IL PIRATO

A young Mark Florence with Melchor Mauri

Mark racing in France

Below: John Cupido leading Mark up the climb of Chapman's Peak in

the Tour

It is a shame that Mark Florence (Pantani) never got the opportunity to meet or befriend Marco Pantani of Italy (the Italian Companisimo) because he truly loved this cyclist and we even called our Mark ‘Pantani’A bit of a dichotomy as far as

size was concerned, Marco was

small and skinny, Mark was tall and lanky and not small by any means. Be that as it may, he wore clothing like Marco, wore his bandanna like Marco and wore his hair yellow like Marco too, but one thing for certain though, Mark loved climbing but that is not how it started out……

One day after one of my favourite races of all time, the University of Cape Town Race, while chatting to the Soapex boys, I noticed someone was watching me. It was Mark Florence, eager to learn and more eager to kick ass he came over to me and started chatting. He was surprised at how I knew so many top riders and then asked what my position for the day was and was even more surprised. I showed him that I had placed fourteenth. The UCT event always will stand out as one of my favourites, I remember arriving there for the first time, never raced a day in my life, had toe straps and down shifters and my whole family including my girlfriend Gail February came to support me. Back in the day they would come to every race, later on they would just not come at all, they said I finished too soon and to fast for them to wake up that early. So in the end they would only come to the really big ones.

This race was special as it was just climbing and it had a kind of down hill end eventually ending in the narrow roads of the University. I always took a good placing and my lowest result there was fourth.

Mark Florence looked at me and thought to himself as he would tell me later on, “this guy is lying, he can’t be that good and I am going to whip his ass. ”When I left the race I cycled slowly home as it was only a short distance from where the race had ended. I invited him to ride along and since I rode so slowly he thought I really can’t be that good. But one thing I always remember David Cloete saying; “train to race, don’t race to train” LOL!! When it was time to turn off to my house Mark asked me if I lived with my parents, I replied no as I lived with my wife and daughter. The cat caught his tongue…surprise number two for the day. He assumed because I looked like his age, and because I was small and slender that I was a school boy. Surprise number three was that I didn’t live in an area where he had expected me to. I smiled within and looked forward to meeting him next time.

Through the grape-vine Mark had also heard at various High Schools of my exploits and it was interesting to know how everyone at those schools who happened to ride a bike wanted to beat me. Of course this was all news to me and I didn’t pay much attention to it. At the next race was surprise number 4, I started in a group before Mark and finished before him I still don’t think Mark quite understood. I invited him to train with us, with all of us. I dropped him in the deep end and so begun the life and times of ‘Pantani’. I told him if he was serious to “do everything I say or don’t do it at all”. Cycling was too hard a sport to do it half heartedly. He complained he had school, so I told him; ‘you will train every free minute you have, no clubbing, no parties, just school and cycling’.

On one occasion there was a local race and fund raiser for a certain organization. I got an invitation and I was thinking of winning this race, I invited Mark to join me and I suggested to him we could nail this race. Mark, never shy for a challenge and always wanting to win said “yes” immediately. Little did we know, another rider called Faizel (don’t remember his surname) on the verge of turning professional, and an excellent track rider, would be there too and he brought along his lieutenant; a young up-and-coming with great potential. When we got there, Mark was very surprised but I was ready as ever. The race begun and we went like steam trains right from the word go. Try as he did, Faizel could not ride away from Mark and I. We got rid of Faizels' right hand man early and near the end Mark started to fade, that was not good, as Faizel was a far more superior sprinter than me, mano mano… He kept looking over his shoulder thinking that I had gone off the back, he won the sprint but not in the glorious style he had hope for as I was right next to him on the line. It was beautiful, Faizel 1^st, Sebastian 2^nd and Mark Florence 3^rd.

From then on Mark raced every race possible, we became great friends, he became like a little brother to me. Mark loved to tease and set people up and he would forever do this to other riders from the suburbs who thought they could do me in. He would lie about my age, about my cycling and each time they would fall for it and then he would break it to them and add insult to injury by telling them that I was nearly twice their age and they got a beating for it too.

Another one of his pranks as he got stronger and more skillful was to ride up to a rider on a very difficult stretch of road especially in the mountains; he would start talking to the rider next to him. They, not knowing any better, would tire themselves by talking, then Mark would ride away from them. LOL!!!

One afternoon we were on Alpe D’ Huez, there were hundreds of thousands of people and we were watching The Tour. I was looking down the road and Mark said to me; “Seb, look across the road.” I looked across the road and there was this amazing blonde dressed in as little as possible in the heat of the afternoon, then he dropped the punch line “now look at her feet. "Being the foot man that I am he knew what my reaction would be and it was not good. So there you go, Mark the eternal Anansi.

The man with an issue of shoes:

John Cupido and Mark Florence on this particular morning decided to travel together to Stellenbosch. The race was an important one as it was a SACF event and it began in the newly developed sporting park against the hillside. When I eventually met Mark at the registration table, he looked down at my feet and realized he had forgotten his cycling shoes at home, and this was over 60kms away. In a previous story I told you about Johns driving and his orange Ford Cortina. Well on this morning he would prove again what a ‘speed demon’ he really was and we thank Michael Jackson for this appropriate term.

I seriously did not think that they would make it there and back, but to cut a long story short, by the time we were lining up and the ribbon was ready to be cut, Mark was standing beside me.

In another race, called “Paarl around the Mountain” something similar occurred only this time it was me. I remember clearly being with Mark Blewitt and Ian Gallard that morning. I was already mounting my bike when I realized I had no shoes on my feet but sneakers. Unlike Stellenbosch, Paarl was over a 100kms away from the Mother City. Ian said; “No use crying now, you going to have to race that way...” That race, unlike any other, was very fast as it was mostly flat, I had Look clipless pedals so you can imagine. And I knew this race would attract all the top riders, Willie Engelbrecht and his team was also present.

I can only say that I am lucky it was on flat roads with some small rolling hills, I placed 23^rd that day finishing in the bunch.

So that was the issue of shoes, but I still think Mark takes the prize.

Mark turns professional: After I had moved to Johannesburg Mark had begun to really take his cycling seriously. Mark’s biggest problem was staying focused, so I encouraged him to move up to Johannesburg as the racing was more serious and all the professional teams were racing and training there. I could see he had improved and so I suggested it was time to make a commitment and only concentrate on his cycling. I spoke to Owen Hannie of Lotus IBM and in no time Mark was riding for the Junior Team.

Soon afterwards he would ride his first major tour, The Giro Del Capo. The rest shall we say is his-story. I must add that he did look swell in the team colours that month of March.

The one thing I can say to Mark’s credit, he’s always cheerful, kinda reminds me of Jespers Skibby of Denmark. He’s always full of quirps and has helped me from time to time in races I had difficulty in.

The next time we meet, maybe we will be old men, we will think of these days, of the pain, the suffering, the joy and the happiness, the adulation, we will think of the sadness too and when we do, when we remember the way we were we will remember it with a smile.