It all started with garage rollers
“My whole life story started with BMX, where our coaches in Chomutov made us ride rollers to get our legs spinning,” Gasperotti recalls. Back then, the rollers were nothing more than a homemade construction with bearings. A cyclist would place their rear wheel on it and pedal into the void. “It was mainly to warm up. Simply a trainer made in Czechoslovakia,” he laughs.
Later, when he transitioned to downhill racing—where riders become more like timed sprinters—the trainer took on a different significance. “In downhill, you need to build endurance, but you also need explosiveness. Back then, we used trainers where the rear wheel was pressed against an aluminium roller. That roller, combined with magnets, created resistance, and you adjusted the load with a lever,” he explains. Covid boost
Although Gasperotti used trainers occasionally, he received an offer from Garmin one day. “I thought to myself, I don’t need this for my kind of riding. I climb hills and pedal in nature—why would I need a trainer at home? It felt like someone was offering me a luxury SUV when all I needed was an off-road beater,” he says of his initial feelings.
But then, during the boom in indoor training caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, he tested the Tacx Neo 2T smart trainer, which pairs with an app and simulates real rides. “Suddenly, I had a tablet in front of me, I could see the route, and when I started climbing, the […]
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