Marcello Pacifici

All my best childhood memories are related to cycling. As soon as I got old enough to spend the afternoons alone I started exploring the world around me by bike. Racing with friends, jumping on the rocks with my MTB, eating mud in the park and dreaming about Pantani’s Bianchi before going to bed. What a life!
Then, a couple of close encounters with heavy trucks and a dark adolescence put cycling on hold and led me to the guitar, which I played and taught professionally for ten years. I still play gigs and compose now or then but it’s not my main activity anymore.
Fast forward to year 2018, where I relocated to Helsinki from my hometown Roma.The incredible nature that surrounds the Finnish capital, the ease of reaching it and the excellent cycling infrastructures made me fall in love with cycling again. During the first months I spent here I used Helsinki’s bike sharing to get to know and discover the wonderful city. Then I bought a cyclocross bike, soon replaced by a more versatile gravel bike, and a single speed to commute short distances. I cycle every day, no matter the weather.
To me cycling means freedom, exploration, adventure and fitness without being competitive, if not with myself. My brain is spinning all the time with thousands travel ideas, countless melodies and five different languages. I speak Swedish and Finnish at work and in everyday life, I also use English and Spanish in my social life and Italian with my family and old friends. My head is a mess!
When I’m on the saddle only the wheels, chain and cranks of my bikes are spinning. The heart rate and the sound of the wind rise but the brain is silent, cycling is my meditation.