[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"exercise-B1-655":3},{"preview":4,"open":27,"missing":63},{"id":5,"number":6,"total":7,"level":8,"course":9,"activity":10,"discriminator":11,"title":12,"slug":13,"instructions":14,"excerpt":15,"prompts":16,"lock":14,"access":19,"updated":20,"previous_id":14,"next_id":21,"previous":14,"next":22,"first":26},655,1,90,"B1","reading","long_text","reading_long_text","A Lifetime on Two Wheels","a-lifetime-on-two-wheels",null,"There's a popular idea that artists are not supposed to be into sport, but mountain biking is a huge part of my life. It gets me out of my studio, and into the countryside. But more importantly, racing along as fast as you can leaves you no time to worry about anything that's going on in your life. You're too busy…",[17,18],"Hugo enjoys mountain biking because","What does Hugo say about cycling during his childhood?","open","2026-10-02T14:14:49",656,{"id":21,"number":23,"title":24,"slug":25},2,"Good Enough As You Are","good-enough-as-you-are",{"id":5,"number":6,"title":12,"slug":13},{"id":5,"number":6,"level":8,"course":9,"activity":10,"discriminator":11,"payload":28},{"text":29,"title":12,"answers":30,"activity":55,"questions":56,"solutions":60,"explanations":62,"discriminator":11},"There's a popular idea that artists are not supposed to be into sport, but mountain biking is a huge part of my life. It gets me out of my studio, and into the countryside. But more importantly, racing along as fast as you can leaves you no time to worry about anything that's going on in your life. You're too busy concentrating on not crashing. The only things you pay attention to are the pain in your legs and the rocks on the path in front of you.\n\nI'm in my sixties now, but I started cycling when I was a kid. In the summer my friends and I would ride our bikes into the woods and see who was brave enough to go down steep hills, or do big jumps. The bikes we had then weren't built for that, and often broke, so I used to draw pictures of bikes with big thick tyres that would be strong enough for what we were doing. They looked just like modern mountain bikes. However, it wasn't until many years later that someone actually invented one. By the 1980s, they were everywhere.\n\nAt that time I was into skateboarding. I did that for a decade until falling off on to hard surfaces started to hurt too much. Mountain biking seemed a fairly safe way to keep fit, so I took that up instead. I made a lot of friends, and got involved in racing, which gave me a reason to train hard. I wanted to find out just how fit and fast I could get, which turned out to be fairly quick. I even won a couple of local races.\n\nIn the end I stopped racing, mainly because I knew what it could mean to my career if I had a bad crash. But I still like to do a three-hour mountain bike ride every week. And if I'm out cycling in the hills and see a rider ahead, I have to beat them to the top. As I go past I imagine how surprised they would be if they knew how old I am.",{"1":31,"2":36,"3":41,"4":46,"5":51},[32,33,34,35],"it gives him the opportunity to enjoy the views.","he can use the time to plan his work.","he is able to stop thinking about his problems.","it helps him to concentrate better.",[37,38,39,40],"He is sorry he didn't take more care of his bike.","His friends always had better quality bikes than he did.","His bike wasn't suitable for the activities he was doing.","He was more interested in designing bikes than riding them.",[42,43,44,45],"because he had become unfit.","so that he could enter races.","in order to meet new people.","to replace an activity he had given up.",[47,48,49,50],"He is proud that he is still so fast.","He is keen to do less now that he is older.","He regrets the fact that he can no longer compete.","He wishes more people were involved in the sport.",[52,53,54],"For Hugo Reyes, nothing matters more than mountain biking, not even his career. Here, in his own words, he tells us why.","Artist Hugo Reyes takes mountain biking pretty seriously. Here he describes how it all began and what he gets out of it.","In this article, Hugo Reyes explains how he became an artist only as a result of his interest in mountain biking. After discovering mountain biking late in life, Hugo Reyes gave up art for a while to concentrate on getting as good as possible.","Long Text",{"1":17,"2":18,"3":57,"4":58,"5":59},"Hugo says he returned to cycling after several years","How does Hugo feel about cycling now?","What would be a good introduction to this article?",{"1":61,"2":61,"3":61,"4":61,"5":61},"",{},false]