Renata Falzoni - The Flying Cyclist

It was in a small, quiet park in São Paulo, in the south of the country, that I had the pleasure of meeting the crazy and luminous journalist and activist Renata Falzoni, a bicycle pioneer in Brazil.

This article first appeared in the excellent magazine Vélo Mag, July 2020 edition, as well as on their website.

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Little Renata was born in September 1953 to a Brazilian mother and an Italian immigrant father. A fairly common mix in the largest country in Latin America, as it is estimated that half of the country's roughly 30 million descendants of Italians live in the state of São Paulo. “After the end of slavery and the liberation of slaves in the middle of the XNUMXth century,” she explains to me, “the government of the day wanted to 'whitewash' the country. Italian immigration was therefore very encouraged. ”

Racial issues are never far away in Brazil. What is rarer in this immense country is to talk about cycling. What Renata has done tirelessly all her life.

Lobbyist one day, always lobbyist, Renata in 1996 when she presented herself for the first time as city councilor in Saõ Paulo, with a fairly precise agenda (1996).

Fly by bike

Renata Falzoni in 1976 (23 years old in Vila Madalena, district of Saõ Paulo).

“I will never forget the first day I flew on a bicycle,” she recounts, her eyes shining and mischievous. It is the best way to connect with the joy of childhood, regardless of age. It's like a flying carpet. ”

She adds with palpable excitement that she still feels deep joy today when she discovers a new mountain biking trail. Because yes, Mrs. Falzoni, soon to be 67 years old, often goes alone in the mountains to explore trails she does not know! “I'm not fast, but I'm very technical,” she tells me, a touch of pride in her voice. Anyway, due to his messy red hair, big black Ray-Ban-style rimmed glasses, and sports sweater with his YouTube channel logo on it, I feel more like I'm conversing with a woman. young hipster than with someone eligible for the golden age discounts at the drugstore.

After her first bicycle theft, the young Renata learned at 8 years old to take photos, obviously on silver film. At 12, she developed her own films. "Since then, I have spent my life trying to combine my passion for cycling with that of photography."

Cycling is cool

Filming in Cuba for ESPN (2011, photo by Alexandre Cappi).

Renata obtained a degree in architecture - which she would never use directly - and then immediately went on to a career as a press photographer and sports journalist. She accumulates contracts for magazines and newspapers while inventing mountain biking. “In the 1980s, Brazil was under dictatorship and quite closed to the rest of the world. I didn't know the Gary Fisher and other American junkies were inventing mountain biking. It was only when I returned to democracy that I learned that I was not alone down the trails on old bikes without suspension! ”

When American bicycles began to be imported into the country at the turn of the 1990s, she completely abandoned mountain hiking and focused exclusively on cycling. "I was also constantly trying to push sport in the media, so that we could talk about something other than soccer and car racing."

In 1989, she founded the Night Bikers Club do Brasil, a way for cyclists in São Paulo to come together and demonstrate that “cycling is cool”, says Renata. Since then, the group has grown up across the country, promoting cycling as a sport and as a means of transportation.

The ESPN adventure

In 1995, Renata joined the team of ESPN television channel in Brazil. A decisive moment, according to her. "No matter what the story was about, I always put a bike on the screen." A subliminal way to continue to promote the little queen.

Then, from 2000 to 2013, she hosted her own show, Aventuras com Renata Falzoni. She travels to around thirty countries to film extreme or emerging sports: surfing, skateboarding, parachuting and, of course, cycling in all its forms. “I worked almost on my own, with little money,” she recalls. With the crumbs that were left over from soccer money! ”

A cycling chain

My interview on Renata's YouTube channel.

Since 2013, Renata has focused exclusively on new cyclists, from travel to athletes and of course urban travel. This is thanks to his website and especially his YouTube channel (in which I participated and which has nearly 290 subscribers) that we were put in contact. Its media carry the name Bike é Legal, which can be translated as “cycling is cool” in popular Brazilian parlance.

She and her few employees make a living from internet advertising and, above all, from the financial support of Itaú, a Brazilian bank among the most important in the world. It is this financial institution that has installed self-service bicycles (of the same model as the Montreal Bixi) in many large Brazilian cities.

“It really feels good not to be alone anymore,” she confesses to me. For a long time, it was only me who put the bike forward. ” And not just for the recognition of the sport, but with the aim that fewer people die on the streets of its megalopolis. Indeed, in 2017, no less than 37 cyclists lost their lives in the streets of the city of São Paulo alone. To have crossed it from one end to the other, I can easily understand it. Among the towns in the XNUMX or so countries where I entered by bicycle, it is probably the most dangerous of all. Not to mention the hundreds of deaths caused annually by the intense air pollution caused by the millions of cars stuck in traffic every day.

The situation is improving, but not quickly, she believes. “You often have to fight against politicians who just want to add cars, the supreme symbol of success here. The problem, the journalist continues, is that any means of transport other than the car - walking, cycling, public transport - is seen as a solution for the poor. It goes back to the days of slavery… ”

No retirement in sight

Because there is still a lot to do, Renata does not have a quiet retreat in her sights. “I will never stop lobbying, provoking,” she said.

Renata is also running as a candidate for councilor in the next municipal elections, which will take place in the fall. She wants more sidewalks, bike paths, connections to public transport stations. “I do not present myself for myself, she indicates, but for the cause. The attitude of the public is finally changing. Public policies must follow. ”

public issues must follow. ” The one who, a few years ago, carried the Olympic flame while pedaling ends our long discussion with the same fire that she maintained for several hours. “My major contribution,” she thinks, “is that people see me riding my bike, hear me talk about it, all the time. In the media as in the streets of my city, I pedal. I'm doing what I've always believed in. ”

Renata, in me you already have a convinced audience. There really is nothing cooler than cycling.

Olympic flame in Saõ Paulo for the Rio 2016 games.