"I touched the sky with a finger, he is an absolute god to me": Two full-time workers live the World Cup dream alongside Van der Poel

In the ultra-modern and exclusive world of road cycling, the door to the pro peloton usually slams shut if you haven't made it by your early twenties. There are no contracts waiting for 26-year-olds with full-time jobs. However, cyclocross remains a unique discipline where passion and a valid license can still buy you a ticket to the biggest show on earth.

This is the story of Gabriele Spadoni and Marco Marzani, two friends from the Emilia region of Italy. They are not hunting for World Tour contracts. They are a management engineer and a personal trainer who spend their weeks in offices and gyms. Yet, for a few magical weekends this winter, they found themselves racing wheel-to-wheel with Mathieu van der Poel.

Racing for the small Piacenza-based team Cicli Manini, the pair ventured to Belgium and the sunny coast of Benidorm, Spain, to compete in major international events including the World Cup.

The contrast between their amateur reality and the professional environment was immediate. In Belgium, they found themselves parking their modest camper van right next to the massive team bus of Team Visma | Lease a Bike.

"In Belgium we immediately noticed a different atmosphere, truly amazing. The organization is incredible. We're nobody, we race for a small team, made up of just a few people, but they assigned us a spot a few meters from Visma | Lease a Bike. As soon as we parked our camper next to their bus, kids and children with their parents immediately came to ask us for postcards. We were shocked because we didn't have any and we couldn't accommodate them. We'll definitely get them next year," they told bici.pro.

The atmosphere was unlike anything they had experienced in Italy. At the race in Mol, they warmed up while 13,000 fans watched in the snow. "It's unthinkable for us," Marzani added. "We aren't famous riders, but they made us feel important."

If the fans provided the atmosphere, the riders provided the awe. For Spadoni, the trip to Benidorm offered a moment that most cycling fans can only dream of: sharing the course with the World Champion, Mathieu van der Poel.

During the course reconnaissance, Spadoni found himself directly behind the Dutch superstar. "I asked him if I could stay on his wheel," Spadoni recalled. "While he was saying yes, he noticed I was pedaling on a camouflage Stevens bike. He told me he had won a World Championship on that bike."

The interaction didn't end there. "He smiled, thanked me, and told me to try following his lines in the most critical points," Spadoni said. "I touched the sky with a finger. He is an absolute god to me, but he was so available and calm."

The surreal nature of the moment hit Spadoni when he returned to his desk job on Monday morning. "I got chills just thinking about it. Even my colleagues understood my state of mind."

What makes this story remarkable is that both riders have already embraced what most aspiring athletes fear: "Plan B." They are successful professionals who have built lives outside of the sport.

Marzani, born in 2000, holds a master's degree in sports posture and works as a personal trainer, squeezing in 15 hours of training a week. Spadoni, also a dedicated family man with a four-year-old daughter and another child on the way, is a management engineer who trains during his lunch breaks.

"I started from zero two years ago, putting aside my pride," Spadoni concluded. "I have no intention of going back to racing like I did before. But I have no regrets. I would do the same path again because it led me to live a daydream."