So on setting the event up… What’s it taken to set the course and stages up? A lot of planning presumably?

I’m backed up by some very passionate riders and co-workers, which makes things much easier, and being into the fourth year of the game, organisation is almost automatic. The only thing at this time is pinning the right type of layout for the expo area, the team area, getting the press room up to standard…that’s the greatest challenge. As for the event itself, the hardest thing is transfer times – not getting them too easy like the first year I held a Superenduro race or too harsh like the second. I’ve asked the pro riders about and got the feedback to finalise the numbers, then given them to the Enduro World Series. The riders will be on different stages at different times [as there are so many racing] – when the first rider hits the mid-race time check after stage two, the last rider has to have left the start gate. And when the first rider finishes, the last rider has to have come through the time check. So that’s tricky.

What kind of stages can we expect? Physical, rocky, pedally, sandy, hard?

I’ll leave that to all those riders who will be able to ride in the month beforehand – we’re leaving four weeks to ride the trails before the race (the stages were announced this week). So I’d say come ride them for yourself. They’ll be mapped with indications out on the trails too – we won’t tape the stages, but it’s easy to follow the trail down.

Are you finding it a lot of pressure and stress, or enjoying it?

I’m really glad I’ve built up a solid team at Puntala and I’m really grateful for the help I’ve been able to rely on from this team. Thanks to them I can enjoy the pressure of running this event, it’s just like being at the start of a race, I enjoy that feeling of pressure too. I used to row for the Italian national team, when at the start of those races you’re under a lot of pressure, something that I really quite enjoy. So I enjoy equally the pressure of running a business and especially organising this event.

How many races have you had there previously? Three?

Yeah, three. All Superenduro Pro series, and I rode the second one to see what the vibe was like. I learnt from that and I feel like this year will be the best yet.

You really get involved yourself then? You go to other events too don’t you?

Yeah, it’s definitely necessary and what I find especially useful from riding other races is judging the transfer time. I use my own capabilities to calculate the transfer times, and I must say that’s not always the right way of doing it, so I needed to do other races and see what time I had left over.