MEALTIME. CYCLING YES, BUT UNCLE-STYLE

BOOKS | 10/01/2025 | 08:18
di Marco Pastonesi
Few in the world know cycling like him. Because he lived it as a rider, as a sports director, as a team manager, as a league president. Because he experienced it as if he were a lawyer, or a journalist, or an advertiser, or a talent scout. Because he worked in it before people even talked about marketing and merchandising, targets and missions, feedback and audience.
He did it for passion and for money. Because he always understood cycling as a profession, a passionate and passionate profession, but still a profession, not a pastime, and teams as companies, not clubs, essentially doing "a job that is my passion" but according to the principle that "when there are families to support you must also think about earning", even though he confides that "I would have paid to do this job".
The Uncle. Bruno Reverberi. Sixty years of cycling, sixty-seven if you consider that he rode his first race at fifteen years old, and now he is over eighty-two. And not to celebrate them, but to remember them - premise: "For the satisfaction that sport has given me, I am very happy with what I have achieved"; clarification: "I also made my stupid mistakes, but that's okay: to not repeat them, you would need to live twice, maybe three times" - he wrote "My First 80 Years" (Kriss, 224 pages, 15 euros, preface by Davide Cassani), with the masterful help of Angelo Costa.
The result is a book written in the first person, in which the Uncle says, declares, reveals, explains his life and his cycling with his words, his tones, his volumes. The birth: in Bibbiano, province of Reggio Emilia, capital of Parmigiano Reggiano, meant as Grana.
Childhood: "The word misery is an understatement: actually, there was nothing", "In the evening we would go to the stables", "To live, we would manage". School: "Finished elementary school". Work: apprentice, mechanic, at 19 he decided to open his own workshop. Sports: first football, then athletics, long jump, then cycling. The bike: the first, a Torpado with a rod gear, modified with a wheel gear, a Simplex with five speeds. The races: the first without a license, then with Coop Manfredi and Bagnolese Vittadello. The victories: the first, in Nonantola, on a circuit, a two-person breakaway, initially skipping some gears, then feeling better and doing his part, an uncontested sprint, the reproach from the sports director who was convinced he had been clever, to which he replied in his own way: "If I were someone who had already won twenty races, I would have left this one: but it was the first!" Then the technical career: from 1964 to today, tomorrow, who knows when, assisted by his son Roberto, leading a Professional team and moreover with an overwhelming majority of Italian riders.
The teams Termolan, Santini, Selca, Italbonifica, Navigare, Scrigno, Panaria, Csf Inox Group, Colnago, Bardiani... The bikes: Alan, Conti, Moser, Viner, Battaglin, Colnago, Cipollini, De Rosa... And the riders: from Caroli to Moro, from Allocchio to Zanini, from Cassani to Petacchi, from Pagnin to Fontanelli, from Podenzana to Guerini, from Mazzanti to Perez Cuapio, from Guidi to Casagrande, from Colbrelli to Belletti, from Battaglin to Modolo, from Pirazzi to Pozzovivo, from Frapporti to Canola, from Pasqualon to Coledan, from Ciccone to Maestri, from Zana to Pellizzari...
The Uncle tells of moments of glory and dark days, selects the races won and lost, the rules and protests, even some doping episodes. He tells of when he fired the Dutchman René Koppert because he had taken the team car without asking permission, waited for him until 11 PM in front of the hotel to satisfy himself by announcing that "tomorrow morning you pack your bags and go home", and the man started crying. He also tells of Marco Pantani at the 2000 Giro d'Italia, when the Uncle swore "if he wins, I'll tear up my card and you won't see me at races anymore", when he prophesied to him "you'll be lucky if you finish on the rise, then go to the Tour: there you can have your say", when at the San Pellegrino in Alpe stage he anticipated that he would take between seven and eight minutes and it was seven twenty. He also tells of Madonna di Campiglio in 1999, when he told the Giro patron, Carmine Castellano: "I wouldn't have put him out: he's the number one of the race, two stages from the end and you know well that everyone uses certain substances because they can't be found". Without fear of transgressing regulations.
The Uncle won't be a saint, and he himself confesses to having a "pretty tough and not easy" character. He gets angry easily, but doesn't hold a grudge. He wants to always be right, but even if with difficulty, admits when he is wrong. He can be, perhaps involuntarily, even self-ironic (or not?), like when to that saint (Giuliana) of his wife he repeats that, since he is always right, it's useless to waste time in discussions. And his way of expressing himself: "I go slow on my own, if you invite me to slow down, what am I running for?" to his mom who recommended caution; "Today we separate the males from the females" before a tough race; "We've been at the Giro for two weeks and your name hasn't been heard yet: at least throw yourself to the ground, so the radio will say you fell and we'll hear your name" to his Colombian Felipe Laverde. Today's cycling is from another planet. Not even in the last sentence of the book does the Uncle hide: "If there will still be cycling, what will it be?". It will be a cycling, sooner or later we'll have to surrender to the idea, without him. A cycling less Parmigiano Reggiano.

COMMENTI

Per poter commentare i post devi esser registrato.
Se sei giá nostro utente esegui il login altrimenti registrati.

TBRADIO

00:00

PROFESSIONISTI

POLONIA. CALZONI, COMPLEANNO CON MAGLIA: «BENE COSÌ, E ORA LA VUELTA»

Le prime ore da 25enne Walter Calzoni le ha passate menando a tutta sui Monti Carpazi. E alla fine si è anche fatto un bel regalo al Giro di Polonia 2026: la maglia di miglior scalatore, che non è più...

DONNE

LONGO BORGHINI. «PER IL PODIO FINALE LA LOTTA E' ANCORA APERTA»

Elisa Longo Borghini, ieri verso Nizza, ci ha provato fino all'ultimo metro, ma questa volta davanti a lei c'era un'avversaria semplicemente inarrivabile. L'ottava tappa del Tour de France Femmes ha confermato la grande condizione di Demi Vollering, capace di conquistare...

DONNE

TOUR FEMMES, I NUMERI DELL'OTTAVA TAPPA: VOLLERING VS NIEWIADOMA, MAI COSI' VICINE...

Numeri, curiosità e statistiche aiutano a rileggere e ad approfondire quel che abbiamo vissuto nella tappa di ieri e nelle ultime tre settimane. Seguiteci: 1: IL RITIRO DI UNA VINCITRICE DEL TOUR, UN EVENTO INEDITOPauline Ferrand-Prévot “non si sentiva bene”...

STORIA

I BUONI DEL PASTO. ANTONIO MASPES, QUELL'ULTIMA INTERVISTA - 2

Il tempo è tiranno, ma lo è anche lo spazio. Anzi, i due sono complici: il tempo satura lo spazio. E con il Covid o l’estate, arriva il momento del repulisti. Si comincia puntando a liberare la soffitta, ci si...

DONNE

VOLLERING E QUEL DEJA VU CHE PREANNUNCIAVA L'EMOZIONE PIU' BELLA

Demi Vollering aveva immaginato questo momento molti mesi fa. Forse a gennaio, forse durante uno di quei giorni in cui si comincia a costruire mentalmente la stagione e si prova a immaginare dove poter arrivare. Un pensiero fugace, quasi impossibile...

PROFESSIONISTI

PORTOGALLO. LINAREZ E MATIAS, CHE DOPPIETTA PER LA TAVFER

Tre tappe della Volta a Portugal Jogos Santa Casa, più il prologo d'apertura, e tre finali in volata. Oggi all'arrivo accanto al Forte Baluarte São João de Deus a Elvas, la Tavfer-Ovos Matinados-Mortágua è diventata la quarta squadra a vincere...

DONNE

TOUR DE FRANCE FEMMES. NIEWIADOMA ACCUSA GERY: «MI HA SPINTO VOLUTAMENTE CONTRO LE TRANSENNE». VIDEO

Animi accesi al Tour de France Femmes dopo l'ottava frazione con arrivo a Nizza. Nella giornata che ha visto la vittoria di Demi Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma è giunta in terza posizione ed è stata costretta a lasciare la maglia gialla...

DONNE

TOUR DE FRANCE FEMMES. VOLLERING PIAZZA IL COLPACCIO A NIZZA E RITORNA IN GIALLO. 2^ LONGO BORGHINI

Demi Vollering (FDj United Suez) voleva la gialla a tutti i costi e oggi se l'è presa in un modo spettacolare vincendo l'ottava tappa del Tour de France Femmes con arrivo a Nizza. Decisivo è stato l'attacco sull'ultimo muro di...

PROFESSIONISTI

POLONIA. SCARONI LEADER NELLA GIORNATA PEGGIORE: «NON STAVO BENE, MA NON MOLLIAMO NULLA»

«Peccato che il Giro di Polonia non sia finito oggi…» ha detto ridendo Christian Scaroni sul traguardo di Bukovina. Il portacolori della XDS Astana ha infatti conquistato la maglia gialla di leader della classifica generale, grazie a una bellissima progressione...

PROFESSIONISTI

TOUR DE POLOGNE. BARRE' VINCE A BUKOVINA, SCARONI ANCORA SECONDO MA E' IL NUOVO LEADER

È Louis Barré il dominatore della sesta tappa del Tour de Pologne, la tappa regina da Bukovina Resort a Bukowina Tatrzańska di 125, 5 km. Il francese della Visma Lease a Bike ha piazzato il suo attacco sulla salita finale e ha...