The hotel's buffet was sumptuous. Olav was filling his fifth plate with various French dishes and still hadn't tasted everything. Today's race had made him hungry and he greedily devoured everything that looked like food.

Even though the French cuisine wasn't that good. He didn't understand why the whole world always said that you eat "like God in France", because the French didn't even manage to serve a proper meat sauce. Especially not when the chefs were exclusively hired by the Tour to prepare special menus for the racers. Those menues never lacked protein and nutrients, but often pep.

This soup, which they called sauce, got caught in Morten's beard and dripped from his chin. The Dane let out a quiet curse and wiped his lap clean with a cloth napkin. "Anyone else who'd like to munch a real nice burger and some fries?"

The assembled Viking Spades bursted into laughter and toasted each other with water. Alcohol was not forbidden on racing days, but for professional athletes like them it was a no-go to reduce their performance by drinking a glass of beer or wine.

Olav felt much more comfortable in the presence of his friends than alone in the sauna with two Chinese. Lis' expressionless face popped up in his head and again the picture changed into his giant lunchbox. Olav's cheeks took on the colour of the strawberry mousse on his plate.

Great god! He was a professional cyclist! Not a 16-year-old student at the sports education centre who got a stiff just by seeing his friends changing clothes!

He had to think of something else very quickly. 

That's it, Olav. Remember Dracula's crooked canines.

There was nothing sexy about Max Mustermann. Max was just Max. A serious sprinter. Not even his butt would turn him on when he was sprinting in front of him.

Yeah, Max was...

"Olav, hello-hoo!" Someone hugged him from behind. Olav's spoon fell on the plate.

"Punyaa, you?" To confirm this, the black curly head got even closer to him. His hair tickled Olav's cheek.

"You rode off really fast today!" Finally he let him go and stood at the side of the table. "How nice! Tomorrow we both wear green! I'm so happy for you!" He clapped his hands.

Olav would not have believed anyone else's words, but Punyaa's amber eyes radiated sincerity. Olav reached out for the spoon again and he put more strawberry mousse in his mouth.

"Mmmpf, thank you."

Cherry red cheeks. No more strawberry mousse.

"But that's not all I wanted to tell you!" He waved briefly and two other figures in white-green tracksuits joined him.

Punyaa nodded. "I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce you to our two top climbers. Tomorrow you and your Vikings unfortunately won't have the chance to get to know them better, as they will be climbing far ahead of you."

Ebbe jumped up. "What? We'll see about that!" He wanted to give the three ShamroClovers a poisonous look, but the sight of the two climbers made him suspicious. "Twins"?

Punyaa nodded and pointed to the right one of the two who was wearing his red-blond hair wildly and untamed. "This is Andy O'Connor."

Andy nodded and grinned confidently. "Hi!"

Punyaa pointed to the other twin. "And this is Frank O'Connor."

Frank, who wore his hair straight cut and nicely done, nodded shyly. "Hello everybody."

Olav inspected them both. Andy looked more like a wild sprinter and Frank ... the only thing you could entrust him was feeding the animals in the petting zoo and not a mountain stage.

But there was something about the two of them that gave Olav a cold shiver. 

Was it the deep confidence and inner peace that emanated from the two of them? Or was it just the fact that identical twins were not quite common in professional sport?

The question kept on haunting him throughout the evening. And it was only when he brushed his teeth and looked into his brown eyes in the mirror that he remembered why the twins had seemed so strange to him: it was the eyes.

Frank's left eye had been green, while his right eye was blue. Andy, on the other hand, had one blue left eye and one green right eye. Both were identical Irish twins with red-blond hair, lots of freckles - and heterochromatic eyes.