I know you’ve all been waiting....(PT1)

Current mood: REPSECTIVE REFLECTIVE...
Category: REPSECTIVE REFLECTIVE... Sports

with EXTREME ANXIETY!!!! to find out....

a) How did Marzio Bruseghin do in the cycling World Championships

&

b) How my meeting with him went a week ago Friday...

so (though I don't yet have the pictures) here we go....


Firstly the Worlds:

Well, Bruseghin didn't finish the world championships - but then he wasn't meant to.

No boss, the beauty of professional cycling is it combines extreme individual performance with team work - and in this case, Marzios job was to be a team player.

Specifically: His job was to help reigning World Champion of the last 2 years Paolo Bettini retain his crown in his own country, in what was said to be Bettinis very last professional race.

Marzios role was therefore to ride hard early on in the race to keep the pace high and tire the opposing teams both mentally (lots of Italians at the front driving hard is a very discouraging sight) and of course physically...

(Here's Marzio doing just that at the head of the field with the red on his helmet)

At a certain point, he, Paolini, Tossatto, Bosisio and the other Italian team helpers were then instructed to drop off and retire from the race or saunter in to the finish at their own pace.

It was then the turn of Damiano Cunego, Davide Rebellin and Allesandro Ballan (all of whom were plan B should Bettini be on a bad day) to launch successive attacks to wear the remaining opponents down further - before Bettini made his final and race winning move!!!


Well, what happened was that Bruseghin and the others did their work, then Cunego, Rebellin and Ballan launched their attacks - too well...

Bettini wasn't quite strong enough to follow and take a record breaking third successive title...


So - a disaster for the Italians???

Far from it: Ballan won, Cunego came second and Davide Rebellin came in fourth!!!

1 Alessandro Ballan (Italy)                 6.37.30 (39.283 km/h)
2 Damiano Cunego (Italy)                       0.03
3 Matti Breschel (Denmark)                        
4 Davide Rebellin (Italy) 

AND THE CROWD WENT WILD!!!!

So, 5 days after this and I'm going over to Bruseghins house.

Yes boss, Mrs Giovanni's brother has to go fill out the paperwork for the prosecco wine from his vinyard. Everything has to be certified so the prosecco qualifies for it's 'Doc' certification - Marco has to sign it off


Well, we're driving over there, and I'm feeling nervous.

Yes boss, I'm not a big one for meeting heroes - it can often be awkward and embarrassing, and in this case there's gonna be something of a language barrier.

I analyse, and feel it most likely I'll stand there with my mouth open and say very little...

Furthermore, as we get closer, I realise the following things:

1) Bruseghin is exactly the same age as me, but he is a cycling champion, has 23 asses and owns and runs a vinyard - meanwhile my cycling career never got off the ground, my writing career is only just doing so and I drink a vinyard every 323 days.....???

2) I'm thinking to talk to him about the feasibility of the monster Lance Armstrongs comeback. I'm running over this in my head - getting the Italian phrasing right, and I realise that rather than talking to myself or another armchair critic friend, I'll be posing this question to a man who will be directly battling Lance in the mountains in next years Tour De France - this freaks me out...


Well, we get to the cantina just outside of Vittoria Veneto and I'm thinking I'll be really quite happy if this is some kind of a joke - but it isn't.

Marco tells me, Marzios sister is coming to meet us there to do the paperwork and that we will then go to the vinyard to meet Marzio.


Marzios sister is the mayor of Vittoria Veneto.

When she arrives, she's deferentially polite.

We shake hands and Marco and Sabrina get the necessary papers done.

I look at the wine, the brewing equipment, out of the window at the vinyards, the fields and I try and follow the conversation - hard disks recording...


The business complete, we jump in our respective cars and follow Sabrina over to the vinyard.

Currently listening : Kesto (234.48:4) By Pan Sonic Release date: 2004-05-18