Ferrara Luca Ballarini, who suffers from a rare genetic disease, hopes to complete the route in 18 hours by bike from Bolzano to Ferrara within the much longer one Rando Imperator cycling event organized by the agency Witoor which even starts from Munich. «I only do half the route because more would have been unthinkable for me» explains Ballarini, an amateur cyclist who, thanks to his passion, manages to keep his “his” illness at bay. «I have a rare genetic disease that among other things causes joint problems, it’s called syndrome Ehlers-Danlos due to collagen deficiency or defective collagen, the internal tissues are more fragile as is the skin, not to mention chronic pain and tiredness. The form that affected me is not among the most serious but it is very widespread in my body which causes daily sub-luxations. In the last few years I improved the quality of my life thanks to the physical activity which allowed me to increase my muscles and now I can “get myself in shape” before having inflammation and consequently more pain”. The panacea could only be the bicycle in the city of bicycles. «The choice to participate in this type of event – he says – unites the objective of the personal satisfaction to that of my desire to raise awareness of the issue of the disease and encourage others to practice physical activity. In Italy there are around 1,500-1,600 people affected by this pathology, in Ferrara there are 4 of us. I discovered the first symptoms at the age of 11, today I am almost 38 and, however, I received the diagnosis only a little more than about ten years ago. AND very complicated even for doctors to recognize it because being multisystemic it is either underestimated or mistaken for something else, it becomes really difficult to put together a clinical picture.” The Rando Imperator is a non-competitive cycling event on a route with several check point to sign time passage; everyone is leaving and you need to arrive within the 21 hour deadline to complete the course and receive the certification. The race started yesterday, today Ballarini’s adventure begins: «I trained on increasingly longer routes, before Easter I covered 200km going from Mantua to Ferrara. On the route from Bolzano to Ferrara there are no differences in altitude, while it would have been much more difficult to cross the Alps starting from Munich. There will be other people from Ferrara but not with my pathology.” You can follow Luca on social media, through his Instagram accounts which he uses to communicate and continue the awareness-raising work. The organization has made available a tracking to follow the progress of the race via the event website.
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