User:Adam Marsal/sandbox

= Richard Gasperotti = Richard Gasperotti (born 20 March 1977), known as Gaspi, is a professional mountain bike (MTB) rider. As a member of the Flowriders team, he performed at the North American MTB Flowshow event for five years. Three times, he took part in the Red Bull Rampage, which is considered the toughest MTB freeride competition. He competed in the Crankworx event in Whistler five times and the Adidas Slopestyle event a total of five times. He has been a professional cyclist since 2009. In the past, he was a member of the Banshee factory team (2002 - 2005), Specialized Eastern Europe Team (2006 - 2007) and R.S.P. team (2008-2013). Since 2013, he's been supported by the Spanish company Mondraker.

Sporting career
At the age of nine, he started riding for the „Svazarm bikros klub Chomutov” BMX club, which was run by his father Richard Gasperotti in the 80s. After switching to mountain bikes, he tried various disciplines ranging from cross country, downhill to dual slalom. In 2001, he moved to Vancouver to take advantage of the town's proximity to legendary MTB trails of the North Shore Mountains. After appearing in the North Shore Extreme series, he was invited to compete in the Red Bull Rampage freeride race in Utah, the USA in 2002 as the first European rider ever. Gasperotti took part in the Red Bull Rampage also in 2003 and 2004. Although he never finished in the top 10, his participation alone has earned him a firm position among the most famous freeriders in the world.

Project zam
In 2012, he founded the expedition project called zam, which means journey in Mongolian. He set off to the Altai Mountains of Mongolia in a specially adapted van with a folding tent on the roof. The documentary movie about expedition received positive acceptance in an international outdoors-themed film festival in Kromeříž in 2013. In the following years, zam continued with trips to New Mexico, Sardinia , Taiwan , Azerbaijan , the Balkans and the Kola Peninsula in northern Russia. The project aims to discover lesser-known biking destinations and discover local MTB communities.

Sports injuries
At a dual slalom race in Sedlčany in 1997, Gasperotti crashed at full speed and suffered an injury of the spleen that had to be surgically removed. His first ever injury happened to him on a BMX bike in his child's age, when he chipped his fibula. Because he underestimated the aftercare, an orthopaedic surgeon eventually had to insert a ceramic brace into his calf. In addition to the severed spleen, he suffered many other injuries like broken brow ridge, broken toes, broken wrists, torn cruciate ligaments in his knees, ripped menisci in both knees, chipped joint socket in his right shoulder, and torn ligament in his left shoulder. After crashing into a brick wall, he broke his ribs, and later while the trip to Morocco, he needed to be transported home because of a fractured ankle.

Speed record
In July 2009, he set a world record by letting a motorbike accelerate him to a speed of 211.5 km/h. He achieved the record at the former military airfield Tchořovice near Blatná in South Bohemia. The event was attended by a patrol of the Police of the Czech Republic that took care of measuring the speed. During the fastest run of the day, police radars recorded speeds of 205 km/h and 218 km/h. For the record to be entered into the Czech Book of Records, these numbers were averaged to 211.5 km/h. The previous best result of 156 km/h was exceeded by more than 50 km/h.

Other activities
In the Czech Republic, Slovakia , Germany , and Morocco , Gasperotti handed over new bicycles to children living in orphanages, children from underprivileged families or children recovering from serious illness as part of the Share the Ride project by American bike site Pinkbike.com.

He is co-owner of Simpleride agency that focuses on teaching cycling and organising trips abroad. He has arranged bike camps for bikers in Utah, British Columbia and Oman.

Personal life
Despite coming from Jirkov in North Bohemia, he inherited an Italian surname from his grandfather, who worked as a painter in Rovereto in Italy. His grandfather was forced to left for Czechoslovakia before World War II because he disagreed with the Italian Fascist regime of the time. Richard Gasperotti's civilian occupation is a mechanic of measuring instruments and equipment. He lives with his wife Teresa and daughter Eleonora.