The kids are all right. Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali aren’t hanging up their cleats anytime soon, but this year made it clear that pro cycling’s biggest trend is youth.
Anyone who spends time with Eros Poli will tell you that with all his energy and good humor, the big guy is really a big kid at heart. So it’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since his famous triumph on Mont Ventoux at the Tour de France.
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It was stage 19 of the 2016 Giro d’Italia. Vincenzo Nibali was out of form and out of ideas, a shadow of the gutsy, unpredictable racer adored by the Italian tifosi, and nothing like the dynamic champion who had won the 2010 Vuelta a España, the 2013 Giro or the 2014 Tour de France. Only five other riders have won all three grand tours, and the press were slow to write him off, but deep into the Corsa Rosa’s second week, criticism was building.
We’re on a modest street in Matosinhos, a port city just north of the Douro river that these days has been swallowed up by Porto’s urban sprawl. It’s a working-class neighborhood, and walking down the Rua Roberto Ivens, an unremarkable little cobbled thoroughfare not far from the waterfront and the docklands of the Port of Leixões, it’s hard not to feel like we’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere.
You can do anything for a minute, says my spin coach, Kirk. Literally. A disclaimer here, he’s not actually “my” coach, he’s my husband’s coach. Mark is a competitive athlete and I gave him Kirk for Christmas several years ago. I’m just a hanger-on.
It probably surprises people that we didn’t bring inGamba to California sooner. After all, this is our home, and all of the terrific trips we’ve developed in Europe have been born, at least in part, at our base in Sausalito. California has been here the whole time, calling out for the full Mangia, Beve, Bici treatment. So what took us so long?
Editors Note: This is the year Eros Poli celebrates the 25th anniversary of his win atop Mont Ventoux. As we were preparing materials to help Mr. Poli with his celebration we came upon a comment written by Fred Falcone, of Austin Texas, attached to a story on the Cycling Tips website. We thought it summed up nicely what it was like to watch Eros climb to victory that day, so we caught up with Fred to get some more details and to make sure he didn’t mind us sharing.
