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

RIVELAZIONE TUCKWELL. «NON MI SAREI MAI IMMAGINATO DI ARRIVARE SECONDO...»

C'è un nome che esce rafforzato dal Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 2026 ed è quello di Luke Tuckwell. Il ventunenne australiano, al suo primo anno tra i professionisti con i colori della Red Bull-Bora hansgrohe, ha firmato una delle più belle sorprese...

ABBIGLIAMENTO

ASSOS. MILLE GT S11, UN COMPLETO ENDURANCE CHE CONQUISTA. ECCO LA NOSTRA RECENSIONE

Poche storie, da molto la gamma Mille GT rappresenta un vero pilastro per ASSOS, un insieme di capi progettati senza dubbio per un utilizzo quotidiano, ma anche per stupire gli atleti più esigenti e raffinati. Nel dettaglio la prova riguarda la nuovissima maglia...

DILETTANTI

GIRO NEXT GEN. ANCORA CALABRIA PER UNA FRAZIONE DESTINATA AI VELOCISTI

Tutta calabra anche la seconda tappa del Giro Next Gen che oggi porterà il gruppo da Tropea a Crotone per una distanza di 154 chilometri. Una tappa che strizza l'occhio alle ruote veloci della corsa rosa. per seguire in diretta...

NEWS

IL SORRISO DI SARA PIFFER E QUELLE FRASI CHE DANNO FORZA AI RAGAZZI. VIDEO

Ogni volta, un'emozione. Ogni volta, uno spunto di riflessione. Ogni volta, un pensiero che ti scava dentro e qualcosa ti lascia, laggiù nel profondo. Quando incontri Marianna e Lorenzo Piffer, i genitori di Sara, non è mai un momento banale. ...

EVENTI

24H DI FELTRE CONNECTION, UNA GRANDE FESTA DI SPORT E SOLIDARIETÀ

Hanno sbriciolato ogni record con i loro 557 giri e 1030km percorsi (alla media dei 42km/h), il Team Swatt formato da Luca Martignago, Mauro Basso, Riccardo Buffon, Alberto Pelà, Francesco Zantedeschi, Alessandro Varago, Maurizio Odorizzi, Andrea Barbieri, Carlo Zerbato, Pietro...

NEWS

TOUR OF MALOPOLSKA, TRIONFO VORARLBERG: BALLABIO CEDE LA MAGLIA A STÜSSI CHE FA SUA ULTIMA TAPPA E GENERALE

Non arriva la vittoria ma termina comunque in top ten il Tour of Malopolska 2026 di Giacomo Ballabio. Nell’ultima frazione della corsa a tappe polacca .2, il brianzolo del Team Vorarlberg infatti non è riuscito a difendere la leadership in classifica generale...

PARACICLISMO

#EUROPARACYCLING26, L'ITALIA CHIUDE AL PRIMO POSTO NEL MEDAGLIERE

Si sono conclusi ieri a Maniago (Italia) i Campionati Europei UEC di Paraciclismo Strada 2026, che per tre giorni hanno visto confrontarsi 272 atleti in rappresentanza di 29 nazioni in gare di elevato livello tecnico e spettacolare. L'Italia ha chiuso...

EVENTI

GRANDE SUCCESSO PER LA TRE GIORNI DEDICATA A FRANCO BALLERINI

Dopo tre giornate intense, la Gran Fondo “La Franco Ballerini” a carattere internazionale con l’organizzazione dell’U.C. Larcianese ha concluso a Casalguidi in provincia di Pistoia, l’iniziativa tra sport, amicizia e solidarietà voluta dai figli dell’ex campione di ciclismo e...

ALLIEVI

IACOPI FIRMA LA COPPA SEI MARTIRI - MEMORIAL GINO BARTALI

La Coppa Sei Martiri-Memorial Gino Bartali, una delle classiche più prestigiose e longeve per allievi in Toscana, è stata firmata dall’aretino di Castiglion Fibocchi Niccolò Iacopi della Iperfinish Fabbri di Stabbia che sul traguardo di via Chiantigiana a Ponte a...

GIOVANISSIMI

GP GUERRINI NOLEGGIO . MEMORIAL ADRIANO GALLONI, CHE BELLA FESTA DI CICLISMO! GALLERY

Grande partecipazione per il 3° GP Guerrini Noleggio – Memorial Adriano Galloni, manifestazione riservata alla categoria Giovanissimi organizzata dal Team Guerrini Senaghese. Al via ben 19 società, dalla categoria G0 alla G6, con la presenza di 5 società extra-provinciali, un...