This morning I was reading about the deeds of Zanardi and Legnante on Gazzetta so
focused … that I went three stops ahead over Oxford Ciecus where I was supposed to change the first time to reach Brands Hatch for the cycling races … the photo of Legnante with the cartoons’ super hero mask and the big light blue eyes and Zanardi lifting the bike with the arm I will not forget easily …
To reach the racing track of Brands Hatch you first have to get a train at Charing Cross and then a bus … the majority of people is sitting on the grass … there are many schools and families as usual … I arrive in time to see the victory ceremony of the category C4-C5 where the Italian Michele Pittacolo conquered a bronze … the victory ceremony is at the arrival where the judge waves the checked flag at the end of Formula One … the athletes are close … the atmosphere is familiar of a Sunday race … friends and family of Michele are wrapped in two flags the Italian one … and the one from Friuli …
A few days ago I bought the book Pedalare! Pedalare! A History of Italian Cycling by John Foot, professor of Modern Italian history at the London University College … I started reading it seriously today … and I made two interesting discoveries: the first … in the acknowledgements I found … Marco Pastonesi … who is a journalist cyclist and a friend of Sport2build … whom we met on the way, and hope not to lose, who has dedicated us beautiful posts on the website of Gazzetta dello Sport … from the same book I found out that he trains and is the domestique of champions of the past!
The second … that Cesare Lombroso … famous criminologist to have argued that there is a connection between the skull conformation and the different types of criminals … wrote an article ‘Cycling and Crime’ … that the bicycle is at the same time a cause and an instrument of criminality … because the fastest vehicles on the roads at the time led people to steal, to fraud, to swindle … but at the end he recognized also a positive aspect of the bicycles … because they brought the countryside closer to the city … they are a distraction from the evils of alcohol and the stresses of modern life … moreover … he wrote … that the cyclists of the twentieth century would be less vulnerable to nervous disorder and have stronger bodies than the people of the last century … I confirm everything … the Egyptian police must have read just the first part of the article … I then understood why many times I strangely managed not to get really pissed off in situation at the hedge … Lombroso may have understood more about bicycles than anything else …
In the afternoon I finally managed to enjoy a whole race … category C1-C3 … there is the sun and a slight wind … athletes pedaling with a leg or an arm … athletes who break away on the splits of the track … the spectators support everybody … there is more cheering for those remaining behind than for the group in front … there are two Italians in the race Paolo Viganò and Roberto Bargna … at every lap they are there in the group in front … I do not know if they are sprinters … I hope so when I see them come out of the last turn … Roberto Bargna is … and he wins … to think that he started to do cycling only in 2007 …
Before leaving Radio Kiss Kiss called me for a short participation to ‘00K’ a fun program on air at lunch time … when they told me exceptional deed on the bamboo bike 8300 kilometers … and I saw passing in front of me an athlete pedaling on one leg … I thought normal …