The story of his life and effort to set the cycling World Hour Record for the 75 year old age group, cycling for as far as you can in one hour in a velodrome, is the subject of a new movie.
It will be shown in Hayward, Wisconsin at the Park Center Theater as part of the annual Bicycling Film Festival Saturday May 28th at 7:30pm.
"If you think it is just another film about the career of a frame builder, kind of like the Ernesto Colnago saga, you are wrong. It is a film about the life of a man, his youth in Italy, witnessing the horrors of WWII, his early racing career, coming to Canada to race in 1965, and emigrating there, and a 40 year career making some 20,000 lugged steel frames, mostly by himself. It includes many people from his life, including his wife, old friends and family in Italy, his Canadian sponsor - an Italian restaurateur in Montreal who is still a close friend - plus Francesco Moser, and especially Jocelyn Lovell, whom he had not seen since his tragic disabling accident in 1983, and who had never had an interview with the press, much less been in a movie. The movie got Marinoni and Lovell back together! That part is a real tear jerker. It's all you never knew about Marinoni and more. A thread throughout the film is Marinoni's training for and attempt at a new hour record on the track for age 75, which happened in 2013. I won't spoil it for you and tell you whether he gets a new record. You will just have to see the film to find out. But it is entertaining watching him train, and they keep the suspense going until the attempt. The bike he rode was Jocelyn Lovell's bike, the one he won all his medals on. Lovell gave it back to Marinoni when he retired. He talks about how he sweated red for two years when he started to ride again after 20 years of not riding. Red rust, from polluting his body for all the years making frames. Finally he sweated it all out. He is extremely fit now and rides 8000 km a year. I am going to try to get him and the film to come to Eroica California next year! I think Marinoni would really enjoy riding in it. He is a hardcore cyclist from the old days."
