'The UCI are incompetent': Reverbi, team manager of Bardiani, is furious with the state of cycling

Reverberi and his family have been running the Bardiani project for more than 40 years, but that could come to an end in the near future. “Our project is coming to an end. How can you spend 5 million and not have the right to race? There’s no future for us in cycling, because cycling has no future.”

The 84-year-old Italian doesn't mince words: according to Reverberi, Bardiani—ranked 31st in the UCI Team Rankings in 2026—has a major problem. “We’ve already discussed closing the team in two years. That’s why we’ve offered our new riders contracts for just one season.”

Thanks to his many years of experience, Reverberi knows the ropes, but he has seen the sport of cycling change significantly due to the UCI points system. Every three seasons, WorldTour and ProTour licenses are awarded to the teams that have performed best over the past three years. As a result, Bardiani can no longer gain a foothold with sponsors.

"You don't have the guts to go to sponsors for money," said the veteran of the sport, who has even seen his team overtaken by cheaper, continental teams. “We used to have a project with young riders, focused on breakaways. Now you don’t let riders attack anymore, because you want to conserve energy so you can sprint for tenth place and those damn UCI points.”

According to Reverberi, pro-continental teams with no ambitions to move up to the WorldTour would be better off ceasing to operate as professional teams and becoming continental teams. “Then you can do what we’re doing now. If you perform well enough on the bike, you can still ride the Giro d’Italia.”

According to him, it’s a world turned upside down, created by the UCI. “They’re incompetent and have destroyed cycling. They dictate what bike you ride, what socks you wear, and whether or not you use a radio. At the top, we’ve reached our peak with Tadej Pogačar, but everything below that is falling apart. Cycling is disappearing, and no one is watching it.”