The legend of Chronos...
...and how he affected a Swiss rider in chosing his aim in cycling. And what this has to do with Liechtenstein and the grandma of Luigi Mastrangelo. A short story by Jens Scholz.
As he sat there speaking to himself for hours Chronos got more and more tired of running his fingers through his long grey beard. He was bored of beeing immortal and just watching stuff happen. And in the TV, Wheel of Fortune broadcasted the program from yesterday. He turned away from his beard and turned the Zodiac Wheel a bit, just for fun. Watching it, Chronos suddenly got an idea: Why not invent something to challenge time itself? Yes, there must be something that can beat Chronos himself, something that gets him out of the daily routine, and boredom. Consequently it had to be something with a wheel.
Another time, another place (Schaffhausen to be exactly), a young Swiss lad was sitting on a bike with training wheels. Gaudenz Taverna was three years old and already knew that this will be his destiny. Often he rode the street in front of his parents' house up and down for hourse, until the sun was so low that his mother called him for dinner. As the years passed, young Gaudenz extended the distance with his bike steadily, of course without training wheels. He used to stop the time with his chronometer. Everytime he rode the same distance, it took him less time to cover it. He rode like he wanted to challenge Chronos himself.
In October this year, Luigi Mastrangelo has been visited by his nonna Assunta from Sicily. Assunta, 82 years old but still alive and kicking, has not only been parenting her little Luigi the most time, but also using her free time to explore Liechtenstein, which of course did not took long to finish. So she just went for a walk every afternoon to reanimate her tired legs. Well, as she was walking around Vaduz one of these afternoons, she did not see the bike coming from the left. And the rider on the bike did not see Assunta, who is really not the tallest and thus not the most exposed person, so to say. To make the story short, Assunta was not as hurt as the rider after she hit him with her walking stick for around 10 min. and chased him through the pedestrian zone in Vaduz. 15 times. This was Gaudenz Taverna's first experience in Liechtenstein.
After Assunta was finished harassing Gaudenz, she took him home to have a look at his injuries. At the same time, Team FL team management wend to visit Luigi to talk to him about the Tour of Yemen, to convince him to ride another big stage race before he retires. And so, Gaudenz Taverna came in contact with the Liechtenstein cycling team. Of course, this could not just have happend by accident, this must have been destiny. This was his chance to ride, to get better, to get to the next level. Thus, Gaudenz Taverna signed a contract with Team FL to be their first rider specialised for time trials, to fight against time, to challenge Chronos:
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Gaudenz Taverna, 21, Time Trialist, Switzerland
53-66-75-76-54, Pave 59, Reg 42
I didn't mean to say it. But I meant what I said.
Xaver Unsinn, 21, Hill specialist, Germany
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Jean OlléOllé, 21, Sprinter, Cameroun