Lisa Guadagnini: writing on the road.

If I had to describe my relationship with journalism, I just call it like this: love and hate. Love because for me, this profession, was like a surprise, an unexpected knowledge, but it managed to move my life. Hate because it is a road full of pitfalls, all uphill, which gives you and takes away from you too much; especially nowadays and in a country like Italy, where there is little room for expression.

I discovered journalism seven years ago, just out of art school; in short, from a completely different path than the one I later undertook. Disappointed by the school, I wanted to find a way to combine my eternal passion for cycling with work. So, speaking by chance with a sports journalist, I was asked to start collaborating for a site that dealt with this discipline; and so I did. The various stories began, the various interviews, some short trips, and even the university. And here I risked.

Until two months before I was destined to study architecture, and eventually I found myself doing communication, without thinking too much. My stubbornness prevailed, I wanted to hazard, to see where this path would have led me to my already active apprenticeship as a small, young, aspiring journalist.

It went well. After five years I found myself with two degrees in my pocket, and that love for cycling that never stopped; unlike journalism. Because yes, over time the first insults followed, many disappointments and blows; a long stop, no story. But why would I give it won? In 2018 arrives the first real contract with an editorial office; in 2019 with another one, the work and the commitments doubled, the fatigue and anger enormous. But also many more satisfactions when your signature, your sports journalist’s pen, as the only woman in both editors, is recognized and praised by many; where all your efforts, your sacrifices after years and years are finally rewarded. And maybe it was the love for cycling that kept me going, to make me understand that I still had a lot to tell about this magnificent discipline that for me is synonymous with life. Nothing is easy in this life, and if you want to be honest, without trying in a roundabout way, you have to rely only on yourself in order to move forward. My road is still long and winding like a big ride, but cycling has taught me and continues to teach me a lot even in these moments.

There is a phrase that I have been carrying with me for many years and that I made mine, combining this sport, which has helped me a lot in life, in my career and in my future; a quote that belongs to Ivan Basso: “The bicycle teaches what fatigue, what it means to get up and down – not only from the mountains but also in the fortunes and sorrows – teaches how to live. Cycling is a long journey in search of oneself ”.

Lisa Guadagnini