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

CICLOCROSS

SUPERPRESTIGE. VANDEPUTTE VINCE ALLO SPRINT SU WYSEURE E ORTS LLORET

Volata vincente di Niels Vandeputte nella quarta manche del Superprestige di Ciclocross disputata a Merksplas, in Belgio. Il portacolori della Alpecin Premier Tech ha avuto la meglio al termine di una gara combattuta sul connazionale Joran Wyseure e sullo...

EVENTI

IL PASSO DELLO STELVIO RITROVA L'ANTICA VIA: DAL 2027 SI POTRA' PEDALARE SULLA STORICA STRADA STERRATA

Quando 200 anni fa l'ingegner Carlo Donegani disegnò la strada del Passo dello Stelvio, oltre a realizzare un'opera straordinaria aprì letteralmente una nuova via di comunicazione: una strada sterrata, che si inerpicava come una chioccola per superare quel valico e...

CICLOCROSS

MEMORIAL LUIGI TOSI. GIOVANI IN FESTA A CASALPUSTERLENGO NEL RICORDO DEL PADRE DI ANGELO TOSI

Ha richiamato una buona partecipazione e suscitato interesse il Memorial Luigi Tosi, dedicato al papà dell'ex professionista Angelo Tosi. La manifestazione, valida come quarta prova del Circuito Lombardia-Memorial Claudia Bonfanti di Ciclocross, che si è svolta oggi a Casalpusterlengo, nel...

CICLOCROSS

POLONIA. LUCIA BRAMATI CALA IL POKERISSIMO: QUINTA VITTORIA A LASKOWICE POMORSKIE

Dalla Polonia arriva una nuova affermazione per Lucia Bramati. La vicentina della FAS Airport Services Guerciotti Premac si è infatti aggiudicata la gara di ciclocross di Laskowice Pomorskie riservata alla categoria donne elite. Al quinto successo stagionale, Bramati ha...

PROFESSIONISTI

BATTISTELLA, COMPLEANNO CON VOGLIA DI RISCATTO: «DUE CADUTE, POCHE CORSE MA IL PROSSIMO ANNO...»

Vincere e dimenticare un 2026 tutt’altro che fortunato è l’imperativo categorico per il vicentino Samuele Battistella in vista della prossima stagione. Da gennaio lo vedremo con la maglia della MBH Bank-Csb-Telecom Fort. Battistella lascia la EF Education-EasyPost senza sbattere la...

CICLOCROSS

SUPERPRESTIGE. CASASOLA SUL PODIO DI MERKSPLAS: TERZA DIETRO BRAND E VAN DER HEIJDEN

L'iride di Lucinda Brand continua a brillare anche nella quarta prova del Superprestige donne elite disputata oggi a Merksplas, in Belgio. Ma gli applausi sono tutti anche per una splendida Sara Casasola, autrice di una prova generosa e coraggiosa...

PROFESSIONISTI

TOUR DE FRANCE J:COM SAITAMA CRITERIUM, SFIDA MCUNLTY - SEIXAS E MOLTO ALTRO ANCORA... GALLERY

La 12ª edizione del Tour de France J:Com Saitama Criterium, che si terrà domani sul circuito urbano della città vicina a Tokyo (17 giri, 59, 5 km), vede tra i protagonisti più attesi due uomini vche hanno caratterizzato la fine...

PROFESSIONISTI

RUMORS FRANCESI. XDS POTREBBE CONCLUDERE ANTICIPATAMENTE L’ACCORDO CON ASTANA

Secondo voci che arrivano da Oltralpe, XDS, l’azienda cinese produttrice di bici attualmente al fianco del team Astana, starebbe valutando la possibilità di concludere anticipatamente il contratto di sponsorizzazione stipulato nel 2025 con la formazione kazaka di Alexander Vinokourov. A...

COMPLEANNO

BUON COMPLEANNO DAVIDE: OGGI BOIFAVA COMPIE 80 ANNI!

È il giorno dei campioni: di Bernard Hinault (72) e Koichi Nakano (71), Vincenzo Nibali (42) e Samuele Battistella (28). Sarebbe stato anche il giorno di Vittorio Adorni, che di anni ne avrebbe compiuti 89 (è mancato il 24 dicembre 2022,...

COMPONENTISTICA

ULAC. TUTTO PIU' FACILE CON BORSE AL TELAIO E SOTTO SELLA DOTATE DI SISTEMA MAGNETICO

Le ultime novità Ulac, marchio distribuito da Ciclo Promo Components, riguardano le borse al telaio e le nuove borse sottosella fornite di sistema magnetico, un dispositivo di chiusura che mira a semplificare ogni aspetto di gestione del carico. per leggere l'intero...