He passed away today (January 27), aged 65, Umberto Inselvini di Mozzo, historic masseur of the Italian national cycling team, currently at the service of the Astana Qazaqstan team.
Inselvini died in Altea, Spain, where he was in training with Astana. A heart attack took him away: he was preparing the team’s trip to the Saudi Tour, when he stopped and explained to his colleagues that he didn’t feel very well. Unfortunately, the illness proved to be fatal and the rescuers were unable to save him.
In an interview with our weekly – then BergamoPost – in 2016, he told how it was cycling that made him meet love. And Bergamo. Inselvini, in fact, was born and raised in the province of Brescia, but with the amateur team in which he raced, Lema Mobili, he often came to train in the Bergamo area. And during a summer retreat in Castione he met Cristina. For her, who later became her wife, he came to live in Mozzo.
Having abandoned his competitive career, he became a masseur. His first big team was Bianchi (in 1987), then in 1995 he moved to Carrera Jeans, where he worked with Pantani and Chiappucci. From that moment it was a continuous ascent. He had been working for Astana since 2013.
Many cycling champions have passed on his couch, and Inselvini has listened to their confidences, fears and hopes with cordial professionalism and sometimes friendship. He used to say that cycling is a beautiful sport, but «if you don’t place yourself in the first rows, sometimes only the sacrifice remains». Also for this reason he was not only a masseur, but also a friend and a father to the younger athletes.
