To the victor(s) go the spoils, and today we brought home victory pâté. At least that’s what I thought it was upon first glance. It turns out that it’s a terrine pur porc plus another rillettes pur porc, which presumably will pair well with the three bottles of wine we also nabbed, plus some chocolate. A few hours of exquisite riding across Europe followed by delectable food and wine? This really is an inGamba experience in the making.
“Sweetheart, let’s go to France!” Women swoon when these words are spoken and that was Laura’s reaction when I presented them to her. Or that’s how I try to remember it anyway. It may have gone more accurately like this.
It was a brilliant blue afternoon, with cool ocean breezes from the west. Every cycling expedition begins with a “shakeout” day to see what’s working and what’s not — with the riders as much as the rides. Our pace was casual and chatty. We discussed a procession of gaily painted boats adorned with religious statuary. When a scooter whined past, one of the guides, a recently retired pro named Manuel Cardoso, jumped into its slipstream — “motor pacing,” as racers call it. We finished with a climb to our hotel, the Pousada Castelo Alcácer do Sal, located in a former convent in Alcácer do Sal, a town that was central to the salt trade during the Roman Empire.
Pinarello’s F8 was always going to leave behind some really big shoes to fill. It set the standard in the professional peloton for two seasons, winning 90 races with Team Sky – including two Tours de France. It was also the best selling bike in the Italian brand’s history. An alluring combination of looks, performance, and race pedigree, it became the dream bike for riders the world over. It was, in a word, awesome.
To lovers of fine wine, or anyone who’s been to inGamba’s casa dolce casa in Tuscany, Castello di Ama will be a familiar name. Nestled in the hills of Chianti not far from our base in Lecchi, the winery was founded in the 1970s by a group of families from Rome who, having fallen in love with the landscape and the crumbling stonework of the eponymous little hamlet, set about restoring a once property to its former glory, while at the same time transforming the way the world thought about the unloved local tipple. Read More
Laurens ten Dam and João Correia were friends long before inGamba. As professional bike racers, they met at the 2010 Tour de Suisse, but not like you’d expect, chatting at the start-line, or in a quiet moment, mid stage, while the peloton casually rolled en masse through the Swiss countryside. No, that would be too boring. The pair’s first encounter came when João went careering, at high speed, into the back of an ambulance, only to find the Dutchman already inside, on the stretcher, getting treatment. Never let it be said that the boss doesn’t know how to make an entrance.
Nice, Boulder, Melbourne, Lucca. All iconic cycling towns, all magnets for the sport’s top athletes. But did you know that more professional cyclists call Catalonia home than anywhere in the world?
