The Love & Life It is the oldest professional team in the world: it was founded in 1989 (but there had already been a Team Fanini for 5 years), Cofidis second in this special ranking is 13 years younger. However, the roots go much further back, to 1948 when Ivano Fanini's father founded his cycling team in Tuscany.Over the decades, Ivano has seen cycling evolve and suffer serious setbacks, mourning family tragedies (the never-too-missed Michela, his granddaughter, winner of the Giro d'Italia and world championship medals) right up to the present day.
The team is still there, among the Continental teams after a past in the "A series" of professional cycling and considering everything that has happened one wonders how it did, also because considering it an Italian team is in some ways difficult, given that over the years it has been registered, albeit always under Italian management, with licenses belonging to 13 different countries to spread our message worldwide, the last one being Ukraine in 2021In 2022, I hope to affiliate the team with the Vatican: now that the Vatican Federation is affiliated with the UCI, it would be a major coup. I'm also in contact with the Vatican Bank to secure sponsorship, but until the affiliation process is completed, we'll have to suspend our activities. I can even stop until I succeed, as no one can take that record away from me, nor my 12 world titles and 69 national titles. Our teams in the other categories, including the children's ones, will remain.
Only expenses for the Continentals…
Fanini, now 70 but with the enthusiasm of a young boy, absolutely wants to keep that connection with competitive cycling tied, even if he misses the past a little: "When I started this activity there was more fun and humanity, now time flies. We used to travel by car, now with buses the riders disappear as soon as the race is over. Since the sheiks' money came in, everything has changed, but I can't say if for the better. Not for us...».
When he says we, Fanini means those who live the reality of a Continental team with all the difficulties that this entails: «They even make us pay for the air. Only the RCS he offered hospitality to the Giro di Sicilia and Pozzato in his Venetian trials. The others make you pay for everything and I really don't understand that. The organizers know what the Continental licenses are like, yet you see that the Professionals pay for everything, while we have to shoulder all the expenses. It should be the other way around, given the revenue..."
At this point the question comes out almost unintentionally: but who makes him do it? «Cycling is in my DNA, it's not easy to stop. It's clear, however, that this time it's difficult, very difficult.If things don't work out, I'll stop." It's clear that this situation doesn't help those who are directly involved, the riders: "We have 16 under contract: 5 Italians, 5 Poles, and others from other nations, but a lot depends on the license: when we registered in Ukraine, we had to have a certain number of local riders because the rules require it, so we'll have to see what the UCI says when we register the team in the Vatican."
A calendar to rethink
If the situation is so difficult for the Continentals, who should take action? "Certainly not the FCI, which already has a lot to deal with and which enjoys the successes that Marco brings it. Villa, a rider who I consider my godson, if you think that I took him when he couldn't find a team and with me he won a world championship on the track and on the road he overtook people like Graze e Zabel… Returning to the discussion about the Continentals, It is the organizers who should find a way to meet our needs, certainly the entire calendar of activities should be rethought, also considering the television rights that should go to finance the teams."
In this cycling world, Fanini floats almost like a vestige of the past: "Nowadays, this world consumes everything at a stratospheric speed. Agents are changing it, they look for increasingly younger talents, thinking that talent is everywhere. They place riders on various teams and throw away others, even more. But cycling is not just the WorldTour, the one with 30 million euro budgets: with that money, everyone is good, who knows what I could do with a similar sum of money, how many classics or grand tours I would win...".
Special relationship with the Pope
Who will be the next sponsor? "This is another big problem: who agrees to be placed as a second name? Amore&Vita is untouchable, Pope John Paul II suggested it to me and I never wanted to change because they are the two most beautiful words, they have a meaning that for me goes beyond anything else.. This is also why I hope that the discussion in the Vatican will be successful; it would close the circle."
Talking with Fanini the hours would pass like minutes, among the champions who passed under him (from sorensen a Cipollini, with him from when he was a child until he was 19, from Bartoli up to Michael Woods). Or remembering how the names of his teams have also sparked heated discussions, battles such as the one on abortion that cost him very strong protests and consequently sponsorship contracts. Yet he's still here, agreeing on next year's uniforms while waiting for the decisive appointment to be set.
