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Lately it's not easy to find Filippo Ceccucci, the president of the Moto Club Umbria, standing still. Ever since he picked up his new KTM 690 Enduro from the Perugia dealership Racestore he has immediately put it to work, to the point that by the end of October he had practically already designed the routes for the 2020 Umbria Rally. As the quarantine and related restrictions came to an end, it was immediately up and running again, this interview being taken just before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I always get them too long, and then cut them I'm sorry..." He murmurs in one of the rare pauses he allows himself, more to observe the wonderful view around us.

Route reconnaissance with the Umbria's rally-branded KTM 690 R

What will the Umbria 2020 Rally be like?

"I always have to say 'the most beautiful', but then again I think it's logical, as every year we learn something and can improve. As always, the routes are all almost unprecedented. And then it's a great responsibility (sneers)There are many who are waiting to see our routes so that they can copy them for their own events...".

The issue of copied tracks is a serious topic in the world of so-called adventure travel.

"What can I say, the roads belong to everyone and there is no copyright on the design of the routes. I just wish they had a minimum of good taste, but it seems that if you don't have certain things it is impossible to learn them. Certainly those who copy can see where I've been, but not where I'm going."

Passes for not having an easy character.

"I don't like being taken for a ride, but I don't think it's a trait that's mine alone. Good or bad I have done something, during my life, and when someone pops up without having the slightest competence and pretends to lecture and teach me, I have a hard time biting my tongue. Although with age I believe and hope I have improved a bit."

Race debut at an UISP rally in 1985 with the Moto Guzzi Stornello Scrambler 125 and home-made instrumentation

Something you actually did, shall we recall your CV?

"It gets long and boring..."

So here he is: photoreporter following rallies, present uninterruptedly from 1989 to 2007 at all the events of the sector in Italy, following competitions of every level, from regional motorally (in the early 90s there were also those) up to the Paris-Dakar, Italian raid tt vice-champion at his debut as a driver with roadbook in 1998, European raid tt champion in 2004, participant in all the competitions held in Europe up to 2007, international race director, designer of more than 120 roadbooks since 1997, creator of the motorally working group, inventor and organiser of the Umbria rally, the round of the European and Italian raid tt championships, creator of routes and roadbooks on four continents, the Anàbasi 1000, the Passignano group 5 classic regularity races, Italian classic regularity champion 2011 and finally inventor of the 'rallies without a stopwatch', the Anàbasi 300 and Boòn and then the new Rally dell'Umbria tourist rally.

5th overall at the Carpat Express Rally Raid 2004, European Rally Raid Championship round

'I said it was getting boring.... In any case, the title of European champion was taken away from me by changing the regulations in the process: I would only be vice-champion, but ahead of Nani Roma and Marc Coma!
I would rather add a degree in Art History, not that it helped much, but I do care.
Then many years as a correspondent at the races of the various Trial, Cross, Enduro, Rally and Speed World Championships, and the work for Mondocorse, which since 1993 has seen me choose and comment on the video images that have accompanied so many fans in over 220 titles."

In 2009 with Marco Castaldi

The adventure of Wolves & Bisons?

Basically, it all started in 2018, with the new Rally of the Umbria tourist: I have long had this desire to make our beloved motorcycling live on natural roads - we should start getting used to not talking about 'off-road', even though it is common lexicon - in a less exaggerated way than with races.
Together with other friends, we realised that we were getting older, so to speak, and that while the sacrosanct youthful anxiety of the stopwatch had passed us by, it was only right to preserve an important part of the wonderful sensations that can be experienced on a motorbike, which are precluded to so many others.
Thanks to the first 'timeless rallies' since 2007, I had realised how a less exaggerated approach could open up many doors otherwise closed to our world.In 2018 we decided to create something different, created by competent people who knew what they were talking about. 
Now the first season of 'Wolves & Bisons' is over, we had a lot of satisfaction, even a few missteps, but they served to learn, and I believe that for 2020 we will present ourselves even stronger and more competent."

The 'Wolves & Bisons' events are limited in number, how come?

"Because the limited number serves the organiser to concentrate on his event in the best possible way. For example, experience has taught me that at the Anàbasi 300 it is good not to have more than a hundred participants, it is always a pity to have to 'bounce' someone, as has been the case for years now, but on the other hand it is a guarantee that the event runs smoothly."

Others do not do this...

"I can speak for myself, in my opinion this way depersonalises and upsets the balance. A relatively small group of participants manages well, from what experience has taught me. When you grow too large you create the herd, the horde, and in my opinion this is not good. Lastly, I think it is also right to create a minimum of exclusivity: at the Umbria Rally the maximum number is 150, and in Piazza IV Novembre in Perugia that is the capacity to be comfortable and get going quickly, without excessively annoying the townspeople. Let alone when we go to the little villages that I like to introduce to the participants."

The desire not to create a nuisance, but rather to work together with local communities is another founding principle of the Ways of Wolves & Bison.

"Exactly. Speaking for myself, that is, for the Moto Club Umbria, but which has also been well received by the other Lupi & Bisonti events, our events must be a showcase for our region, which I sincerely believe I know like nobody else, our motto 'the difference between knowing a road and knowing a territory' I think explains a lot. I always try to take our participants to little-known areas and to towns and villages that generally remain off the normal tourist circuit. In addition, our passage must be a celebration for the population, which is why we always involve the Pro loco and pay all the expenses: we are repaid by the wonder of their areas, it would not be fair to burden their often asphyxiated budgets."

an exchange of greetings during the 2018 Umbria Rally

'Correctness' is a term one often hears in dialogue with you.

"I think so, after all, there are many people who speak ill of me, but as it happens, hardly any of them stand out for candour or fairness. That's their business, but those who deal with me must know that honesty and seriousness come first."

Perhaps that is why you are respected and perhaps also feared.

(Laughs) 'Feared definitely seems excessive to me! I think I'm respected because anyone who knows me knows that I don't make fun of him, that I'm an enthusiast like him and that I try to give him a happy time riding his bike, without trying to fool him.
Then, of course: like all speeches in general they are statements to be taken as a concept, not as absolute truth."

One of the features of the Wolves & Bisons Routes is the roadbook.

"All Wolves & Bisons events are characterised by the roadbook!
I firmly believe that following a roadbook instead of a GPS track is infinitely more fun and fulfilling, and generally those who are against it are because they have never tried it, probably intimidated by the cost of the equipment. 

I have always felt this problem, and I have always tried to work on trying to allow a way to try to navigate with the roadbook. The collaboration with Roberto Ciotti of Sfango has produced an ingenious system, which can be applied very quickly to any bike, allowing all participants in the various Lupi & Bisonti events to rent this equipment and be able to try it out if they like the 'game'. To navigate Bisisonti events is more than enough, but for Lupi events there are no problems either.

My dream would be that all enthusiasts would follow my wish and try to navigate with the roadbook, and perhaps realise that for an organiser it is a lot of extra work and expense.

Sooner or later we will succeed, you'll see!"

We would like to conclude this meeting by saying that the Umbria Rally is the only event in the world that has always had the same organisation that created it since its inception, and that in the Moto Club Umbria events there is not a metre of route or roadbook note that Filippo Ceccucci has not made in more than twenty years.