage in the Pyrenees (Morten may want to adjust that answer after Ventoux yesterday!)

8. What is your biggest regret? Despite travelling around the world for two years, I did this on such a shoe string budget that I didn't actually see that much of the world. In retrospect I would have gone for a year and enjoyed a bigger budget. 

9. What do you drive? A 20 year old VW Golf - still runs like clockwork (so German!)

10. What is your most prized possession? My Pronghorn carbon fibre road bike. 

So there you have it - Morten in a nutshell. Long may our rooming union continue.