My passion for cycling was ignited many years ago.
I remember, when I was a child at the seaside,
playing with plastic marbles
with small pictures of cyclists inside.
And then later,
when I was about ten, I used to love watching the Giro d'Italia,
for example, with the legendary Adriano De Zan commentating.
I only really started cycling seriously six years ago,
so not until I was an adult,
it was therefore a passion that had been dormant for many years.
But then the right moment came along,
and I finally decided to start cycling.
There are many similarities between cycling and my work.
For example, reaching the summit of a mountain
and then realizing that there’s another on the horizon that needs climbing
is a constant challenge,
never resting on your laurels, always pushing beyond your limits.
But cycling is also a team sport,
even if it's not always that obvious.
For example, anyone who wins a stage of the Giro d'Italia
- many people aren’t aware of this - or any race for that matter,
they always share the prize with their teammates.
It’s the same for the climber or the sprinter,
getting them into the right position at the right time
in order to win is a team effort.
In reality, when I'm pedaling, I’m actually thinking about many things:
it also depends on the type of route I'm cycling,
for example, climbing hills is especially good for clearing my mind.
In that moment, all sorts of ideas can come into my head,
they might be innovative, creative ideas, or solutions
to problems in my private or business life.
It can be something that doesn’t come to me when I’m in the work environment,
but in that context I feel a sense of freedom and I’m automatically able
to join dots that might otherwise have seemed uncorrelated.
It’s different when I’m going downhill:
in that moment my thoughts must be fully focused on the road, on safety.