He kicked off the cycling summer in June with the Randonée of the Abruzzo National Park, departing from Posta Fibreno. He continued with the first edition of Rappiandò, the Appian Way randonée, 612 km from Rome to Brindisi with 5,200 meters of elevation gain, and with a trophy reserved for young riders at Posta Fibreno in the natural reserve of the lake. He went all out with the Isola Liri Bike Festival, where he combined an evening of words and music, stories and melodies, with other competitions dedicated to young riders, and finally two randonées of 200 and 300 km. Now he is organizing the Historic Waterfalls Cycle Race: on Saturday, October 10th, a regularity time trial for pairs, from Isola del Liri to Civitavecchia di Arpino, 12 km with 420 meters of elevation gain, gathering at 2 p.m., departure at 2:30 p.m.; and on Sunday, October 11th, a non-competitive ride with vintage bikes, two routes of 39 and 84 km, gathering from 7 a.m., departure at 9 a.m.; and he even launched a slowness/track stand competition at 2:30 p.m., free entry, single-elimination heats.

Domenico Bartolomucci dreams, plans, and delivers. He proposes, schedules, and organizes. He imagines, listens, and writes. He arranges, orders, and executes. He anticipates, presents, and assists. He's a jack-of-all-trades, but also his own boss. One moment he's the errand boy, the next he's the director. A resilient president, a cyclist—captain and domestique—especially without a bicycle, but at the computer and on the phone, between homemade cakes and the coffee machine, posters to hang and signs to display, searching for ambulances and sponsors, fruit juices and institutional endorsements. Apparently tireless. And a motivator, if not of crowds, at least of family and friends, sympathizers and supporters. All in the name of cycling, or rather, the bicycle.

Domenico Bartolomucci is officially the president of Ciclistica Isola Liri-Leone Team, but practically he is a jack-of-all-trades, a think-of-everything guy, a dream-maker, and therefore a fighter and battler. He's not the only one. Cycling, indeed, sport in Italy is made up of people, now few and far between, made like this (and it's founded on people like this): immeasurable willpower, unjustified optimism, irrepressible energy. Where such willpower, optimism, and energy come from is easy to guess: in his case from a pair of wheels, in other cases from a spherical or oval ball, from a pair of skis or boxing gloves, from a net or a bar. Sixty-six years old, deeply rooted islander, a monogamous passion for Bottecchia bikes (in truth, it all begins with devotion to the legendary Ottavio, who raced on these roads in the XX Settembre of 1922 and 1923), Domenico even finds time to work—as he says—seriously. Accountant.

Because the real issue is time. Bartolomucci has—there's no other explanation—more time than others, or perhaps hours pass more slowly for him and therefore last longer. In short, for Domenico it's always Sunday. To give an example, always regarding the cycling part of his life: he built himself a website (isolaliribikefestival.it), invented a radio station (RadioBike), and mapped out cycle tourism routes (the Via del Tabacco, for example, a 66 km loop with about 500 meters of elevation gain). When an idea strikes him, by now Simonetta (his wife, unstoppable and inexhaustible), Elena and Matteo (his children), Tommaso Leone (technician, founder of the Team), and everyone else start to tremble and pray. Then, once things are done, the beautiful part is that everyone is happy and content.

Without secrets or mysteries, Bartolomucci is nurturing another dream. He's called it Liris, the ancient Latin name of the Liri River, it's a cycle route from the source (at Petrella Liri, a hamlet of Cappadocia, in Abruzzo) to the mouth (at Minturno on the Tyrrhenian Sea in Lazio), following the watercourse "discovering villages, panoramas, and surprising places". Three stages: the first from Petrella Liri to Isola del Liri, 62 km, the second from Isola del Liri to Sant'Apollinare, 58 km, the second-bis passing through Cassino, 59 km, the second-tris also passing through Atina, 59 km, the third from Sant'Apollinare to Minturno, 32 km