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MEET THE HEROeS
the series
Ivan Falvo
Discovering the world, its people and their cultures
Heroes belong to the extraordinary and to everyday life too. The motivation to ride can be triggered on the streets you already know and on new paths to be explored. Meet the Heroes is a new deep-focus series based on Ride Your Way, released to feed your dreams with stories of cyclists who made the ordinary extraordinary.
Ivan Falvo talks about his projects and successes, affirming a vision of cycling that places the focus on experience rather than performance, on the journey rather than the destination.
The bursting passion for downhill, the racing, then his travels to the world's most iconic bike parks, the mtb school, and not to forget, the commitment with children in the pediatric wards to pass them and anyone he meets all that cycling represents to him: freedom, sharing, friendship.
A dream to achieve? He has no doubts about it and says "to ride bikes on all continents, in the most spectacular places!" Ivan Falvo, downhill rider and Northwave ambassador, gave up competitions a few years ago, since he realized that he likes the adrenaline of downhill but more if combined with discovery, curiosity, sharing, getting closer to new cultures… moments that only a trip can give you. Hence the project of splitting his time between his mtb school and trips to the most iconic bike parks in the world, the latest just completed in Cappadocia, Turkey.
The first time I got on a bike was in 2011 on a trail above Genoa, with a Pininfarina (the kind they used to give at Esso petrol station) it was really a feat to have made it safely to the bottom. From that day on, however, biking became my main passion and I bought my first bike (Scott Nitrous). I have many of memorable anecdote but one that I always carry in my heart is my first trip to Canada, to Whistler, it was just a dream come true, those trails seen in hundreds of videos, the giant jumps, the nature, I love everything about that place.
"I also remember once I had to stop to give a bear time to scratch its back on a tree in the middle of a trail."
the impact of the bike
Change of life
The most difficult moment I faced was definitely the transition of biking from hobby to full-time job.
"Biking has completely turned my life upside down, in a positive way of course."
It has given me a way to fulfill myself both personally and professionally, it has introduced me to the world, and with it very different people and cultures, it has made me reach and set new goals all the time, and I will always be grateful for that!
Leaving my job to dedicate myself only to biking was' a jump into the dark, which however I felt I had to do to feel fulfilled in my life and have no regrets in the future, my parents, I am thankful to, have been crucial in this phase, they never hindered me from day 0. To this day I reap the benefits of that decision.
Social commitment
The Biketherapy
"Sorry my son was not very peppy but we just had chemo." This sentence touched me deeply and I began to think about how strange and unfair life can be!"
I remember my first time at Gaslini hospital. Vanni Oddera had invited me to do some jumping around in the wards of the oncology departments, it was Christmas Eve, when I passed by, a mom said "sorry my son was not very peppy but we just had chemo." This sentence touched me deeply and I began to think about how strange and unfair life can be, finished that performance we would go back to our respective families we would celebrate Christmas, while they remained to fight their ills, and yet they apologized to me... from that day I have never stopped helping Vanni in the Motortherapy project. At the moment I am involved in a project at ABEO-Gaslini, I make hospitalized children ride their bikes, where for a few hours a week they go back to being carefree, as every child of their age has the right to be. I hope that these projects evolve and spread so that it can become a fixed activity in every hospital!
Ivan's journey, from his beginnings to today, is a testimony to the incredible experiences one can have in the world of cycling. His passion, his commitment are not only an extraordinary affirmation of the power of the sport but also an encouragement, a source of inspiration to feel the freedom that only the two wheels make one breathe.
Photo credits:
Lorenzo Refrigeri
Matteo Cannizzaro
Valerio Parodi