To live in the present above the wheel

The B side of Rodolfo Sommer:
To live in the present above the wheel

The beginning…
Rodolfo Sommer, our founding partner, behind the office and all his challenges and work responsibilities, has a great passion: cycling. Riding a bike since he was four, because during his childhood he lived in Holland where it is the most popular means of transport.

“13 years ago with a good friend, we began to go for long walks on weekends by different mountain biking trails. This lasted five years, because I started having problems with my knees,” he says.

Following a break, of two years he took up cycling, thanks to being invited to join a group of road cyclists he was hooked on cycling. “Road bikes, unlike mountain bikes, do not have an impact on the knees, in fact it is the only sport, along with swimming, I can do for fitness,” he says.

His four motivations…
“My passion for cycling has four major objectives:
The first is that it is the feeling of small journey, where one advances and lives the experience of freedom; the landscape goes by like a movie and one is renewed.
The second is that it makes for good health. I am and I have felt better, more agile, more energetic, and more alive.
The third is a relational and social sport. Relationships are built, experiences are shared with others. On trips, it is a given dynamic that we go in groups, which provides security and fosters camaraderie.
The fourth has a vein of accomplishment, one proposes certain challenges and achieves them or attempts to achieve them; it is very positive.”

Skills, lessons, rewards…
Cycling is one of the sports that you don’t have to be very psychomotor skilled, is lifelong sport that can be done until old age, and it doesn’t cause injuries. Rodolfo recognizes that you have to have strength, because it is both physically and psychologically demanding; you need to be steadfast and flexible, to face the obstacles and exhaustion.
“One of the lessons I’ve had in this sport, is” to be in the moment “; thinking about or concentrating on the road I’m on or on each push of the pedal, especially when I’m climbing a slope thinking about the summit, I’ll fail “he says.
Rodolfo doesn’t cycle thinking about goals, he likes the journey; what really drives him is the road that he follows arriving to its end; that is his reward. “I’ve learned to live more in the present, in the journey than on the ultimate goal. Now that I think less about what’s coming, I enjoy the now more and live it more intensely.”

“This sport is comparable to the workplace. As it is a team effort, so when challenges arise which we must persevere to overcome them; this positively reinforces my tenacity, in the workplace.” he says.

In 2014 he toured for a week, with a group of cyclists, in Tuscany and the Alps. His last trip in May 2015 was to Mallorca, Spain, where he toured on bike. He pedaled 700 kilometers in six days, with the French and Spaniards, a very mixed and enjoyable group. “To participate in this challenge, I trained four months before, which allowed me to get well prepared and happy.”

Finally, to Rodolfo Sommer, cycling is comprehensive “I feel more alive and that is extrapolated to the different areas of my life.”