“The children in my village played soccer in the square. I lived in a farmhouse far away and so I never learned.”
It is the 1950s, Italy is emerging from the destruction of the war, and you have to make do with what you have. Vittorio Algeri, born in 1953, is a lively child and, school aside, his life revolves around the farmhouse of Torre dé Roveri, just outside Bergamo.
“There were five families, I played, I helped my father in the fields, and on winter evenings all together to recite the rosary in the stable with the animals. It was the warmest place,” he said.
When it comes to the bicycle, it was love at first sight. “At three years old, I could already go without pedals,” Algeri says. “And when I could, I threw myself on the gravel roads. The world of the farmhouse was too small. By pedalling I discovered freedom.”
Alongside him was his older brother Pietro and these early years are ones of adventures, often at the limit. “I was 12 years old, and one Sunday morning the four of us set off to go around Lake Como. It was 250km and we left with nothing to eat and no money. We came back at 8 pm and my father was waiting for us outside the door. I managed to escape, but my brother got a good talking to!”
The two Algeri brothers are not only adventurous, but they are also fast. At 15, Vittorio joins the local team. The jersey is black and blue like that of the Atalanta football team, the steel bike weighs 11 kilos and has five gears. He wins at his first try, arriving alone at the finish line but forgets to raise his arms. It is the beginning of a new life.
From Berlin to Warsaw via Montreal
Algeri becomes an amateur. From spring to autumn, he is a cyclist, and in the winter, he returns to his great love: wood. “I started working as a carpenter when I was 10 years old. It is my great passion; I like to invent and solve technical problems. Wood is an extraordinary material. And then you had to bring money home, in those days it was difficult to make a living from cycling,” he says.
He no longer lives on a farm and his world has become very big. In 1975, the Italian national team called him to participate in the Peace Race, the most important race at the time in the communist bloc.
“I remember that when we crossed the Berlin Wall, the alarm sounded. Police, soldiers started running, I never knew what had happened,” says Algeri.
He still remembers the long lines outside the shops and the obligation to spend all the prize money before going home. “We had won the prologue and then we won other prizes, in kind and in money,” he explains. “They took us around because we had to spend the money. We bought everything, from cameras to crystal vases. Too bad that in Warsaw we realized that shipping everything to Italy would have cost too much. We left half of our things at the airport!”
The 1976 season was a great one. He won the Italian amateur championship and earned a place in the Olympics. He came eighth, with some regrets.
Pro rider and sport director
The doors to professionalism open for Vittorio. He is a fast rider and is not bad on the climbs. His first victory arrives: a stage of the Tour of Belgium. Others will follow in more important races such as stages of the Giro d’Italia and the Tirreno-Adriatico. He also wins on the track and in 1984 he wins the tricolour jersey among professionals, thus achieving a historic double.
In 1987, Algeri decides to get off the bike and get into the team car. “I have always liked teaching young people and when Gianluigi Stanga told me to replace him at the Milan-Turin I didn’t think twice.”
Even as a sports director, Algeri does not lose the habit of winning. From the car he directs some great champions, starting with Gianni Bugno.
“He was not easy to manage, he felt a lot of pressure. For this reason, I had meetings with his teammates but without Gianni. I left him as calm as possible, then at the end of the race he took care of it,” he explains.
After almost 40 years as a sports director, cycling has developed since Algeri made his debut in the team car and the role of a sport director has changed, too. Sometimes it means that the sport directors have less time with the riders than they did in his day. “Cycling has changed a lot,” says Algeri. “When I started in a team there were two directors, and 10-12 riders. Now, there is the risk that a rider meets him at the training camp in December and then nothing until the following year.”
The GreenEDGE Universe
Algeri has been at GreenEDGE Cycling since day one. “I was working in the American team UnitedHealthcare and in the summer of 2011 they called me to introduce me to the new project that was being created by Gerry Ryan. I liked the idea of starting from scratch and I immediately said yes.
“I would not have imagined,” smiles Algeri, “to still be here on the eve of 2025. I have always liked the enthusiasm that the people in the team put into their work. Thanks to everyone we have grown a lot and now there are almost 200 of us.”
In his office at the service course, Algeri deals mainly with organization and logistics. “It never ends. One season ends and the new one begins immediately. I like it, it’s my life.”
In today’s cycling, there are few people who have had such a long and rich career. When asked what his greatest satisfaction was, Algeri distinguishes between when he was a rider and then a sports director.
“As a director, I would say the victory at the Tour of Flanders in 2001 with Gianluca Bortolami. We prepared for it step by step, it was a great adventure.” As a rider Vittorio chooses the Settimana Ciclistica Bergamasca in 1976. “I rode on my own and then I beat the Eastern European champions, who at the time, were professionals who raced with us amateurs.”
The biggest disappointment was the Montreal Olympics. “I chose not to join the breakaway,” Algeri smiles bitterly, “because I was sure that the Russians and Polish would close the gap but it wasn’t like that. So, I started alone, I came back to the leaders with 15 kilometres to go. I tried to attack in the rain, but my legs were very hard. They caught me and I only came in eighth. I still think about It now.”
Main photo: KRAMON
