Giovanna Bonazzi, 1991 and 1993 World Champion, returned to the Dh Uci Mountain Bike Masters World Championship Commezzadura Val di Sole in the female category 2016-50 in 55. “To get back into the game at the age of 50 - she said - after 17 years of inactivity on a path like the one in Val di Sole, the hardest on the circuit, you really need to be a bit crazy”.
SURE, AT FIRST SIGHT IT MAY SEEM SIMPLE: ONLY TWO PARTICIPANTS. THIS IS ONE OF THOSE RACES THAT REMAINS IN YOUR HEART AND THAT YOU ARE REALLY PROUD OF: I'M WORLDWIDE AGAIN!
In all these years the only times I had immersed myself in the atmosphere again downhill he had been to see the World Cup and the World Cup a couple of times Downhill in 2008 right in Val di Sole. And seeing the route, I told myself that right now I would no longer be able, not only to compete, but not even to get off there on a bike. I thought that, in case, I would have done half of it on foot! An always steep path at times almost vertical with stones and roots everywhere, treacherous at every point, which never lets you breathe and catch your breath apart from a 15-metre bridge. Falls on this track are unforgiving: there are so many obstacles between stones and trees that it's hard to think about not getting hurt. A path that makes your legs ache only if you walk downhill.
Three years ago I participated in Mammoth Mountain in the 'Legends of the kamikaze race': I wanted to see my old friends with whom I had competed for many years, but that is a dirt road that even a child can go slowly, Commezzadura is another thing! Technique and body, arms and hands. Above all, you cannot improvise! You have to be fit… In early June, thanks to a bike test done in Riva del Garda, with my husband we buy a full e-bike: love at first sight! I restart after a long time to go mountain biking! In mid-June I take part in a thrilling Funky Day in Montecreto. I can't believe it: with a "weight" of almost 10 kg more than when I was running and the shape of those who started pedaling for 10 days, I can stay side by side with my e-bike on a 9 km climb with Bruno Zanchi and Nicola Casadei, and now .. the descent begins: what strength I can, despite everything, not make me leave so much behind, but my arms and especially my hands tingle and force me to stop frequently.
But the fuse has reignited! Good heavens, but how long had I not enjoyed this anymore! It seems that breathing the air of bikes, forks, discs and suspensions makes me return the energy and the desire to pedal and let go of the brakes. I feel smug and I feel a bit of style is left on my way downhill. On that occasion that Pippo Marani informs me that there are the Masters World Championships in Italy and the worm, indeed the tarlone begins to work in my mind! With a Dh loaned by a friend in mid-July I go to Val di Sole… I have to see if I am still able to come down.
In the square I find Ivana Sparano, we haven't seen each other since '99: we used to do the races together now she is here because she too wants to try the route. We do the first lap in more than half an hour, at times I go down because it is so steep that I think I will overturn, but Ivana's slow but safe driving heartens me ... somehow it comes down, but the biggest problem is to do it all in one time! When I go back to the shop I struggle a lot, I have tired legs and arms for a few days, and in the meantime, in the lunch breaks with a photonic heat I try to do at least forty minutes with the e-bike.
The following week, on my rest day, I go back to testing the route. Finally I can do it all in the saddle! I decide and I sign up for the World Cup. An adventure to put together in a very short time, but it's above all my physical form that worries me, in the tests my arms give out and I even cried down a few good flights. In the shop I try to use the 5 kg tubs of ice cream by pulling them up and down to strengthen my arms and at home I do some abs. In early August, a bike arrives on loan downhill modern, a Lapierre with 27,5" wheels and on my day off I take the car and go to Commezzadura to try the route again: this is where you need to train, I finally manage to descend from top to bottom without stopping, I'm exhausted and from halfway through the course I struggled like hell not to make mistakes and I had to reduce my speed enormously. But here we are! I arrive at the race rather worried because the bike needs a general fix: tyres, shock absorbers, anti-derailing, fork calibration… and I don't even have the tools. In the parterre of the race it seems that everything has stopped in '99: apart from the wrinkles, the white hair and more modern bikes the downhillThey are always the same, they have never stopped, always with the same enthusiasm, smile and passion. They take my bike and 6 of them get behind me to help me: in a quarter of an hour the bike is in place. Since I already know the route, I try to sip my energy, but it's during the night that I do a thousand laps and I get more tired!
In the qualifying heats I had an absolute good time, I am whole and satisfied! Only now are we sure that they will do age results every 5 years. I shouldn't worry, but don't say cat until you've got it in the bag and then I'd like to lower the time. I don't know why, I could go quiet and manage myself a good advantage, instead the competitive spirit I have inside tells me: “come on, try to make the tempone”. The other little voice, on the other hand: “Don't worry, you have to be in the laboratory on Monday”. On Sunday I tried to hear both the little voices, but the arms and the fatigue accumulated in the previous days are the ones that dictated the law. I'm really happy! In such a short time I got back into the saddle on a Dh bike and, apart from a few bruises, I am all in one piece. H.
or met old friends again, I had my husband and my son as spectators who had never seen me run and it seemed to me that time had stopped. My victory is not that of the race, but the acceptance that the years pass and that you can still feel fit if you cultivate your passions.
