During March and April 2020, retail businesses in Italy came to a halt due to government measures imposed to contain the Covid-19 epidemic. This article was written to illustrate the efforts of one of my clients, New Bike, in maintaining “contact” with their customers and with everyone who found themselves cycling within the four walls of their home
Cristian, 51 years old, shopkeeper, athletic trainer, and mental coach from the province of Reggio Emilia, faced the challenge of COVID-19 by putting the experience he gained over years of work “on the rollers,” sharing it on the YouTube channel of his business, New Bike.
“I’m nobody, I’m just someone who turned his passion for cycling into his job. And I felt the responsibility to make the world around me a little better by sharing my passion and knowledge. The messages from those who follow me are filling me with satisfaction.”
Reggio Emilia, April 15, 2020. It has now been more than a month since the restrictive measures to prevent the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 have paralyzed Italy, freezing most activities: the production of non-essential goods and services, the marketing of such products, and even retail sales.
Sports activities at all levels have also been “locked down,” confining everyone – from professional athletes to amateurs – to a rather alienating indoor exercise routine, especially due to the lack of social interaction, physical contact, and locker room conversations that make sports essential for human well-being, both physical and emotional.
“When I was informed that I could no longer keep the shop open and could no longer perform the activities I’ve been doing for years, I asked myself: how can I continue to support what I’ve built along with my long-time collaborators? How can I share the knowledge I’ve acquired over all these years in cycling training and coaching without physically interacting with people? How can I help amateur and professional cyclists who now find themselves confined within four walls?”
Cristian looks out from his shop in the province of Reggio Emilia, the shutter down, the street empty. For twenty years, he and his wife have been running a business selling bikes and cycling accessories. But not only that.
“I wanted to turn my passion into a job, to pass this passion on to as many people as possible. I opened a bike shop, created a cycling team, underwent various training programs, and today I’ve become a sports trainer as well as a mental coach specializing in endurance sports. I’m still an athlete myself, with my competitive goals always clear in mind.”
“In coaching, we often talk about ‘well-formed goals,’ but beyond that, I think it’s essential to always find new mental and physical stimuli. Only in this way can we always find the motivation and drive to push beyond our limits. This forced confinement requires us to maintain our ‘daily routines’ as much as possible, those of the pre-COVID-19 era, so to speak. At the same time, we need to find ways to avoid falling into apathy, which I think is the hardest thing to achieve under the current conditions.”
“The question I asked myself was: how can I offer new stimuli, new concepts, new motivations, and new training routines while also keeping alive that sense of social interaction, those interpersonal relationships, and those exchanges with others that, until recently, might have seemed trivial and sometimes even annoying, but which today are what make our days more bearable?”
“The tools at my disposal were social media, which we had long been using to promote our services and share tips on bike maintenance and cycling techniques. So I thought that sharing my experience as a trainer and mental coach live on YouTube might be the best way to stay connected with and help the members of the shop’s team and our existing followers. But I never expected such a result, reaching people from all over Italy and even Italians living abroad.”
“Every week I offer six live workouts on YouTube: a healthy dose of effort, spontaneity, and genuineness in executing the exercises, varied workouts that stimulate both body and mind, and interactions with real people. You should read the chat messages… they’re truly hilarious! What I want to convey is that I’m training alongside those watching me, and first and foremost, I’m a cyclist: the effort is the same, the challenges are the same, the daily issues are the same. Talking during the live streams is hard, and I don’t use background music because I want to leave it up to each participant to choose their own music. Or they can have a little ‘chat’ with me, just like on a real bike ride.”
“Perhaps six training days and one rest day might seem excessive to an amateur cyclist. But the beauty of this kind of ‘online activity’ is that everyone is free to manage their workouts as they wish, whenever they wish. Of course, the ‘live element’ is undeniably appealing: knowing you’re training alongside others is more motivating, as is the ability to chat in real time and maybe even joke around a bit. It helps reduce the perception of effort, relieve tension, and foster a sense of community.”
“It took about ten lessons before I could present things ‘my way’ and transform the concepts and preparations I typically use with individual athletes from a personalized context to a group one. I had to rethink everything and make it feasible for any athlete or cyclist, with various abilities and using a wide range of indoor cycling equipment, from simple exercise bikes to high-tech machines.”
“All of this gives me strong motivation to keep searching, digging, and constantly finding the positive, the fun, and the potential meaning in everything we’re experiencing during this COVID period.”
“I also have moments when I question the meaning of everything that’s happening, feel demoralized, and see a big question mark over the future of this shop and the economy. When that happens, I re-read the messages from those who are following me on this journey, like Matteo from Bologna, whose words moved me and continue to do so:
You’ve become a star… of indoor cycling…
Soon you’ll even be in the top sports newspapers…
And… there’s nothing more to say, your simplicity, your commitment, and above all your consistency, combined with the desire to convey the feelings you have inside, resulting in a unique passion for cycling in all its facets, have made you an icon I never would have imagined…
Your lessons reach the hearts and bodies of cycling enthusiasts, carried by the emotion and passion you put into all of this…
There are no words to thank you enough, but I’ll just say this…
The late De Zan would have said…
Chapeau, dear Cristian 👍🏻😊
“I’m not saying that a pandemic of this magnitude has a purpose, but each of us has the power, and perhaps the duty, to try to make the world around us a little better. And if we all made this great effort, we could reach the point where we return to having a normal life around us, living the days that separate us from that goal in a more peaceful and happy way.
I’m doing my part, what could you do?”
