Gregarios are the support riders in Italian Racing Teams. Their equivalents are the domestiques in the French teams. It’s a hard life but they do it for the love of racing and the prospect that they’ll get their turn in the spotlight and have an opportunity to “go for the win” when they’re on a good day.

Often it’s a career progression from gregario to super-gregario or gregario-de-luxe as they’re sometimes called. From there it’s on to a signing as a protected rider who will be allowed to target certain races depending on his strengths and the race profile. Then for the privileged few... they may just get to be “team leader”.

Remember, there are no domestiques in Italian teams.... only “gregarios”!

If you fancy being a gregario in an Italian pro team, here’s just a few of your duties:-

1. • riding into the wind to shelter your team leaders

   

   
   

2. • setting the pace on the front
   

3. • bringing your team leader up to the front
   

4. • setting the pace on the climbs
   

5. • chasing down the breakaway groups
   

6. • carrying bidons up the peloton from the team car
   

7. • giving up a wheel when the team leader punctures at a critical moment in the race and the team car is too far away.
   

Back in the day, in our pre-superclub era, we

were so taken with the ethic of the gregario that we decided to name our

cycling club after our unsung Italian heroes.... we added a snappy slightly retro

jersey in vivid blue the exact shade of the Italian National Road Team, and

The Gregarios Superclub Ciclista was born, The Blue Train was rollin’!

If you fancy being a Gregario in The Gregarios Superclub Ciclista,

your main duty is to come out on your bike and have some fun! 

Michele Bartoli says “I’ll never be a gregario” read more >>

What’s a Gregario?