First filming in the cold under the Pietra di Bismantova and in a Parmigiano Reggiano cheese factory, then an Olympic-tinted aperitif with skier Giuliano Razzoli and former coach Davide Cassani, and finally a visit to Razzoli's jewel-like vinegar cellar topped with a dinner of Emilian flavors. A special birthday for Paolo Bettini in Castelnuovo ne' Monti, one of the stops on his GiroExpress that will recount curiosities and beauties of the start and finish locations of the pink race in May. A forty-day journey under the direction of Giovanni Lucci and his crew, lived with the contagious spirit that has always accompanied the Cycling Cricket.

That spirit was also felt Tuesday evening at Onda della Pietra, where Bettini's 51 years were celebrated in one of the first events of Giro ne' Monti, the calendar of events that the Reggio Apennine town will experience until May 21st, the day of the first historic pink stage finish. Before cutting the splendid cake made by the brilliant host, young chef Fabio Lusetti, there was time for memories and jokes, skits that cycling protagonists never deny themselves. Like the one with Cassani in recalling the Athens gold: 'Before the start of the Olympic race, I told Davide and Bulbarelli, who would do the TV commentary, that I would win. So they asked me to greet them when I would cross the finish line: imagine if I would have remembered, after five hours of racing in that heat. And yet: at the finish I turned towards the stage where they were narrating the race...', Bettini recalls. Adding an unforgettable detail in his own way: 'It doesn't end here: in the award zone, Cassani approaches me and asks if he can take my race number from the bike frame as a memento. In that celebration chaos, it was the last thing on my mind and I let him do it. By doing so, I lost a collector's bike, since according to agreements with my team, all bikes from important victories were delivered to me at the end of the season: not that one because, without the race number on the frame, it was mistaken for a spare bike and sold', the Olympic champion's regret.

After greeting and moving Bruno Reverberi with a personal memory ('The year I turned professional, when my team closed, he was the first to call me and tell me that if I needed a spot, he always had one for me: he's a technician who has always had foresight...'), to the crowded Castelnuovo audience Bettini explained the meaning of the three gunshot mimes at the Stuttgart finish line during his second world championship triumph: 'I was coming from a complicated week, where everyone had attacked me a bit, from the UCI to the German city's mayor, for sports political issues. I remember receiving a solidarity phone call from a politician from these parts, Romano Prodi, who was then President of the European Commission, scandalized because the Germans had declared me persona non grata. I premeditated that gesture at the finish line: it referred to the three lawsuits I would file at the police station the next morning, where I showed up at eight, accompanied by my lawyer and Alessandro Tegner, with the just-won world champion jersey draped over my shoulder'.

Applause, laughter, gags with presenter Luca Simonelli, a commemorative photo with Mayor Emanuele Ferrari and his spokesperson Luca Tondelli, who were also born on April 1st, selfies and autographs, then off on the roads of 'his' Giro, to the home of Razzoli, who, to stay in line with Bettini and the beautiful evening atmosphere, explained that 'skiing is also a sport where you work and struggle a lot, but unlike cyclists, we have one fortune: we face mountains going downhill'.