“I only like cyclists when they get run over,” says controversial Italian politician and Giorgia Meloni supporter, as pro cyclist blasts “disgraceful” anti-cycling comments

Prominent and controversial Italian politician and journalist Vittorio Feltri has been roundly condemned by the cycling community in Italy, including Tour de France stage winner and former European champion Matteo Trentin, after telling an event organised by his Il Giornale newspaper this week that “I only like cyclists when they get run over”.

The highly inflammatory comments came on what would have Michele Scarponi’s 45th birthday, and over seven years since the Giro d’Italia winner was killed while out on a training ride by a van driver who allegedly admitted to prosecutors that he had been watching a video on his mobile phone at the time of the fatal collision.

Feltri made his remarks, during a speech which also criticised Milan’s cycling infrastructure and the state of the city’s roads, during the ‘La Grande Milano, Dimensione Smart City’ event organised by Il Giornale, an Italian national newspaper formerly owned by the country’s late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and for which Feltri has served as editor during two separate spells.

The 81-year-old – a prominent Berlusconi supporter who joined current prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party in 2021, briefly serving in Milan City Council before being elected to Lombardy’s regional council last year – is no stranger to controversy, and has long been criticised for publicly expressing homophobic, antisemitic, and anti-Islamic views.

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Directing his ire towards cyclists this week, AGI reports that Feltri told the event at the Circolo Filologico in Milan, a city steeped in cycling heritage and often the sight of the Giro d’Italia’s final stage, that the “only thing that bothers me” about the city is its cycling infrastructure and cyclists.

“Milan continues to develop for the better. With [Gabriele] Albertini as mayor, the city had a crazy development. But I believe that the city continues to improve,” he said.

“The only thing that bothers me is that the roads are full of potholes and the bike paths. I only like cyclists when they get run over.”

Unsurprisingly, Feltri’s typically provocative comments were heavily criticised by Italy’s cyclists, including Tudor Pro Cycling team rider Matteo Trentin, a former European champion and stage winner at all three Grand Tours with three Tour de France stage wins, who has often been outspoken on road safety and dangerous driving.

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

“Dearest Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni,” Trentin wrote on social media in response to Feltri’s comments, “When you want, I invite you to go for a bike ride with this character from your party, who apparently still lives during the Industrial Revolution. You can also use the electric one, so it's more fun.”

Trentin’s intervention was welcomed by his fellow Italian cyclists, with one noting that describing Feltri’s comments as “disrespectful to those who have lost a loved one” while cycling is “an understatement”, and branding them as “insensitive and gratuitous malice”.

“On Michele Scarponi’s birthday it is even more disgusting to read these words,” social media user Valeria Giulia added.

Meanwhile, The Cycling Podcast post Daniel Friebe wrote that the politician’s remarks were “an utter, unfathomable disgrace”, and Italy-based cycling writer Herbie Sykes described Feltri as “Berlusconismo personified. Needy, venal, and profoundly stupid.”

Last year, 197 cyclists were killed on Italy’s roads, and Trentin’s public response to Feltri was undoubtedly spurred by the high-profile deaths of his professional colleagues Michele Scarponi and Davide Rebellin in recent years.

> Driver accused of killing Michele Scarponi dies of cancer

In April 2017, Scarponi, who was set to lead Astana at the following month’s Giro d’Italia, was cycling near his hometown of Filottrano, in Italy’s Marche region, when he was struck and killed by van driver Giuseppe Giacconi.

58-year-old Giacconi, who died a year later from cancer, bringing an end to the criminal investigation into Scarponi’s death, told police that he “didn’t see” the former Giro winner at the time of the collision, before reportedly telling prosecutors that he was looking at his phone when he hit the 37-year-old.

And in November 2022, classics star Davide Rebellin, who had just retired from cycling the previous month at the age of 51 following three decades as a professional rider, was on a training ride near his home in Montebello Vicentino, northern Italy, when he was struck by a lorry driver and killed instantly.

> “We do not want revenge, but justice”: Plea deal for lorry driver accused of killing Davide Rebellin rejected by Italian court

According to roadside video and witness photos, driver Wolfgang Rieke got out of his cab briefly to assess the cyclist’s condition, before fleeing the scene and driving to Germany, where his brother’s haulage firm is based. He was eventually extradited to Italy, where he has been charged with vehicular homicide and failing to render assistance and is awaiting trial.

A few months before Rebellin’s death, Trentin – one of the peloton’s most outspoken activists on the subject of safety, who represents his fellow pros in the riders’ union, the CPA, and by sitting on UCI committee meetings – had already raised concerns about the dangers to cyclists posed by motorists on the road.

Responding to Chris Froome’s claims, made in the wake of Egan Bernal’s devastating training crash, that training on time trial bikes on public roads was now “too dangerous”, Trentin said: “It’s not a TT bike problem, the problem is the traffic, the problem is the amount of people in cars today.

“Actually, even the small roads in the countryside can be dangerous, but it’s not because you have a TT bike, it’s because you have a bike. You’re not protected from crashing into a car, and people are getting more and more anxious to pass a bike for basically no reason.

“It's actually a problem of how people are thinking sitting in a car, or maybe also sometimes how cyclists are thinking sitting on a bike. It has to be nicer. Sharing the roads has to be nicer than it is now.”

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While universally condemned by Italy’s cycling community, how Feltri’s brazen anti-cycling comments will be received by his own political party is up for debate.

Earlier this year, prime minister Meloni’s personal trainer Fabrizio Iacorossi was left fighting for his life after being hit by a driver while cycling near Rome, and is currently in the midst of a lengthy recovery process.

However, in June last year, Italy’s deputy prime minister and transport minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the Lega party, which forms part of the right-wing coalition led by Meloni, outlined plans to force cyclists to wear helmets and carry licence plates and indicators on their bikes, while also paying insurance.

The proposals were heavily criticised by cycling campaigners and members of the bike industry, who viewed them as Salvini’s latest attempt to curb cycling in Italy since Meloni’s government was elected in 2022, following significant cuts to cycling infrastructure projects.

But following this backlash, the Lega leader performed a drastic U-turn just 48 hours later, clarifying that plans to introduce stricter laws on helmets and number plates were aimed solely at people riding scooters, not cyclists.