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Article and pictures by Cinzia Valtorta

Friday, the 24th of August 2012, we’ll never forget this day. Ciclista da Sempre, Eugenio Caldera, who is also a skillful portraitist, is going to present to Ms. Tonina, mother of the champion of cycling Marco Pantani, the portrait he made for him. The picture will be exposed by Spazio Pantani in Cesenatico, the permanent exhibition dedicated to him.

Five people will leave for this mission, the fab five here below:

Eugenio Caldera, the painter

Alessandra, Eugenio’s wife

Cinzia, Ciclista da Sempre, Eugenio’s fellow

Carlo Ottolina manager of the homonymous and famous company of honey products and also patron of Ciclismo in Rosa

Andrea Ottolina, Carlo’s son

Carlo, generously, has offered himself to drive his car. At five o’clock we leave from Cabiate, leading to Cesenatico. It’s the Meeting week in Rimini, but the big names in politics have already visited the Meeting, so traffic in motorway isn’t heavy.

We take a break by Praconi company, in San Mauro Pascoli (FO), producer of honey. Since generations they have had the skill to collect honey. Wonderful creatures are honey bees, with tenacity and co-operation they can make a delicious food, so nutrient that is also a medicament.

     

They are a miracle of nature, their tiny bodies are real alchemical labs, they can transform the flowers nectar into the precious aliment. They can also produce wax, royal jelly, propolis, pollen. Also their poison can cure rheumatic disease. And they’re responsible at 80% of the pollination of all plants and flowers on the earth. They’re so important that Einstein once said: “If honey bees died, men would survive only 4 years”

We say goodbye family Praconi and let’s leave again to Cesenatico. We have a visit by Pantani tomb, where the champion is buried. He was a strong cycler and also a good boy, who loved his family, his friends and his hobbies.

  

Finally we arrive to Spazio Pantani, where we’re going to meet Ms. Tonina, Marco Pantani’s mother and manager of Spazio Pantani. By the entrance we meet the nephew of Ms. Tonina, she allows us to visit the exhibition.

There are so many memories of Marco, movies of his races, articles about his victories, the jerseys he used to wear, his bicycles, and lots of pictures he was used to paint. Maybe they’re not artistically beautiful, but they’re so important for their meaning, caskets which close inside a free and painful soul.

At the entrance there’s a big poster at the wall, a very big letter he once wrote about his doping experience that took him to die. Letter is as big as his pain, sincere and desperate. Letter speaks about all those people who abandoned him after they had asked him so much. Letter is also a decent denunciation against the system which is never satisfied of the real skill and strength of cyclists, it claims more and more, betting on people life as a horserace. The winner is not the best but the better essence, a diabolical blend that exhaustes the body, beyond a body limit, beyond the life… beyond.

And now Ms. Tonina is coming. Her eyes are so similar at Marco’s eyes, her dear Marco, sincere eyes. A beautiful middle-aged woman, sunny like her land, her beloved Romagna, she’s also decent and determinate.

She looks at the picture, she’s amazed, the portrait is so similar at the real Marco, she has the impression he’s really beside her. She’s thrilled and happy at the same time. Also Eugenio is happy. Ms. Tonina wishes a photo beside Eugenio and Marco’s picture. From now on the picture will be exposed by the exhibition.

Ms. Tonina talks about legal battles she has to sustain for doping experience. She wants to sustain the truth, there’s strength inside her, the same strength that made Marco win his races.

We have a coffee while we’re spending time pleasantly. Ms. Tonina talks about her other son and daughter, about problems of young people of today. She’s a manager but she’s also a mother.

We say goodbye full of joy and we promise to see us again next year, during Pantanissima 2013, the cycling event realised for Marco Pantani. Also our blog will report the updaitings.

Ciclisti da Sempre and Ciclismo in Rosa will be at the event, we’ll be waiting also for you and for a visit by Spazio Pantani as well.