The perfect Speed
2020 will not be an ordinary year, I have been working for a while on this project of mine which I have often mentioned, but which I haven’t so far been able to give wings to.
I have been quiet lately, I had a lot of thinking to do, adverse situations to solve, a move to deal with. Now I am back in balance, that balance over the madness of my everyday life. I live in Bardi (PR) and I feel full of energy, ready to throttle up and start with the production of my documentary. I will tell you my story firsthand: what happened to me, what it means to live my new life after the accident and how I am, little by little, getting to what I have called my 'perfect speed'.
A dream I still have is to build the tracked vehicle that will allow me to get back off the beaten path and drift every curve, to smell mud again, that small that I miss so much. I can't wait to tell you everything.
“The Perfect Speed” is the title I have given to the documentary that will be released soon. Find out more about the plot in the description below.
Here you can find a crowdfunding campaign to finance the production costs of the documentary: http://sostieni.link/24424
I will count once again on your support!
The perfect Speed
The trail is unforgiving, and Walter Belli knows something about it. His specialty is Downhill, the Formula 1 of mountain biking. Every time he rips down a trail, he knows he’ll have to tackle rocks, roots, bumps, at his maximum velocity.
It’s just a few minutes, but you risk it all. At all times. ‘Cause a fall can shatter months of training, lifelong dreams. ‘Cause an injury does not only wound your body. And often, the hardest challenge is finding the strength to get back on track.
2014. Walter is at the top. With his bike he entered the Guinness World Records, he performed in front of the Pope. With the team of 360 Degrees, that he founded and runs, he raced the Downhill World Championships in Val di Sole - the toughest and most dangerous in the world. But it is when you have everything that you have everything to lose. A sudden illness, the fall. Darkness. When Walter opens his eyes, he finds himself in a hospital bed. He has just come out of a two-week-long, drug-induced coma. He crushed his vertebra in the accident. From now on he will never be able to ride his bicycle anymore, he will not even be able to breathe without the help of a machine. Walter’s world is turned upside down. After having chased speed his entire life, he finds himself stuck in a wheelchair. The life of a quadriplegic is often a locked-up life, an invisible life. Going out is an endless fight against architectural barriers, transportation costs, people’s indifference. They depend on other people’s help at home too, even for eating or using the bathroom. He is used to fight, to get back in the saddle after each fall. But this time, even Walter feels tempted to give up.
“The Perfect Speed” is the story of a rebirth. Thanks to his team, his family and friends, he finds the strength to start over again. Walter himself will tell us about his new life and his plans for the future. We will also hear from his family, the doctors who are treating him, his teammate - the Italian downhill multi-champion Alan Beggin - his childhood friends and the famous ones like Tony Cairoli and Vittorio Brumotti. Walter doesn’t want to become invisible. Against the advice of the doctors, he buys an off-road wheelchair so he can go back to the mountain trails and watch downhill races. When he goes to the park, kids stare in awe at his 4x4 wheelchair. They mistake him for Iron Man, and Walter doesn’t lie when he tells them he can fly. He undergoes a delicate surgery, six only of that kind in Italy in the last twenty years, to be able to breathe by himself again. In his future, there’s the idea of a customized tracked wheelchair able to reach speeds of 40 kph. Because Walter’s dream is to get back racing.