Once she was innovative circus performer. Now she is a successful Athlete, The native of Germany, Silke Pan defended at the Giro d’italia, the hand bikers in Turin impressive your title.
The dog lies at the feet of Silke Pan – sleeps deeply relaxed. A good sign: the top-of-the athlete – like the four-legged Jim – still not in the competition mode. You just arrived, starting on the day before the race first with your companion for the entire course of the race, to get a feel for the route. In the car, is still cordoned off in the busy city centre of Turin nothing.
4,78 kilometers are overcome at the last, decisive stage of the Giro d’italia, the hand bikers. A race through the heart of the city of Turin, on asphalt roads, little slope, only a few sharp curves. But Silke Pan not shy so what is as a professional Athlete. She was born in Germany, but lives for over 25 years in Switzerland, a mountain and a race with extreme hairpin curves is used.
Mountain trails and road race
Silke Pan in a conversation with the chief organizer Giorgio Jacontino
On a flat track, it depends on other aspects, says the experienced hand biker: a good place to Start, quick to travel forward and continuously, with the power to keep up the pace. In the end, it’ll be on every second, you can lose quickly by too wide a curve guide.
2017 Silke Pan is ridden the Giro d’italia in para-Cycling. The Giro is the hand-bikers is not as a media event, like the legendary Giro d’italia, the cyclists, in all the TV shows and the sports media is reported. After seven stage wins, you drove in the last year of the total victory for Italy. For Italy? Yes. Silke Pan has received from the weltrad Cycling Federation UCI, a dual-license, you for Germany or for Italy are allowed to drive.
Your chances of getting the pink Jersey of the winner in the overall standings of the women are large. But the pressure to succeed her to be noted on the day before the race, the petite wheelchair athlete is unusually serious. But as a former circus artist, you can turn the Smile professionally. Only someone who knows you well, can feel the tension in her posture.
Road races are the most dangerous
Always: companion dog Jim
In the Sunny courtyard of the Palazzo Beni Stablili, the European headquarters of the US-American energy company EATON, is not to hear much car noise. EATON is the main sponsor of the Giro d’italia di handbike. Outside, the evening rush hour, the industry is roaring in the city of Turin in multi-lane roads. It smells strongly of exhaust fumes. But from Sunday morning 7 am is cordoned off everything for the road race, a truck brings the shut-off grid.
Chief organizer Marco Mazzola is nervous. The protests of the local residents, who claim their drive-through paths and ancestral Parking, disturb the meticulously planned preparations. But the safety of the racers, the boards with a top speed of almost 40 km/h over the Asphalt. On the flat bike the hand bikers have only limited visibility, pedestrians on the track, you could not react in time. And accidents in such a high speed quickly lead to dangerous crashes.
“Giving up is no Alternative”
Mountain races are among the Strengths of Silke Pan. At the world Championships 2016 in Swiss Nottwil, she won the silver medal for the German world Cup squad. Your greatest sporting challenge, she says with glowing eyes in the DW-Interview, however, the eight Swiss Alpine passes have been, she has climbed with the hand-bike – lying down, what to focus, when you mount again, greatly to the rear shifted. But the wheelchair athlete brings to their size only a little weight on the hand bike, which was a big advantage on the mountain, she says.
Before Silke Pan has entered the competitive sport of professional hand-Cycling, she was a circus performer – floor acrobatics and trapeze art. From Childhood she is accustomed to hard, disciplined Training. Pain were part of everyday life in the circus. A tragic accident eleven years ago from seven-Meter height, which was not caught by a safety net, brought about the rupture in your life. Since then, she’s in a wheelchair. A physiotherapist in the Paraplegic hospital in Nottwil in Switzerland, brought to you with the recumbent in contact. And the racing was up to the challenge.
Last Stage Of The Giro In Turin
Title successfully defended: Silke Pan
Since the spring of 2018, the professional athletes of the different Nations are for the Giro d’italia on the road. The Start was at 4. April in the Northern Italian seaside resort of Abano Terme, we went in the summer, Cassino, Prato, Rocca Rossa and 23. September and then on the difficult course in the mountain village of Castagneto Carducci. Narrow roads, unpredictable gradients, all of that came to the high speed of the hand bikers. On average, the hand-biker driving 30 km/h.
All six preceding stages had won Silke Pan. The final stage on Sunday was not at all nervousness difficult As a day winner and as the winner in the overall classification, they rode in the Giro d’italia, all of the scores. Mental strength is hugely important for para-cycler smallest interference factors can be a real Handicap.
After the third round Silke Pan caught the front of her moving men, were launched minutes before your class WH 4, and moved all over the outside of the professional athletes. With a Smile she ran over the finish line. Has won with a clear lead in the top time of 1:13:39 4,78 km. First-class risks, says the Moderator of the ceremony, as you will be presented with the Pink Jersey of the overall winner in their category of loss. Jim, your companion dog can’t resist at the mention of your Name, the Aufjaulen. He is glad that the racing world is finally over.