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.
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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.
Scott Foreman is the founder of Cultivator Content Labs, an award-winning commercial and documentary production company based in Phoenix, Arizona. They’ve worked with everyone from Mercedes-Benz to the NFL, and over the years he’s made a lot of very cool content for us because he’s also an old friend of the inGamba crew.
“Is that Felice Gimondi?” Yep, there’s a winner of all three Grand Tours, leaning on an old team car and laughing. “That mechanic over there says he knows Eddy Merckx, and I think I just saw Francesco Moser having a glass of wine.” That’s l’Eroica for you. Every year, the great and the good of Italian cycling converge in Chianti for a week of fun. Because it’s more than just a race for old bikes. It’s a festival to celebrate the sport we all love.
I’m in bed at the Casa das Penhas Douradas hotel, and it feels like luxury showroom. A kind of wooly fever dream of soft furnishings, and I want them all. I’m surrounded by lust-worthy products, all from the same boutique manufacturer that in recent years has become one of the stars of Portugal’s fashion and design boom.
