My Cycling Bucket List ✅ is almost empty!

To help a cycling buddy back in San Diego understand that Andy Hampsten doesn't just "check in" with his tours (he rides every mile with us), Andy happily posed in this selfie with me outside Bar Germania Pisciotta Giro del Caffè on our last riding day.

Huh, I guess a cycling trip to Italy and Spain should be enough motivation to write another quick CyclingSalvation.com blog entry here. Traveling through life at my typical "Father 🐢 Tortuga" speed, I'm writing this blog after being back home for 10 days. My trip included 7 days riding riding with Cinghiale Cycling Tours around Italy's Cilento region and Vallo di Diano National Park accompanied by ex-pro Andy Hampsten, his wife Elaine, a local SDBC cycling buddy, ​ and several others. After that Cilento cycling tour and a couple days of walking tours around Naples, I caught a Vueling flight to Barcelona to get a fast train to Girona for a couple more days of riding. Girona is what many American cyclists consider pro cycling's training "Mecca" and a favorite bike tour destination. The Italian tour was the latest of several awesome cycling tours I've ridden in Italy, but the Girona stop has been left unchecked on my bucket list for many years. Both of these great escapes went perfectly for me (I'll accept a failed Garmin GPS in exchange for NOT being one of the 5 people who crashed in Italy). 

"Prendiamo un caffè?" It sure looks like I'm flapping my jaw during a mid-ride cappuccino stop with Mark Roberts & Nick Kahlstrom. I enjoyed the company of all the riders in this group...not one "bad apple" unless I was "that guy."

One of our sleeping accommodations in Cilento was a very impressive "agriturismo" (combining "agriculture" and "tourism" for a large, farm-home vacation destination) in the countryside with sheep right outside the door, and the other was a nice hotel in Marina di Camerota on the Mediterranean coast. Andy Hampsten—along with his wife Elaine and old friend Enrico Caracciolo—put a great deal of homework into planning this inaugural "south of Naples" tour. Enrico is a native of Napoli and has written books about cycling in Italy (in both Italian and English). I've been on two of Andy's tours near their home in Tuscany. Now, after three Cinghiale tours, I can understand why some of Andy & Elaine's guests have been on over 15 (!) of their tours. 

Around the corner from one of our many coffee bar stops, we found this centuries-old spring water source. As is always the case in Italy, history and architecture are integral parts of the tour.

kSeveral of the riders on the Italian tour asked me where my next cycling tour was going to be. I didn't have an answer, other than to mention my short stay in Girona right after Italy. I guess these people do a big bike tour every year. I don't think that way, but I've gone to a lot of great places to ride over the decades. My "fixed income" as a retiree and our annual family trips can put a slight damper on my big bike tour plans, but I'm blessed to have been riding a bike in so many places in the USA & Europe. Girona was the last of my "must do" bucket list bike tours, but I still visualize myself riding during the summer in the Swiss Alps and Canada's Banff National Park someday soon. (Now that I'm in my 60s, I realize that "soon" needs to be part of my planning for anything.) I just want to make sure my lovely wife will want to join me in my future destinations, because missing her for almost 3 weeks was the worst part of this long vacation. 

​Girona—like Cilento—was perfect. I rented an apartment with a large, private outdoor patio at Hotel Nord 1901 in the central part of the "old" downtown. As it turns out, that apartment was literally right above the bike shop called The Service Course where I hired a bike rental and tour guides. The Service Course, a nearby cycling-centric coffee shop called La Fabrica Girona, and another café called Espresso Mafia are all operated by another cycling couple. In this case, it's ex-pro and Canadian national champion Christian Meier and his wife Amber. They and their personal tour guides are all super-friendly. On my last night in town, as I'm walking down the street, I hear someone call out, "Hey Dan!" It was Amber, who actually remembered my name from our brief talk at La Fabrica. The drivers in and around Girona are amazingly polite and friendly, too. As a pedestrian you'll also notice how patient the drivers are with people (what some American drivers seem to think of as "obstructions" in their path) on foot and bike wheels. American drivers could learn so much from these people.

This "road" I'm climbing in a small fortress town outside Girona, Spain is not much narrower than many of the streets we walked during Enrico's walking tour of Naples, Italy.

It's over 80°F outside my door here in La Jolla in LATE OCTOBER, so I'm very happy to say there's still some lovely summer riding to be had here in SoCal! I'm reminded again of how GOOD we have it here. I need to ride a very long way to get to roads that are as lightly-traveled [by cars & trucks] as the farm roads right outside Girona are, but as long as none of our highly-distracted drivers hit me or pull right in front of me, I'm quite happy where I am.

🚴 Enjoy the ride!