The Only Thing You Can Control - In memory of Matthijs Hesselink

On July 21, Matthijs Hesselink passed away. He was only 57 years old.

Matthijs was a full professor in Physical Activity and Metabolic Health at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He was an internationally well-respected, highly cited researcher who was best known for uncovering how skeletal muscle mitochondria, fat storage in muscle, and exercise shape insulin sensitivity and metabolic health — work that greatly advanced our understanding of type 2 diabetes. But besides his qualities as a researcher, he was a special person who always tried to help the people around him. He was a good listener, honest and straightforward. He brought a dry kind of humor to the table that was typical for someone from Twente, a region in the east of the Netherlands known for its modest, no-nonsense people.

Maastricht

I met Matthijs in Maastricht, where we studied together. In the final year of our studies we had to do a project (equivalent of an MSc project). This was back in 1991–1992. I had this idea of doing a project on the topic of overtraining. Admittedly this was inspired by the fact that we spent many hours on the bike together, training too hard, too often, with not enough time to recover. Matthijs and I used our bike rides, not only to drop each other, but also to discuss training, physiology, and how to figure out how to train and how much was too much. On many rides in the hills of Limburg we discussed what this project could look like, and then one day we knocked on the door of Prof. Harm Kuipers to present our idea. He was immediately excited, although he thought it was ambitious for two students who were going to do their first research project. Dr. Hans Keizer joined the conversations and he also got excited, and I remember walking away from the office buzzing with thoughts that we could now design our own study and work with two big names in the field.

The overtraining study

Matthijs and I discussed the details of the study, every little detail, and started to write our very first research proposal. Overtraining was a popular topic at the time, and there were many review articles that summarised the literature… but there were few, almost no, real controlled studies. So we decided to "overreach" cyclists for 2 weeks and measure a range of markers to see which markers, or combinations of markers, could be used to detect overreaching/overtraining at an early stage. Many days and nights Matthijs and I spent working out details of the protocol. We had to measure performance, the cardinal symptom of overtraining, and we decided to measure performance in different ways, both in the lab and in the field, both in a longer test and with a shorter test.

The wheels

I had an idea, and at the time Mavic had come out with a wheel that could measure power. Revolutionary!! If we had one of those wheels we could measure not only time in an outdoor time trial, but also power! Matthijs and I started fixing bikes of students, helping out and working at a bike shop, and we earned just enough money so we could afford a wheel that could measure power.

We also wanted to take blood samples and look at changes in blood markers, and in the absence of a portable device that could measure these markers from a fingerprick, we were taught by Harm Kuipers how to cannulate and take blood samples from a “tap” attached to the arm. Matthijs and I practiced on each other's arms and we both became pretty good at it quickly.

Recruiting subjects

We now needed to recruit some subjects for this study. Because Matthijs and I were both racing at the time and competing in local races almost weekly, we both knew a lot of cyclists in the area. Many of them were excited, but when they saw the protocol — which doubled the training duration for everyone while increasing the high-intensity parts of training 3-fold — many of them bailed out.

But we did find 8 volunteers! We organised an evening where we explained every detail of the study, and everyone was excited to be part of this.

The big day!

I remember fondly how excited Matthijs was when we made our way to the location of the outdoor time trial in Bilzen in Belgium - with our brand-new Mavic power wheel. This was our big day! The start of our study. We had reconned this quiet loop, with no traffic, and had built a start ramp for the riders. The participants all arrived and started to do their warm-up. Our Mavic wheel with a red hub looked shiny in the brand-new bike of the first rider, the right gear was selected, and the rider climbed the start ramp. Moments later we were counting down from 10… 9… 8… and then 3... 2... 1... GO! With all the power the rider had, he rolled off the start ramp and…..  did not get very far: a loud bang, the wheel buckled under the power, the rider crashed… the first seconds of this study were a disaster!!

A trip to the South of France with Bret Goodpaster.

Assessing the damage

After helping the rider and assessing the damage — which was considerable, and included lost skin, a broken frame, and a broken new wheel — we decided to use this day as a practice trial. Our hard-earned wheel had broken spokes, was bent, and was unusable. It had to go back to the manufacturer. I was devastated. Matthijs stayed level-headed, no-nonsense and tried to find the positives. This was a situation we could not really control; what mattered was how we reacted to it. Matthijs was so good at this. He assessed the situation and moved on! A couple of weeks later we started the study officially, and with more luck…

Matthijs on one of our trips to the US.

There are many more stories from this very first study, which had a lot of ups and downs, and Matthijs and I worked together to solve any problem that was thrown at us. And there were plenty. Nothing was too much, and every day we were learning.

The study ended up as one of our first publications in the International Journal of Sports Medicine, very unusual for a student project.

The guy from Twente

In 1997 I moved to the US and then to the UK, and I did not see Matthijs much. His research went into health and diabetes and my research was more in nutrition and exercise. We went to different conferences, and sometimes I would not speak to Matthijs for months or even years. However, every time we did touch base it was like we had seen each other yesterday. His humor never changed, and he never changed — he always remained that guy from Twente!

Fun in the lab. Showing off a test tube.

Pro cycling project

The last little project we did together was when Matthijs helped to prepare some stable isotope tracers for some measurements I was doing with Visma Lease a Bike and their Head of Performance Mathieu Heijboer ,who was also a closely tied to Matthijs and Maastricht. At a training camp in Tignes, we were performing measurements of exogenous carbohydrate oxidation outside in the field, on the slopes of the Col d'Iseran, with Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert. Matthijs prepared the solutions for me in the lab, and the bottles were shipped on dry ice to France. It felt great to be working together after all those years, and we decided this was something we needed to do more.

In memory of Matthijs Hesselink

A few days before Matthijs passed away we had a longer chat. It was emotional, and as the last few years had been a rollercoaster for him and his family, this conversation was also a rollercoaster. He saw the reality but tried to find the positives; he could put things into perspective. An amazing example of the fact that sometimes you can't change the situation — you have no control, and the only thing you can control is how you deal with it. His ability to do this has always been admirable, from the bike crash in our first study to the moment he left us.

Matthijs, you will always have a very special place in my heart, and I thank you for all the lessons we learned together, the great memories we built, for being a friend and for being you!