A little update for the curious.  I spoke with (super) Mauro yesterday and he had a fabulous trip out to McCall Idaho, USA for the 2008 Masters World Championships.  He was impressed with the venue and the quantity of snow! 
 

A little update on our friend and inspiration Mauro Sormani --

After winning at the Central Alps Italian Regional Championship in
Piani Di Bobbio on February 3, 2008, Mauro qualified a place at the
cross-country ski Masters World Championships (MWC) to be held Feb 28 -
March 6, 2008 in Idaho, USA!!. The races will be held near McCall, ID
roughly at the same latitude as Bozeman, north of Boise. Mauro will be
part of a 31-member Italian delegation, joining the hundreds of
Americans and large numbers of Russians and Norwegians.

Well, Mauro is certainly unhappy with his performance last Sunday.  I'm still proud of him.  He complained to me about not being in good shape:  about not spending nearly enough time on the snow due to, well, lack of snow.  Anyway, I was still impressed to see him finish 109th overall for a 70km race in a respectable time of 3:42.   Perhaps Mauro will send us a story and some pictures.  I think he has another world loppet event on his calendar in the next month or so, but I forget where.
 
Bravo Mauro.