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The Italian Dream: Episode 11
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| TomC |
Posted on 14-09-2013 17:40
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Domestique
Posts: 470
Joined: 14-10-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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The Italian Dream
I've promised you a story and here it is... 
Edited by TomC on 23-09-2013 14:24
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| TomC |
Posted on 14-09-2013 17:40
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Domestique
Posts: 470
Joined: 14-10-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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The Italian Dream
Episode 1
Hi! My name is Tomasz Kowalski. I'm 21 and I was born in Poland, but I live in Sassuolo in Italy. It's going to be my first year in professional cycling. I hope you will follow me during the season, but first, I want you to read my story. It all started on the 7th of August 1991, when I was born in the small city in northern Poland... Just kidding! I want tell you about my whole life. Let's start from 2002, when I was just 12 and didn't know anything about cycling...
TK |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 14-09-2013 17:45
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
PCM$: 400.00
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Good luck, man, hope it's all right to post! |
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| MrTeamSky |
Posted on 14-09-2013 18:32
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Stagiare
Posts: 200
Joined: 07-09-2013
PCM$: 200.00
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Hope this story goes far.
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| TomC |
Posted on 14-09-2013 19:06
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Domestique
Posts: 470
Joined: 14-10-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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The Italian Dream
Episode 2
Here we are in 2002. It was the last year of my primary school. I was quite good at sport, but in 100 meters sprint I was the best in school. It was May and there were qualifications for regional championships in two weeks’ time and only the winner qualified. However, there was only a 60 meters sprint in the championships in my category. It looks like it shouldn’t be a problem, I was the best in 100, but in 60m I always lost to my classmate. He wasn’t much faster, he was always a tenth of the second in front of me. I trained really hard and I thought it would be a good idea to add cycling to my training. I was running after school and cycling in the evenings with my dad. He never gave me a head start, so it was exhausting. Three days before the qualifications, dad told me to stop with the hard training and let my body regenerate.
The big day has come, the first one in my sporting career. I knew I could become someone great if I win this competition. Eight boys signed up, so our teachers decided to make a tournament, they divided us into two groups and two best from each group qualified to the final. My classmate was in the second group, so I tried to save as much energy for the final as I could, because I knew he also trained really hard. The semi-final went easily for me and I won my heat. The same was for my classmate, who also won his heat, but he had a better time than me. Again… The time for the final has come and my classmate was going to run next to me. We were rivals on the track, but we were friends, so we wished good luck to each other and stand in starting blocks. The temperature was high… “Ready!” …and we all sweat… “Set!” …but it didn’t matter at this moment… “GO!” …because the race began!
TK
Edited by TomC on 14-09-2013 19:08
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| Faillu |
Posted on 14-09-2013 19:52
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Domestique
Posts: 418
Joined: 14-02-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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Cool with another rider, who is hoping to become a professional.  |
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| The Hobbit |
Posted on 14-09-2013 19:56
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2730
Joined: 18-08-2013
PCM$: 200.00
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Cycling is bad training for running as it strips away muscle.
Good luck with your story |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 14-09-2013 23:58
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
Joined: 22-08-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Hope you win your mate |
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| TomC |
Posted on 15-09-2013 09:19
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Domestique
Posts: 470
Joined: 14-10-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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Ian Butler: It's ok thanks!
MrTeamSky: I hope so too
Faillu: Thanks!
The Hobbit: Well, it's bad for professional runners, but for a young boy, who rides about 5-10 kilometers with his dad, it can bring only benefits to his training
sutty68: Thanks! |
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| TomC |
Posted on 15-09-2013 09:20
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Domestique
Posts: 470
Joined: 14-10-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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The Italian Dream
Episode 3
I knew, that a good start was important and I did it perfectly. We were head to head in the middle of the race and I felt like I could win this, all I had to was keep going and guess what? I won by centimeters! It was an awesome feeling! Probably one of the best in my life. After few moments of excitement, all I thought about was to prepare for regional championship. I continued my training, I was running after school and cycling with my dad at the weekends. I was always good at school, so I wasn’t worried about my final exams and I could focus on the training. I thought my rivals wouldn’t have so much time to prepare. My preparations were going great, but after few weeks I realized, that I like cycling more than running. Still, I was focused on my goal, which was regional championships!
It’s June 2002, I wrote my final exams and the tournament was next week. Again, I stopped with hard training in the last week and a new sport came to my life. My dad’s cardiologist told him to take up swimming, but there was one problem. He didn’t know how to swim. Well, neither do I. So, we signed up for swimming class. We had two lessons, both two hours long, before my big start. It was really interesting and finally I could learn how to swim. I felt well prepared for the competition. There were 32 boys in 60m sprint, and we started with eliminations. Four heats with eight boys each. First two from each heat and four with best times qualified to semi-finals. My goal was to get to the final and finish in top three, because the first three places gave the promotion to national championships…
TK |
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| The Hobbit |
Posted on 15-09-2013 09:26
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2730
Joined: 18-08-2013
PCM$: 200.00
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You are a very sporty person I see, good luck in those finals, I think swimming is good training for both, but not so sure whether it helps with your cycling... I hope you win, (but if you don't maybe u will focus more on the cycling element. |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-12-2024 11:15
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Bot Agent
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 15-09-2013 09:34
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4478
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Good luck with this .
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| TomC |
Posted on 15-09-2013 13:09
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Domestique
Posts: 470
Joined: 14-10-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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The Hobbit: I think you could be right
Cycleman123: Thanks! |
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| TomC |
Posted on 15-09-2013 13:10
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Domestique
Posts: 470
Joined: 14-10-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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The Italian Dream
Episode 4
My elimination race went very well, I won and had the second best time of all sprinters. I was very self-confident, maybe a bit too much. It was a time for semi-finals. I was said to be a favorite of this race. I was almost in the final, I was already thinking about the national championships! I started perfectly and had a small advantage, but after few meters something went wrong… I stumbled in the middle of the race! I was fine, but I didn’t want to get up. I was so embarrassed and some other boys were laughing at me. I burst into tears. When I got back home, my mom was very supportive, she told me not to give up, but it didn’t help at all.
The next day I was in a completely different condition. I thought it could be a new beginning and I could take up cycling seriously. I started to ride on public roads. One day I had a flat tire and had to walk almost five kilometers back home. I didn’t know how to fix it, so my dad gave me his bike, until he repairs mine. It was bigger than mine, but I took it for a ride the next day. I was going downhill fast, something around 40, maybe 50km/h, when suddenly I saw a car coming out from the side street. The driver didn’t see me and I had no chance to stop in front of him, so I crashed into him!
TK
Edited by TomC on 15-09-2013 13:12
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| TomC |
Posted on 15-09-2013 16:49
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Domestique
Posts: 470
Joined: 14-10-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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The Italian Dream
Episode 5
Luckily, nothing happened to me. Of course the driver didn’t feel guilty and he was shouting at me. I was in shock, so I didn’t know what was he shouting, how long or even when did the police arrived. No one would listen to the 11-year-old boy, so everyone told it was my fault. The police drove me home and they told my mom what happened and that I must pay for repairs of a car. When my dad came back home he wasn’t angry, he was happy that I’m ok. I told him it wasn’t my fault and he said he believed me, but I think he didn’t. His bike needed repairs too, so after few days we went to the bike shop, we bought parts for dad’s bike and he bought me a new one. It was dark blue, Giant mountain bike. I liked it very much, but I didn’t ride it very often, especially on public roads, I was too scared. I was on two, maybe three long rides with my parents.
I was riding mostly in forests. I lived in a village, which was surrounded by forests, so I didn’t have any problems finding a nice place to ride. I focused on swimming. I had a great motivation, because in our group were two or three older women, probably in their 60’s or 70’s. They were swimming for a long time and they had an amazing condition. No one would like to be worse than someone’s grandma, so I was improving my skills very quickly. I had 6 – 8 hours of swimming lessons every week and I wasn’t thinking about cycling anymore.
Let’s continue with the year 2004…
TK
Edited by TomC on 18-09-2013 08:35
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| TomC |
Posted on 15-09-2013 19:15
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Domestique
Posts: 470
Joined: 14-10-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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The Italian Dream
Episode 6
In the beginning of 2004, I was already a good swimmer. My teacher asked me why I didn’t take part in local competitions, because I was better than most of the other swimmers in my age. Well, it was a very good question, but the answer was pretty simple. If you fought about starting in such competition, you needed to start in school competition first and show, that you were one of the best in your school. The problem was, only schools in nearest city organized these competitions and not in my village. I thought about changing school, but I didn’t want to lose my friends. But I always wanted to be a sport star, but in what discipline?
It was a year, when we finally got a cable television and we had more than just three public programs. I didn’t know, that it will change my life completely. Something came back to my life and it was cycling. It was a time of Giro d’Italia, which is still my favorite stage race. I was amazed by views, climbs, spectators and of course cyclists and watched almost every single stage I had my motivation back to take my bike and go for a long ride. I didn’t feel the fear, which I felt after the accident and I was riding a bike almost every day in the summer of 2004. But! It wasn’t a sport I was most interested in…
TK |
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| HaRe |
Posted on 15-09-2013 19:16
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Neo-Pro
Posts: 394
Joined: 08-07-2012
PCM$: 200.00
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well good luck. |
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| MrTeamSky |
Posted on 15-09-2013 21:47
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Stagiare
Posts: 200
Joined: 07-09-2013
PCM$: 200.00
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9 more years left. When do you reckon you'll start the cycling 2013 season
Sorry if this question is inappropriate
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| TomC |
Posted on 16-09-2013 08:39
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Domestique
Posts: 470
Joined: 14-10-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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HaRe: Thanks!
MrTeamSky: I want to make this story with Daily DB, so it's still some time to learn something about my rider |
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| TomC |
Posted on 16-09-2013 08:39
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Domestique
Posts: 470
Joined: 14-10-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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The Italian Dream
Episode 7
The sport I was most interested in was Formula 1. I’ve loved cars since I can remember, but I didn’t have a chance to watch a F1 race. I watched every single race from GP of Monaco. I couldn’t believe how easily Schumacher won so many races and with Barrichello they dominated the championships. So I wanted to be a racing driver. Of course it was hard to had a racing driver career in Poland, but the same was with cycling. It all changed in the winter of 2004.
It was the Christmas Eve and dad had an important message for us. He got the job in Italy, which he started from September 2005 and we were all moving out with him to Italy! I was so excited about it! Well, you can ask why, I didn’t want to change school and I was excited about living in another country? I was finishing school in 2005, so I would have to say goodbye to most of my classmates and we would go to different high schools. But what about these few months I had left to moving out. I was still swimming and started cycling with the beginning of spring. And what about racing? To be honest, this idea was disappearing every week and finally decided to stick to cycling. I also had to learn Italian!
It’s the summer of 2005, one month before my moving out. I went for a ride with my cousin. He was interested in cycling too, but he preferred jumping and doing tricks on a bike. He showed me a small hill he liked to jump from. He went first and landed about five meters further. He is two years younger, so I didn’t want to be worse than him and land even further. I was going very fast and jumped. I felt than I’m going to land further, but I lost control of my bike and hit the ground with my head. Bike was fine, but you couldn’t say the same about my head. I was bleeding, but luckily we were close to my home, my dad just came back from work and dressed the wound. He told me that it was stupid and I knew it really was. Again I made a break from cycling for the next month.
It was a day we were going to Italy. We packed all the things we needed and rest of them would come after few weeks. My uncle drove us to an airport, we went through passport control and boarded the plane. It was raining so we couldn’t see anything outside the window and I fell asleep by the time we took off…
TK |
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