He dropped back. What's wrong with you?, Eberardo Pavesi asked him, the Lawyer, his sports director from the Legnano team car. I have cramps, he replied. Pavesi disappeared, vanished, then returned, leaned out the window, pulled out a bunch of nettles and tried to revive those legs hard as wood.

Now Angelo Bugini laughs, recounting how Pavesi was "a tough guy", "brusque manner", "Milanese dialect", "beret on his head and pipe in his mouth" and "that bunch of nettles against leg cramps", effective if Bugini, threatened, jumped on the pedals and broke away, if not from the group, at least from his sports director. Eighty-five years old on December 2nd, from Caronno Pertusella in the Varese area, son of a mechanic at Montecatini in Bovisa, Milan, mother a factory worker, sister who would have become a factory worker, and him, Bugini, five years of elementary school and three years of vocational training, at 14 a mechanic in Milan, but with a passion for cycling.

From his first bike ("A Bianchi, so big I had to pedal underneath the frame") to his first racing bike ("Another Bianchi, it had belonged to a rider, Giuseppe Favero, I think"), from his first race ("Beginner category, around Vedano Olona, I finished in the group, it was a success") to his first victory ("I don't remember it, but of one thing I'm certain: I won by a distance, because in a three-man sprint I would have finished fourth, I would have lost even to my own shadow"), his first team jersey was Saronnese ("It was 1958"), then Lainatese ("From 1962, and I raced on Legnano bikes"), then Legnano ("It was 1965, two-year contract, I signed whatever there was to sign, because you signed without discussing, and without discussing you accepted everything they told you"). With his stories, Bugini was among the guests of honor at the days dedicated to Legnano (the bike) by Legnano (the city).

Domestique: "In 1965 the captains were Luciano Sambi and Silvano Schiavon, climbers, in 1966 there were also Flaviano Vicentini and Adriano Passuello. In the team I also had Giancarlo Ferretti, Franco Bodrero, Emilio Casalini... Everyone trained on their own: Pavesi had old-fashioned ideas, directing were Umberto 'Lupo' Mascheroni and Umberto Marnati, first and foremost mechanics, but then also trainers, team managers, directors, masseurs and doctors, everything". Witness: "Racing for Legnano was an honor. With that jersey, the history of cycling had been written. Binda? Never saw him. Bartali? Yes, from the time he directed San Pellegrino and selected the best amateurs to bring them to the professional ranks. Coppi? In the race dedicated to his brother Serse, you passed three times over the Castellania pass, I won the mountain prizes and was awarded by Fausto himself".

Two Giro d'Italia races, Bugini in 1965 finished 57th, 2:32'03" behind Vittorio Adorni, in 1966 51st, 2:16'30" behind Gianni Motta: "I never raced for the general classification, only to help the captains. And after helping them, I would drop back". His best result was an eighth place: "1965 Giro, the Milano-Novi Ligure stage, a nine-man breakaway, won by Danilo Grassi over Dino Zandegù, and it's already quite something that I managed to beat one, and he was good too, the Belgian Yvo Molenaers". Six days later they reached the Stelvio: "The stage was interrupted by an avalanche that fell on the road 200 meters from the finish. The first riders, bikes on their shoulders, were allowed through. The others, no. I was among those. I got off my bike, leaned against an ice wall and was so exhausted that I fell asleep". Bugini remembers some breakaways: "To break away you had to reckon with the Adornis and Gimondis, the Mottas and Dancells... In short, it wasn't easy". He tried everything: "Even on the track. But after I fell and fractured my shoulder, I gave it up". He tried almost everything: "Nothing cyclocross". But always as a domestique: "1966 Tour of Romandy, I helped Motta even though we were in different teams, at least a crumb of his final victory still feels like mine". Regrets? "Zero. Everything I did, I did willingly".

The statistics record Bugini as a professional also in 1967: "Legnano disbanded, I was left without a team, Adriano De Zan convinced me to move to Gbc. The important thing – he told me – is that you do a few kilometers, the first ones, at the front, we film the images, then you go back home. And that's what I did. I participated in two or three races, without a contract, without training, because in the meantime I had gone back to work as a mechanic in the factory. Ready, go, at the front, head held high to show the white and black jersey of Gbc, then I would drop back". From the factory he moved to a bank: "Fortunately". And the bike? "Always, a bit as an amateur, a bit just riding around, a bit also in the city, and in the city I used the women's bike. More comfortable".