T’was my first season in Europe, having signed with Cervelo TestTeam,
I’d made the next step in my career, this was living the dream!
With victories already dancing in my head, it all quickly hit a wall,
On Tour of California’s stage three, where my arm broke my fall.
It’s that time of year again. The time when we look back, look forward … and look down, at that ever growing belly bulge.
“The end of the season is a mental test as much as anything,” says Ted King, former pro rider turned coach and unofficial King of Gravel. “You’re either operating somewhere on the spectrum of peak fitness after a year of diligent hard work, or are frustrated with how the previous nine months went and want nothing more than to double down going into the next year.”
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect on my inGamba cycling vacation. I had never ridden my bike more than three days in a row. And I had never climbed more than 2500 feet in one ride. But this trip was a celebration of my 15-year wedding anniversary – a relationship kicked off with a first date of shopping for a mountain bike and then going on a (first for me) mountain bike ride. Through the years my riding became less frequent, but I still kept the fire for what I’ve always seen as an opportunity to connect with nature, push myself and bond with friends. Read More
What makes a place magic? It’s a question I often ponder while laying in my bed at Borgolecchi, staring out at the Tuscan vineyards, as the sun slowly rises to light the day, in a way that never seems to be the same two mornings in a row.
Like everything here, those sunrises are dichotomic, both constant and ever-changing, and it’s with great wonder I ponder how Tuscany can be so varied, while life there never seems to change.
How should a bike travel company throw a spectacular end-of-the-season celebration? Well, it has to start with the perfect location. And for us, that is Healdsburg, a little hamlet in the heart of Sonoma’s wine country. Healdsburg has good soul, as well as good shopping. It has great food, too, and the weather is amazing, even by California standards. Then you add the perfect boutique hotel – the H2Hotel – where the service is impeccable, the rooms divine and the location spot-on. And to top it off, get a clubhouse provided by the Mill District and staffed by their amazing folks where there is not only room for bike washes and showers and lunches and relaxation, but also a very noticeable vacation-esque vibe.
As we crested another climb, only to find another stunning view of the crystal blue Adriatic Sea, it was funny to think that this adventure in southern Italy had begun back in Mill Valley, California, four years ago. It was João’s annual ride for World Bicycle Relief, and SRAM’s co-founder Stan Day suggested an inGamba trip to raise money for WBR. The idea stuck and since then we’ve hosted trips in Tuscany, northern Portugal, Alentejo and Puglia. The trips have raised nearly $500,000 for the work of WBR, which I think is a testimony to the generosity of the people who make up the groups on the trips as well as the greater InGamba community who have supported them from afar.
It’s the kind of scene that sets a cyclist right at ease. A bunch of other riders, all shapes and sizes and different styles, standing around chatting and laughing, with some bikes on display, some vintage prints, a nod or two to the golden age of Italian cycling, and the unmistakable smell of freshly roasted coffee beans being transformed into restorative little shots of goodness by steam pressure and the steady hand of a good barman. A good cafe doesn’t need to be bike-themed, of course, but it helps.
