At the Trentino Alto Adige regional athletics championships in Bolzano, the now forty-year-old (and in three and a half months he'll be 41) Alex Schwazer overwhelmingly won the 10 km race walk in the Master 40 category with a world record for the category: 38'24''07 was his time, the eighth-best overall in this year's international ranking, the fourth-best Italian of all time after those (better by less than a minute) by Massimo Stano, Francesco Fortunato and Ivano Brugnetti; last but not least, it's his personal record. Even better than when he became an Olympic champion.

But why are you reading this news on a cycling website? Trackside, as the coach who's been following Schwazer since he returned from his doping suspension last year, was Domenico Pozzovivo. As he told us in episode 270 of our podcast BlaBlaBike in mid-May, the former Lucanian cyclist took advantage of the end of his long career to launch into multiple activities, not just related to cycling: standing alongside the South Tyrolean race walker yesterday brought him great joy. Congratulations Alex, congratulations Domenico!

PH. DAMETTO - FIDAL ALTO ADIGE SUDTIROL