Bruno Reverberi, the owner of Bardiani CSF 7 Saber, has admitted that his Italian ProTeam could close in the near future as he launched a scathing criticism of the UCI, the state of the sport and its points and rankings system.

Admitting that his team feel 'cut' out of a future following their 31st placed finish in the 2026 team rankings - a finish which means they will not be eligible for Grand Tour wildcards in 2027 - Bardiani's project is now at a crossroads.

Reverberi's family has owned the team for as many as four decades and could come to an end as he claimed that both the team and cycling as a whole has "no future".

“Our project is to stop. How can you spend €5 million and not have the right to race? There is no future, and cycling has no future," Reverberi said on the TriCiclo Podcast.

"We have already thought about closing in two years. In fact, we have taken four or five new riders and made them sign for only one year.”

Bardiani CSF 7 Saber

Changing focus makes attaining sponsors difficult

The Italian admitted that enticing new sponsors to the project is now more difficult given the need to claim UCI points - leading to the previous emphasis on elements such as TV coverage exposure from breakaways becoming less frequent as a result.

“You don’t even have the courage to go to the sponsor and ask for money. We had a project with young riders, and they cut it out automatically.

“Our way of racing was to break away. Now you don’t even break away, because you try to keep the rider there to sprint for tenth place for those damned UCI points.”

He suggested that removing professional teams entirely could be beneficial in levelling the playing field for all teams within the sport - but acknowledges that's an unlikely option.

UCI criticism 

Criticising the UCI's governance of the sport, Reverberi believes that although the sport's exposure is seemingly higher than ever at the top of cycling, things are seemingly bleaker within the lower echelons of cycling.

“I would immediately remove all the professional teams, which makes no sense, and give the Continental teams the chance to do what we are doing now. So based on sporting merit, you can do the Giro d’Italia.

“The UCI is incompetent. They’ve destroyed cycling. But can you see that the UCI has to decide what bike you have to race with? Can you go and check the size of socks? Can you compete in cycling without radios at the World Championships?”

He added: “We’ve reached a bit of a peak with Pogacar in some ways, but everything is falling apart underneath. Cycling is disappearing, and nobody’s looking at it.”