Cycling is my world

I still remember my first bike rides, one after the other, I remember the first fatigues, the first skinned knees, the first disappointments but also the first conquests, the first victories.

I was 8 years old, I practised short track and I immediately fell in love with the bicycle. It was all a beautiful game, individual in some aspects but a source of sharing. With the dorsal number attached, we looked no one in the face… but after the races, it was a party, we were a united group, a big family.

The years passed quickly, cycling was my Italian school of life, in addition to my schooling. With many sacrifices, sweat and a lot of effort came the first important results, those successes that really count and give pride even after many years.

I turned pro, and for 7 years, cycling was my entire life, a bubble where everything revolves around the two wheels. I would summarise these years as a seesaw of beautiful and difficult moments. The most beautiful views can be seen from the top of the mountain but sometimes it's really hard to get there and when you start missing certain sensations, certain emotions, that's the time to get off the bike professionally.

It's never easy to make a decision like that, and before making this decision I started looking around me for a new challenge, a new passion to cultivate and that's when I discovered the art of sports massage. Thanks also to the experience I had had on myself, I immediately found a special feeling with massage, and I believe that being able to make others feel good makes me feel good too.

I still found myself in the professional cycling world - I was simply on the other side of the road, as a soigneur of a professional team, sometimes the Swiss national team; understanding the needs of my cyclists, feeling their difficult moments, but also enjoying the victories. I was part of a team, winning and losing together.

I continued with my studies and enrolled at the Pegaso University part of the School of Sport of Coni in Sport Science, but never abandoned the bike. On several occasions I was a cycling guide for foreign tour operators, I entered fixed gear races, worked as a director at a premium cycle clothing company… As time passed, I realised I had come a full 360 degrees and that cycling is my world and a bike is what makes my heart go boom boom.

After graduating with a degree in sport science, it was time to pursue the things that made my heart beat faster, so I got up on the pedals and went my own way. I opened my own studio as an athletic trainer, a sports masseuse, but I call myself a Personal Health Coach because everything revolves around well-being, feeling good, physical performance is a consequence of that, of one's own balance.

And I am also proud to be part of the Grand Tour Project family, and able to be a cycle guide at these magnificent racing and touring events. When you have a passion in your blood it's good to keep it alive.

What a life, what a beautiful, beautiful ride.

I look forward to seeing you en route and at the Grand Tours.

Happy cycling

Elena Valentini