Why do you do it? They ask him. And he, with that smile of a decent person who knows how to face life, simply answers "because I like it". Far from appearing, what thrills Maurizio Pivetta is getting to know. Forming friendships with champions. Far from filling his hotel: it's closed for the season, guests are all in friends' facilities, because for him the Jesolo Bike Festival is an opportunity for sports promotion, a moment to produce culture, entertainment, and territorial promotion.

For Maurizio Pivetta, 61-year-old adopted from Jesolo – since he was born in San Donà di Piave – it's the festival of passion, his and those who nurture an authentic obsession with two wheels. The only illness that's good not to cure "that might even degenerate, but that's perfectly fine," says the satisfied president of Team Jesolo 88.

Three days of celebration, packed with initiatives. From the 17th to the 19th, for the twelfth edition of the Jesolo Bike Festival which has now become a renowned appointment, a moment of absolute-level aggregation.

Among the most anticipated events, the traditional "Ride with the Champion", alongside a legend like Beppe Saronni, winner of two Giro d'Italia, a World Championship, and prestigious Classics like Sanremo and Lombardia, who Saturday evening answered questions from Beppe Conti, during the Gala evening organized in his honor. "It's nice to know that Moser the good one is in the room – he says amusedly, the champion from Parabiago, accompanied by Laura, his wife, when he learns that Moreno Moser is present -. It's beautiful to feel the fans' affection after so many years: this is also a small magic."

Playing with memories, like a magician pulling out anecdotes as if they were rabbits, Beppe Conti, a reference writer for Tuttosport for a lifetime, today a state TV commentator and the ideal sidekick to the other Beppe, the "boss". "My greatest satisfaction? Having forced a die-hard Moser fan like Beppe Conti to write a book with me: to write about how great I was too," he laughs heartily.

The evening is a continuous dance between present and past. Among those present (almost 200 people) Gianbattista Baronchelli and Claudio Bortolotto, the already mentioned Moreno Moser and Simone Fraccaro, Stefano Zanatta and Sergio Scremin, Riccardo Magrini and Davide Cassani, Francesco Chicchi and Paolo Slongo to name just a few. The past is what is being recounted, with abundance of details, with jokes and teasing, among everyone, without holding back.

It's a noisy evening made of words and laughter, references and counter-references, delicious dishes and toasts for a better future. The happiest of all, needless to say, Maurizio Pivetta, who tears up the schedule transforming it into a moving staircase (cit Riccardo Magrini): he seems like a child with his colored marbles, only tonight they are here in flesh and blood. Maurizio can't contain himself, jumping from one side of the King's Club stage in Jesolo, like a Pippo Baudo at Sanremo. Roberto Pella is equally overwhelming, president of the Professional Cycling League, who is here to thank Maurizio and Monica – the president of Team 88's wife, for what they do and how they do it.

Roberto Bettini, who has never missed an evening in these twelve years, is the evening's witness with his "eye": he observes and shoots. Maurizio is drunk with happiness, in this cauldron that seems like a magic box. Abracadabra, here's Beppe Saronni. The images scroll, Riccardo Magrini recalls the voice of legendary Adriano De Zan, Davide Cassani provides support. "Beppe, don't go..." He says Riccardo De Zan, while many shout it.

Maurizio receives only compliments, many thanks, and one recommendation: Mau, see you here next year. "No doubt about it," he says moved, as if he had found the missing sticker in a never-completed album, as if he were living a 3D virtual reality with open eyes: but it's all real.