Giro d'Italia cyclist turns delivery man to stay fit

[Photo: Courtesy]

He really should be training for the Giro d’Italia instead of making deliveries during the coronavirus pandemic. But how else is a professional Italian cyclist supposed to stay fit?

At least that is what Umberto Marengo was thinking when he decided to pull on his lycra and start hauling pasta and pizza across the suburbs of the northern Italian city of Turin.

Marengo and his little Italian team Vini Zabu-KTM are still trying to gain a measure of respectability on the professional tour circuit.

The KTM riders considered themselves lucky to have even qualified for one of the three Grand Tours.

But the Giro will not be starting on May 9 because of the virus that has officially killed almost 26,000 across the Mediterranean country.

The 27-year-old had little to do but sit at home with his girlfriend. The subject of ice cream came up and Marengo’s new career soon followed.

“We searched the internet and found this ice cream parlour making home deliveries,” Marengo recalls.

Marengo got in touch with the mayor and was soon speeding along abandoned city streets on his racing bike -- a rucksack full of deli sandwiches strapped to his back.

“The customers are all amazed,” Marengo admits.

“Especially since I always try to go up by the stairs to stay that little bit fitter.”

Marengo and the other riders will soon drop what they are doing and enter extreme training regimes.

The KLM rider says delivering food has been rewarding -- although maybe not terribly useful for staying racer-fit.

“This is mainly to stay useful to my community,” he says.

He makes up to 30 deliveries a day and has managed to set a personal lockdown record by riding 70 kilometres in a day.