The Weekly Rider - Adrian Zanardo
Adrian Zanardo is the Weekly rider! he's a professional university student/aspiring academic filling in time as a graphic designer and photographer. He's also the Co-founder and resident mountain goat at Soup Boys Cycling.
After he 'crashed a bike' in November, he's hoping his knee heals in time for cyclocross season but keeps hitting it on every surface available.... and, importantly, challenged Lachy Morton to a game of downball and was comprehensively beaten.
Images - Joshua Thomas and Andy Rogers aka Fame & Spear
Adrian Zanardo - Inner North West Melbourne
Dream Bike
In one sense I could say that my dream bike is my current road bike. It's a BMC SLR01 and I truly love it.
That being said I've also had one of those Columbus Genius steel Coppi frames from the 90s sitting on the side table in the living room for the best part of 2 years that I bought to essentially be that "grail build". The paint job on it is nice as is, but I am planning on getting it custom (re)painted and fitted out with all Italian everything in homage to the motherland. But it's been collecting dust for 2 years, and I'll probably buy a Super Record fitted, wildly painted Pegoretti before that gets on the road.
What is your favourite local ride
As a matter of ritual I like the ride myself and a few friends do every Wednesday without fail (unless its raining or none of us can be bothered). It's a bring whatever bike you want, wear whatever and rock out to the supplied speaker dock kind of ride. Formally it's called the ACCSBCKPW, rumoured to be the worlds most dangerous bunch ride, and just takes in some of our local suburbs in inner NW Melbourne.
What is your current cycling goal
Put simply it is to continue progressing with my CX racing and to start road racing, but still prove that you can have fun doing it. I'm not throwing shade but I've heard a lot of people talk about this thing that you're either a "soul rider" or a "racer". I don't see why you can't be both. I don't know if the possibility of "losing their soul" is what is stopping some people from getting into racing, and I know it's not for everyone, but I hope that whatever I end up doing can show that you can surf both waves with max vibes.
This is the best Weekly Rider image of all time.
When I am on the bike I....
Way too chilled out at times. I'll be singing, trying to have a conversation with mates beside me or just smiling in silence while climbing double figure gradients or ticking over "bulk km's". I'll go do a double or triple century just because when I'm on the bike I enter this weird meditative state where I can just go and think about life, the universe and stuff.
How did your love of bikes come about
I remember my Nonna would come back from Italy with these Giro d'Italia shirts, and I would watch highlights on TV with my Nonno when I was younger. At school in French class we would watch le Tour, and maybe that's where it started.
I guess my love of the physical act of riding a bike came along maybe semi-romantically. Growing up on a farm in NE Victoria my sisters and I would ride our bikes down to the river, in and around the dairy, and (hopefully mum is not reading this) along the highway during summer nights. That wasn't love, simply something of an 18 year summer fling.
Love came after a brief foray into mountain biking (read: crashing) then a move to Melbourne. Randomly I bought a rubbish road bike and went and cooked myself along the Great Ocean Road for 200km and it grew from there. Now I'm racing, doing plenty of little local rides and designing for a few cycling related ventures/businesses so its become a big part of my life, but I'll still ride around the farm and talk about the Giro with Nonna whenever I visit.
Share a cycling memory
It will be recent because my brain has been pretty fried from lack of sleep in general over the last 6 years and a diet predominantly of torq gels. Two of my mates came down to the Mornington Peninsula in February. The weather that day was all on-again off-again rain, and out on back country peninsula roads we pulled onto this gravel lane. As soon as we did the skies opened up and gave us the most ethereal sun shower possibly ever seen on planet earth. All talking stopped, and we just got to pedalling in silence for a few kilometres. When we got to the end of the road, rain still falling and sun still beaming we turned to each other and with tears welling in our eyes declared it was one of the most beautiful moments of our lives.
I love to ride because....
it means I can continue with my diet of pasta and scotch fingers. Hanging out with mates is super cool and a major perk but seriously I just want to be able to eat pasta most nights and get away with it. And I'm pretty sure that's how Nonna wants it too.
Check out the Soup Boys at www.soupboys.cc for some awesome stories and images.
As we are well into winter everyone is asking me about lights, however, I think you should be riding with front and rear lights all year round, no matter what time of day or night, terrain, country or city, bike paths or roads.