Simple aspects of cycling keep Lampre-Merida team director Bruno Vicino in the game

LAMPRE-MERIDA'S sports director Bruno Vicino is one of the wisest and proudest heads at the Santos Tour Down Under.

BRUNO Vicino is an old school cycling monument.

Lampre-Merida's sports director is one of the wisest and proudest heads at the Santos Tour Down Under.

Vicino, 61, has only missed four SA races since inception in 1999.

But at the start of every stage in any part of the world Vicino has earned legend status with a ritual.

It happens before he sits in his Lampre-Merida team car waiting for the start of a race after his team has signed on.

Vicino chomps on a Toscano Cigar until the start gun is fired and the peloton moves forward.

He then starts his team car, lights up his Toscano, has a puff and then he's in the peloton zone.

"The Toscano helps me to relax,'' Vicino said.

News_Image_File: Lampre-Merida Director Bruno Vicino driving the team car during the race. Picture: Sarah Reed.

"There is so much going on pre race, a lot of tension, a lot of nerves.

"Once the race starts the Toscano, I chew it a bit and then I smoke it.

"I only smoke Toscano not cigarettes and sometimes I'll have one after dinner."

Vicino and the Toscana have become synonymous in Italy given Italy's 2006 FIFA World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi was also labelled the 'King of Cool' when he smoked his cigars on the bench during the tournament in Germany.

But there's so much more to Vicino's work imaginable.

He has been a sports director since 1988 he's done the job for 26 consecutive years.

Vicino was 38 when he had his first sports director role.

But he has seen his duties reduced.

Vicino claims he earns about the same money as a bank clerk, "enough to survive."

Vicino was once upon a time responsible for the entire team including signing new riders, doing bike and sponsorship deals and reported usually to just the owner of the team.

"These days we're there to be responsible for the riders only,'' Vicino said.

"It's a bit like coaching a soccer team now, where you have to manage the personalities, coach the team to fitness, talk tactics and ensure the riders are capable of producing their best possible at all days.

"There is a lot of support staff now and the bikes are much better but really all the sports science has not in my opinion changed the sport all the much.

"You still have to pedal.

News_Rich_Media: Australian Simon Gerrans takes the Tour Down Under lead off Cadel Evans with only the final leg of the tour remaining.

"But for me the best moment as a sports director is winning a GC or a stage when you manage to get all of your tactics perfectly right.

"It's happened many times and you have to weigh up every option during a race and things can change very rapidly.

"I talk to all the team with radio communication which comes through the race radio at the Tour Down Under.

"At the Tour de France and the Giro D'Italia we have TVs on our cars and we can see the moves and that makes it somewhat easier."

Vicino's normal day during stage races starts at the crack of dawn before ending after midnight with the team planning and reviewing its strategies continually.

He also does the mundane duties like filling the team cars with fuel at the end of stages.

Vicino says he is away from his home at Bergamo for at least 10 months of the year but he doesn't mind.

"I love the travel and I have seen some places which are just stunning,'' Vicino said.

"I see colleagues with wives and families and they suffer if they stay on the road too long."

Vicino also has a passion for racing cars as an outlet away from cycling.

"I have been motor racing for about six or seven years,'' Vicino said.

"I have done rallies and track racing cars in Italy.

"I own vintage race cars, an Alfa Romeo GTA 1967 and I have a Renault Alpine for the rally.

"It costs a lot of money but I really enjoy the challenge, I even raced a 24 hour race with (cyclist Alessandro) Pettachi in a Kia and raced Porsches at Monza."

Vicino was groomed as a cyclist at the Fausto Coppi school in Milan.

Coppi was twice a Tour de France champion and claimed the Giro D'Italia five times.

Vicino said he learnt how to ride properly, studied tactics and eating and drinking habits during his time at the Coppi school.

At 20-years-old Vicino rode his first Tour de France before riding 10 times at the Giro D'Italia and claimed three world track titles and raced 78 six day races.

When his cycling career came to an end when he was 37, the Villorba-born Italian became an industrialist in northern Italy.

But his job didn't last long.

He yearned for a return to the peloton he missed the travel, the mateship and the excitement of racing.

But Vicino had no intention of being a cyclist when he was young.

He was an Italian junior slalom skier until a broken foot during the championships at Cortina changed the entire direction of his life.

His right foot had to be re-broken after it was crooked following months in plaster.

After a five-month recovery where he had steel pins to support his leg in rehab, a doctor had told Vicino to ride a bike to regain strength in the legs.

"I'm talking nearly 50 years ago when this happened,'' Vicino said.

"But when I got onto the bike at 14, I feel in love.

"I never loved cycling I was passionate for skiing, motor bikes and racing cars.

"I had a normal bike and I went riding with friends who had racing bikes.

"They also raced in summer and they were skiers in winter.

"One winter's night I had a chat with four men who owned an amateur cycling team.

"They asked me to try racing they gave me the bike and the apparel and I had a near fall and I didn't want to race anymore.

"The team director convinced me to stay and then the next race I finished fourth."

"I managed to keep up with them climbing mountains and that's when people in cycling saw I had some talent."

He also rates the Santos Tour Down Under and the US Philadelphia Philly Cycling Classic one day race as the most comprehensively organised events in his career.