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I arrive at the parking lot around 9.20, about twenty minutes later than expected. The car thermometer reads -2. After a few steps I realize I've forgotten my backpack and go back to pick it up, even though I wonder if I'll really need it (and actually I'll never open it, I won't even take it off my shoulders). I don't know how far the race course is, but I think a lot: after a while it becomes clear that I will only glimpse the first competition, moreover without a binocular (I forgot it). Most of the people ahead of me go quiet, they don't seem to care. At 9.35 (the first race's start time I'm at the park gates and it's not clear how far the race course is: I'll get there 6-7 minutes later.
Naturally I stop in the first place I find, which is at the end of a descent: I see some athletes go by, without even understanding what position they are in. Then I start to leave, because I heard a bell and so I was convinced it was the last lap. Shortly after, however, I see the leaders pass on the other side, towards the beginning of the uphill section and I understand that the bell was from some fans: in reality there are still two laps. At first, I don't even understand who is in the lead as I am busy photographing him: I contravened my rule "you either live or film". I also see that the Italians are behind, but I don't understand how much. At the last passage I see an Irishman leading, followed by a Briton, another Irishman and two more Britons. I also count the athletes before the first Italian: they are 35. When, after the end, I will be able to see the screen, I will find out that the British won
After the race, I try to move to a more central position. You cannot go along the course, because shortly after you enter an area reserved for accredited visitors. I hear that nearby you can cross it and I get in line, but they say there is little time before the start of the U20 girls and they only let you cross it on the way out. Having to stay on this side, I settle along the descent, where you can see, from near or far, the entire ups and downs: there are still many free places. At the first lap a British is in the lead, at the second she will be joined by a Spanish, at the third the Spanish has taken off and the British has remained behind: in the end the first British, I don't know if it's the same, will be 17th. At the beginning it seems that the Italians are doing a little better than the boys: one can see one around 15th place, but on the second lap she will already be over 20th and on the third over 30th. She will close 32nd, and to find another Italian, we will have to go to 45th place.
Luckily the mixed relay comes next, where the music should change. I only move a little, upwards. When you see the athletes uphill for the first time, expectations are not disappointed: Italy is in the lead and will be even more clearly in the downhill passage. The athletes don't have names, but the Italian is easily recognizable: it's Arese, who will finish his leg with a 4-second lead. On the other hand, it will be more difficult to recognize the second fractionist, who is also in the lead. Seeing her from afar she looks like Sabbatini to me, but only after she passes in front of me (and I cheer her on with the wrong name) do I realize that she is Del Buono. From the website I will discover that she closed the leg in second place, overtaken by the Romanian. When the third fractionists pass, Italy will still be in the lead, with Bouih, followed by France and Spain: Romania will have lost a lot. We arrive at the last leg: when Sabbatini appears uphill (this time for real) she is third after Spain and France, but behind them there is a void, so at least a medal seems certain. At the start of the descent the Frenchwoman falls down, so when they disappear from my sight Spain is just ahead of Italy, with France just behind. We have to imagine the final, but from the reaction of the public near the finish line it would seem that Sabbatini has won and the website confirms it.
I finally cross the course: it's time for the victory ceremonies. We start with the U20 races, first individual, then team event. The Irish celebrate three medals: they are very numerous, the largest foreign group together with the French. Then the victory ceremonies stops and it's almost time for the start of the men's U23 race, so I think the mixed relay victory ceremony will take place later and I find a place. I reject the idea of staying in the finish area: there are too many people and then you wouldn't see much of the course, I look for a place on the hill that allows me to see the ups and downs and, turning around, to catch a glimpse of the finish line. When I've reached the top, instead, there's the victory ceremony of the mixed relay: you hear someone singing the anthem, but nothing comparable to the European swimming championships.
The men's U23 race starts 8 minutes late. Two Britons take the lead, followed by a Frenchman and they will make the gap more and more. In one lap, distracted by my neighbours' conversation and misled by the shouts of the French, I miss the passage of the Briton, I think the Frenchman is in the lead. For a good part of the race the best Italian is Alfieri, who remains just in the 20, then he falls behind, but in return Fontana Granotto recovers to 14th place: with Alfieri 25th and Vecchi 30th we are fifth in the team event.
And we arrive at the other key race for us: the women's U23. However, a race that risks giving more pain than joy, given that any place other than first would be a big disappointment for Battocletti. I place myself a little higher than in the men's race. At the first lap you can already see Battocletti in the lead and Arnaudo very close to the first, then Arnaudo will give way, but on the other hand other Italians will recover. On the last climb Battocletti is still together with a British woman, but when she reappears on the descent she is alone and will make a gap more and more. I see the finish: she wins by 13 seconds. With Bado 14th and Selva 16th we win the team silver, behind Great Britain, and even without Battocletti (in case she had competed with the seniors) it would still have been a bronze.
I have to cross the course again because, at least from what I've seen, the toilets are only on the other side. I don't have time to get back, so for the senior women's race I have to position myself in one of the few places left fren:e along the descent. On the first pass, Can is seen in the lead, followed by Grovdal and Klosterhafen downhill the German's anomalous arm-wavingis even more noticeable. Towards the middle of the race, a Greek stops right in front of me, touching her thigh: it will pass quite a while before someone helps her or even just covers her (given the temperature). On the fourth lap I no longer see Can and I think I've missed her, but she's 12th: but then she won't be seen anymore for real, she'll withdraw. Among the Italians, Reina starts, around 15th place, then 20th, then she seems to slip towards 30th, but she will come back up to 21st. The second Italian will instead arrive 36th and the third even 50th (out of 63). In the last 4 places, 2 Italians and 2 Greeks. The last one, an Italian, in the penultimate lap I begin to fear will be lapped: she is coming down while the first ones are already going back up, in the end she will avoid being lapped, but not by much. The last descent arrives with Klosterhafen in front of Grovdal and a platoon of German women: 4 overall in the first 6, but then I discover that Grovdal won.
For the men's senior race I plan to go back to the other side of the course, but first I get the idea of getting some food. Then I give up because there is a queue and in the meantime the race has already started: I have to see it from the climb and in the second line, there are no more free spots. I move higher and higher hoping to find one, then resign myself to second line. After a while, listening to the conversations of those in front of me, I discover that one of them is Andra Lalli. He says he stopped due to injuries (he is still only 35 years old) and that he is very envious of those who still compete. He also says that his problem was being a specialist in a non-Olympic event like cross-country and for this reason he tried to transform himself into something he wasn't.
At the first lap you even see three Italians in the lead: Chiappinelli ahead of Y. Crippa and O. Zoglami. In the group I don't see J. Ingebritsen (I see his brothers instead) so much so that I wonder if he hasn't given up at the last moment, but he's already fourth on lap two and in the lead on third lap. Crippa always stays close to the leaders, but slightly behind, Chiappinelli and Zoglami a little further behind, but still in a good position. There is a group of Gibraltarians (including a 50-year-old and a 48-year-old) who immediately stay behind and by the fourth lap they will be lapped. In the last lap the lapped will be many, so much so that it will be difficult to distinguish the placements. We arrive at the last climb with a group of three in the lead and Crippa shortly after, who is fighting for fourth place, but can still hope for one of the top three to collapse. We also see that for the team competition it is a head-to-head fight between Italy and France. When they pass before me downhill, Ingebritsen has made a gap and looks around: it almost seems that he has done it on purpose to keep the race uncertain until almost the end. It ends with Crippa 4th, Chiappinelli 8th and Zoglami 13th (and of course Ingebritsen 1st): France wins the team event by one point over Italy.
I'd like to cross the course again for the victory ceremonies, but we have to wait for the last Gibraltarian, who will arrive 13 minutes behind, while Ingebritsen is already signing autographs along the way. At the beginning of the victory ceremonies, I feel suddenly tired I've been standing for five hours and until just before I was surprised I wasn't. I decide to see only those of the U23, individual and team, then I grab some food and go . The way back seems much longer than the outward journey and I'm also afraid of having trouble finding mycar, also considering that I don't know it well (it's a rented one): then I find it also thanks to a French minibus, which I remembered was nearby.
I head to the airport, fortunately against the tide. And with this, the sport events of 2022 are over.
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