A "Story of a Son" that I would never have wanted to write. A personal memory of a friendship, genuine and mutually shared, born towards the end of March 1974 in a bar in Sorrento, the Bar Fauno in the famous Piazza Tasso, just a stone's throw from the home of Sant'Agnello resident Carmine "Elo" Castellano.

The future patron of the Giro d'Italia and the pink races was there, as a cycling consultant for the president of the tourism company of that splendid locality overlooking the gulf of the same name. The author of these lines was also at the Fauno, working after hours as was necessary to save time, which was always pressing, with his friend Mimmo Filippi, from the OTAT transport company, who for many years, with varied and articulated experience, had been handling the transport and assembly of the, then quite sparse in truth, start and finish structures of the Giro d'Italia above all. With the Sorrento president, De Leva as I recall, we found Castellano and immediately appreciated his passion and cycling knowledge, inherited from his father, who was part of the organizing committee for the Sorrento stage of the 1960 Giro, a time trial won by the meteor Romeo Venturelli ahead of the great Frenchman Jacques Anquetil.

Castellano's father was a well-known agronomist while his son, Carmine, "Elo" for short from Carmelo, had graduated in law and commuted daily on the Circumvesuvian railway to the judicial offices in Naples, above all. The (beneficial) virus of cycling had already touched him some time before and he had organized, also as a technical director of the Regional Committee of Campania of the Italian Cycling Federation, various races with the Sant'Agnello Cycling Club and sought resources from personalities of the Sorrento coast such as Commander Achille Lauro - shipowner and politician and much else - who would receive guests by the covered swimming pool wearing only a bathrobe, often unfastened, expressing himself in a picturesque manner. A fellow citizen of Elo, from Sant'Agnello, his contemporary and friend, was Gianluigi Aponte, patron and founder, in the early 1970s, of the company that later became the maritime giant MSC, with worldwide significance.

In 1973 he organized the Italian amateur championship in Sorrento won by the resourceful and later versatile Venetian Bruno Vicino, triple world champion stayer with the motorcycle guided by Domenico De Lillo. And immediately with Castellano the spark ignites and soon becomes, without labels, a competent resource for La Gazzetta dello Sport-Organizzazioni directed by Vincenzo Torriani assisted by Giovanni Michelotti. For the first years he assists with inspections in the south, then in 1976, he is in the car with Filippi, the undersigned and Ezio Longoni, a "multi-task" collaborator, (in the style of Angelo Morlin, somewhat his student who surpassed him in longevity) for the Alpine stages of the Giro to understand the specifics. Thus also when he drives, for a couple of editions to gain experience, the car ahead of the race with on board Cesare Sangalli, the veteran cartographer C. San., the signature of the author of the technical cartographic elements, with his inseparable array of military geographical maps, slide rule, pen with nib and India ink, compass and road references. Another experience in a second coordination vehicle for radio information and, like everyone back then, after-work hours in the secretariat with press releases, mimeograph and the first faxes.

In 1981 significant variations in the composition of the organizational structure lead to a certain divergence of professional paths but not of personal friendship with Castellano who begins a continuous back and forth between Naples-Milan and back. He takes care of the organizational secretariat aspect, still headquartered in Via Vitruvio, near Central Station and in sight – literally - of patron Torriani's residence.

About three years later, after his appointment to the pink management, he decides to move with his wife, Mrs. Marisa and his son Luigi, (his daughter Milena with her family, instead remains on the Coast) to the north and arrives in Busto Arsizio, carefully assisted in this by former Busto cyclist Alberto Della Torre who, at the time, piloted Torriani's lead car and, later, was responsible for the finishes.

And for the development of his personal and professional story, always growing, at an international level, we refer to the account signed by Pier Augusto Stagi, the director of this site and his young, one might say, friend who often, after he had returned to Sant'Agnello around the beginning of 2010, would go visit him.

A long and articulated story his. In 1987 his path and mine – a small path, in truth - were unified again in RCS Sport still living shared common experiences until this morning with many other subjects and protagonists of two wheels and the stage of the road, "at the university of the sidewalk…", a cycling and lasting friendship credential shared.

We will no longer hear his "slang" a bit Neapolitan that said "mo' lo (or la) telefono" (I'll call you now), "neh, have patience", "neh, what do I call you" or venture forth with fervor in describing the preparation of coastal dishes with tomato as the protagonist. When I called you even today it came naturally to call you at the home phone number that, since 1974, I always remember by heart. And with me many, very many, mutual friends greet you who asked me, in great numbers, for information about your "escape". A solitary escape that by your express will shuns any celebration.