Time is a tyrant, but so is space. In fact, the two are accomplices: time saturates space. And with Covid or summer, comes the moment of spring cleaning. You start by trying to clear the attic, you settle for liquidating a cardboard box. And among bags, folders and files, irresistible clippings emerge. Like this article of mine on Sergio Bianchetto, from "La Gazzetta dello Sport" of February 10, 1999.

You say Bianchetto and "I remember a kid – says Sergio Bianchetto, from Padua in Torre di Ponte di Brenta – who wanted to be a boxer, one day he entered a gym, the first thing he did was see a broken nose, the second thing he did was run away from the gym. That kid was me. I worked as an electric welder. I tried cycling: my father bought me a white bike for outings, I made a fake license because I was too young, until I participated in my first race, all together, including amateurs and independents. They lapped me".

You say Bianchetto and you think of cycling. "I think about what I did for cycling – Bianchetto recalls, turning 60 next week -. My father would wake me up at three-thirty in the morning with hot water to wash my face, hot milk and biscuits, and pumped tires. From four to seven I would ride around the Euganean Hills on my bike, 80 km, dark and cold in winter, dawn and goosebumps in summer. At home hot water in a tub in the kitchen to wash myself, then from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon working, with my father driving me on his Mosquito. Then on the track, for two hours, with Severino Rigoni. In the evening, to fall asleep, I didn't need chamomile or valerian".

You say Bianchetto and you think of the track. "The most beautiful specialty – swears Bianchetto, Italian, world and Olympic champion – is the kilometer from a standing start: ready, go, one minute with your heart in your throat, end of suffering and you immediately have the result. The most unnatural specialty is the tandem: to succeed you have to be born on it. The most complete specialty is the sprint: head and legs, tactics and strength, psychology and power, courage and ruthlessness. Then the Six-Day races: I competed in about twenty of them, my best result was second place in Montreal".

You say Bianchetto and you think of Beghetto. "'Bepo' was a force of nature – guarantees Bianchetto, today coordinator of track activities in Italy -. On the tandem they called us 'the sons of the wind': me in front, him behind, like a motorcycle. In those days anyway you earned little. At first we traveled by train, bikes in the freight car, two training wheels to go from the station to the velodrome, two racing wheels kept in the backpack to ride on the track. Then we would leave with a car for two, better his Appia coupé than my Fiat 850, we slept in shifts so as not to waste money on hotels, but at least we ate well. In Paris 'potage', 'escargot' and even a little cognac. Since we always split everything in half, what one ate the other had to eat too. And at home I got special treatment: when I ate steak, my sister got figs. She still hasn't forgiven me for that".