RACE ACROSS THE WEST 2024 Two days have passed since Fabia’s victorious arrival at the RAW, since those three days and three nights where we lived inside a bubble of fatigue, concentration, contrasting emotions, dangers and real resurrections. Fabia was more extraordinary than I expected, she reacted to the heat stroke of the first day, to the fall at night due to strong wind, to the sleep deprivation (she closed her eyes for a total of 1h), to the changes in temperature (from 48 degrees to 12 in 8 hours), to the differences in height difference, to the altitude (half the race above 2000 meters), to the desert, to the monotony of the eternal straightways of Arizona… she has always been positive, calm and with a big smile.
For my side, I managed to be always focused on Fabia, constantly and continuously trying to understand and anticipate her needs in order intervene preventively and promptly on all aspects related to nutrition, mental strenght, technical support, lack of sleep. A continuous support and monitoring for three entire days and nights with no breaks. Michelangelo and Guido have been fantastic and always ready to support in anything required from feeding, hydrating, icing, bike changes and so on.
On day two we worked all together and in sync to enable Fabia to keep cycling in the desert connecting and supporting her with anything needed every 10 minutes. This worked out perfectly and naturally with no planning. In this type of races is not possible to plan, it is required to manage ‘by sight’ and be fast to react and anticipate with one single objective: Fabia! Everything has been documented by Andrea who in addition to filming and interviewing in challenging conditions, has never held back from helping in the most critical moments. Fabia won and has shown that she has truly special qualities for ultraendurance.
Physical and mental strength but above all a formidable quality of recovery with resources that seem never ending. What an intensive three days of life we have been through!! Amazing! Well done!!!