A TIMELESS FUTURE | MATTEO TRENTIN

This photo dates back to 1998 or 1999. I was on the local team - the iconic  Veloce Club Borgo - and that was a typical Sunday adventure where I and my teammates would travel across the province of Trento to compete in local races. 

The van we used was a legendary white Volkswagen Minibus - a kind of vehicle that became popular as the “hippie van” - with a makeshift bike rack on the roof for our bike frames. Those trips, which today are ordinary,  used to seem like intercontinental journeys, but we didn’t mind… In fact, the longer the trip, the greater the fun, because  our parents weren’t with us  (they followed us by car), so it was just us and our trainer Paolo. We felt we were grown up and free, adult riders with big responsibilities. 

It didn’t matter so much if we won or lost. I remember a slogan we would always say rigorously in dialect: " All'arìvo bìson eser strachi e contenti!", that means “at the finish you must be tired and happy.” Paolo had taught us that in racing what counted was to do our best and have fun riding our bikes. The result was only relatively important. 

The nicest moments of the day were when we had lunch or a snack all together and we played football and hide-and-seek before or after the race. Spending time with your buddies and sharing the passion for sport was fantastic.  

This pic is not a memory about the time I decided to become a pro rider - this is something the road itself decided - but it is the reason why cycling is my passion before being my work.