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Umberto "Lupo" Mascheroni
Neben Henri Depierre sind Lupo Mascheroni und Luigi Gilardi einer der vergessenen Rennsportlegenden aus der glorreichen Zeit. Beide verbinden Erfolge, technische Professionalität und ein Netzwerk in die Rennsportszene wie sie es kaum andere schafften. Dabei verbindet beide Fausto Coppi. Während Lupo für ihn Chefmechaniker seit 1949 war, baute Luigi Gilardi die Rahmen für ihn und das Bianchi-Team.
Lupo Mascheroni wurde am 23. Dezember 1995 auf dem Fahrrad tödlich von einem Auto angefahren. Der untenstehende Nachruf fast 20 Jahre nach seinem Tod beschreibt für mich vieles, was er für die italienische Rennradszene bedeutete. Er war nicht nur hungrig wie ein Wolf (Lupo), sondern hatte auch den Biss sich fast über 40 Jahre in der Profiszene erfolgreich zu halten. Er baute eigentlich für alle großen Teams Räder und arbeitete gemeinsam mit Ugo de Rosa, Luigi Gilardi, Alberto und Faliero Masi, Marastoni, Umberto Marnati und vielen anderen zusammen.
"Mascheroni was born in Cusano Milanino on Dec. 24, 1924. Unfortunately, also close to Christmas, on Dec. 23, 1995, died as a result of the accident with a car at the Bàcula overpass (better known as the Ghisolfa bridge) in Milan while riding his bike home several days earlier on the afternoon of Dec. 11. He was still full of life and vitality, always active and always “electric” in his movements and in perfect line with the time when Faliero Masi, the great artist and his teacher, baptized him with the nickname “Lupo”. Lupo was known to everyone to have an inexhaustible appetite. As he aged, only his thick and vivid hair had changed color from black to white while his body remained the same.
Alberto Masi, Faliero’s sont, remembered Umberto or Berto, as he calls him, with familiarity and affection. He said Berto lived with his family during the bombardment in their home at via Michelino da Besozzo 20 in the Ghisolfa-Certosa area, also the home of the first Masi workshop. At the time, Faliero, was the technical manager of Viscontea, another historic bicycle brand, and he set his sights on the young, wiry and quick-witted Mascheroni who had just entered Viscontea. Alberto said his father “baptized” Lupo after he saw him finish off a whole pot of polenta all by himself.
And he cultivates it for his part in the craft indicating at the beginning of the 1950s, to Ugo Bianchi, master frame builder responsible for Legnano. Here Lupo finds another Umberto, Umberto Marnati, who was born in Bareggio, but soon moved to Milan, also in the Ghisolfa area. They formed a relationship that did not break for many years. And then there is another “Legnano d.o.c.” as the masseur or “masseur”, as we said then, Italo Villa. All three worked with the Italian national team when the great C.T. Alfredo Binda raced at the Tour de France and the World Championships.
Marnati was more canvasist than Mascheroni who preferred to carry out the assembly work, mechanical and that, for the loose talk, often in Milan, reflected more the image, perhaps borrowed from the avatar Pavesi, of added sports director and person of relationships with the racing environment. He also was a bit of a “alent scout (but then you did not use this definition) for Legnano and referred to Pavesi. After Legnano, he worked for GBC as a director sportive, then briefly at Salvarani and then at the Dreher and Brooklyn Teams led by Franco Cribiori.
It does not seem appropriate to remember the names of the well-known champions and racers, of various kinds, with whom Lupo has been in direct contact during the long years spent in the race. He used to remember the extraordinary nobility, in every sense and in every aspect, of the Swiss Hugo Koblet—the first foreigner in history to win the Giro d’Italia in 1950—with whom he collaborated, called by the director coach of the national team Red Cross Alex Burtin, in his victorious Tour de France of 1951. A judgment on the pédaleur de charme Helvetic widespread and common among those who attended it.
He also remembered the extraordinary strength and direct, overflowing, sympathy and vitality of Roger De Vlaeminck. The polyvalent Belgian champion, at the time of preparation and measures for the bikes, did not undergo the evaluations and the feedbacks of the meter. A ritual to which he gladly took away. He called Patrick (understood as Patrick Sercu) next to him and, shoulder to shoulder, with his leveled hand, he told the mechanics: “I like Patrick”. And he won, and how and how much he won.
Lupo was very close to another famous frame builder, Ugo De Rosa, often visiting his Cusano Milanino workshop. One —Lupo—very talkative. The other—De Rosa—rather taciturn. Here he also met Luigi Gilardi, for all “il nonu”, his grandfather, affectionately, much later with the years that had been the reference frame of the Bianchi in the shining years. After he retired, he lived near De Rosa and went to the workshop to breathe the scent (or perfume?) of welding almost daily.
A characteristic that distinguished Lupo and made him immediately recognized was the fast pace, the dynasty and the showy suspenders, often with floral motifs, that he wore with ease.
With his colleague and friend Marnati, Mascheroni opened a workshop to make “Lupo” brand bicycles, with a logo that included the image of a wolf’s head and the Milan coat of arms. The shop was in via Baldinucci, an area between the Milanese districts of Dergano and Bovisa, not far from the Certosa area where he lived with his family, Signora Alessandra, his wife who still resides there and their daughters Sonia and Sara.
With a tender, sensitive heart, very attached to his family and very passionate about his work, he was a wolf in name only."
Dieses Mal habe ich mein Rad so gut wie fertig, deshalb wird es zu Beginn schon Bilder geben. Oha, werdet ihr jetzt vermutlich denken. Die Geschichte um Mascheroni und Gilardi sowie die Teams von Bianchi, Legnano, Chiorda, Dreher und Brooklyn werden dafür aber umso umfangreicher.
Mein Rad ist ein 1973 Team Brooklyn Modell, welches noch viele Details des Rahmenbaus des Dreherteams hat, während die ersten Umsetzungen für das Brooklyn-Team schon hinzugefügt wurden. Ich werde es noch etwas zurecht machen und einige Sachen adaptieren. Ob es tatsächlich eingesetzt wurde, kann man nicht mehr herausfinden. Es ist aber beachtlich, dass das Torino-Blue des Team Brooklyns noch so gut erhalten ist. Vielleicht war es ein Ersatzrad, welches später von Lupo noch mal verkauft wurde.
Mit der Hoffnung, dass hier vielleicht irgendwann noch mehr Lupos gezeigt werden, möchte ich diesen Thread Lupo und Gilardi widmen. Es ist für mich das schönste Rad in meiner Sammlung und ich habe mich bewusst dazu entschieden es nicht im KdM zu zeigen, weil die Geschichte mehr Raum braucht.
Zuletzt bearbeitet von einem Moderator: