'Slow Food' organisation wasn't born in this area of Piemonte by chance. Among the several reasons why, what is very common around here is the awareness of the importance of extremely high-quality ingredients to make good food.
So, when I went to see my friend and chocolate-maker 'extraordinaire' Mauro Riccardi in Cherasco (a little historical town not far from Bra), I wasn't surprised listening to the details of the very specific origin of the hazelnuts he uses for his creations... or to the peculiar characteristics of many chocolates whose existence I didn't even suspect of, like those growing on vulcanic terrains.

Artist at work

The idea for last sunday morning ride was leaving our usual spot  at 'America dei Boschi' and head to Icio's "La Morrean" kingdom. While trails in America dei Boschi are twisty, narrow with several ups and downs but hardly any long/steep climb, La Morra is a hilly, wineyard area, with very phisycal climbs and fast, gravel-road downhills.
I had just modified the Silk Ti fitting a 2x9 transmission (24-38 up front, with a 11-34) and the bike needed some testing... so I took it and I left Bra with Gilles, on a very cold sunday morning, riding asphalt to La Morra (15 km).
When we got there, we and other three bikers followed Icio (that makes six) on his home trails.
I realised the DaBomb had spoiled me: passing from beefy 2.3 tyres, a long travel fork, a motorcycle upright position to a lightweight XC machine (the Castellano weights around 10kg, 4 less than the DaBomb with Rohloff) proved hard at the beginning. On the first downhills I felt like riding on eggs, I quickly discovered I couldn't make my way through mud grooves as I used to do with my other 'panzer' and several other "can't do this".
On the other hand, the bicycle felt like a rocket on the uphills, for the first time in my life I crashed on a corner going up (I was way to fast).
Slowly, thanks to the reminiscence of my cross country skills and to a more conservative riding attitude, I started taking better lines and looking less like a dork on an expensive bike. The 2x9 was good enough to negotiate one of the most feared climbs in the area, the "Fontanazza", and I came away impressed (again) by the ability of the rear suspension to soften bumps and keep traction, notwithstanding its apparent simplicity and minimalism.

Stars of last sunday morning ride where Gian and Ettore, on a brand new off-road tandem.
A tandem can be a lot of fun... for those who are watching it: infact, I got very close to crash several times (then I crashed, but it's a different story) because I was looking back at what the tandem people were doing, instead of minding my own lines.
Gian and Ettore were very fast on open, wide trails (as one would guess), but were riding really aggressively also in tight and steep single-tracks. They just went down a couple of times (with minor consequences), despite our deliberate attempts to choose the less tandem-friendly trails, and earned a lot of respect from us 'singles'.


We also met some very quiet, strangely still wild animals, and made new friends.

Yesterday morning we did another epic ride. It wasn't as muddy as we thought but, for sure, the ones who had most of the fun were those with mud-specific or aggressive tyres (with massive chainstays clearence to go with) on.
We were ten, I think: the usual Icio, Brembo (both on DaBomb XLR8R frames like mine, heavy play bikes), Alessandro (another triathlete/swimming class friend, on a nice BMC full suspension), Gilles (the guy who kills us in training most of the times, crazy French triathlete, with a pure XC racing set-up), Gianluca (triathlete, on his first mtb experiences: well trained, very dedicated, still on the steep part of the mtb-handling learning curve), Giancarlo (the shop-owner and long-time friend who assisted us on our Osiglia ride-race-ride adventure), my brother Federico (on my old steel Stumpjamper, rigid fork and 'vintage' parts... he's a runner, but a decent mtbiker as well) plus friends of friends.
The pace was steady but the loose ground, the wet dead leaves carpet and some huge water pools forced the group to recompact quite often, to clean clogged gears and lift/make fun at the fallen ones. Brembo was taking weird lines on most slopes, then we discovered his water bottle was filled with gin-tonic and everything made sense.

I was often leading the group, but I didn't have my best day at it.
It's fun to explore new trails or test old ones when you're with a couple of friends, no one really cares (although they will bitterly complain, it's part of the fun) if the single-track you chose takes nowhere and you have to go back. With ten people you don't know that well it's different, and I was somehow feeling the pressure... also because one nice downhill I took them to was closed midway down the road, and we had to push our bikes back to the top. After that, I felt I could do no more mistakes.
So, when the alternative trail I took to the car parking seemed to finish on the top of the hill, I decided to invent a trail down to the other side. Pretending to know my way, down I went, finding lines around trees and through a thick mat of leaves... all seemed right, so I waited for Icio and Alessandro and let them lead.  Apparently, my luck and sense of position had saved me from an embarassing situation and guided us on a nice descent. That was until we reached the bottom, and we found ourselves at the starting point: we had done a  loop, the cars were still on the other side of the hill.
Nobody made a big deal out of it: our 3h ride had been such a good one that, at that point, nobody really cared.
I don't know if they will let me guide next time, though

This morning, when I woke up listening to the radio news, the day felt special, with that unreal feeling more typical of, say, Christmas. Obama had made it.
Notwithstanding one's political ideas and seen from the outside, it's remarkable what has happened in the US: a young candidate, afro-american and not belonging to any "dinasty" (the Kennedies, the Bush, the Clintons...) is the new President of the most powerful country in the world.
That can only happen in the USA, which is again an example for all the other democracies.
The flipside is that now I'm even more ashamed of the Italian political situation: Berlusconi with his ad-personam laws and shameless economic interests (not to count his embarassing behaviour everywhere he goes, acting like a parody of what he thinks a 'simpatico' Italian is...), a fake/weak opposition, politicians who now rule the country as oligarchists and don't leave their places despite scandals and evident links with criminal organisations.
Before, I used to cheer me up thinking: "Sure, it's disgusting, but look at George W.: if the US has a president like that, and Russia has Kzar Putin, then we can keep Berlusconi."
It made me feel like we were among the superpowers, although Berlusconi is really above (below?) any classifications and should be in a comic book, not at the Parliament. He could be considered as a colorful character and be invited to comment reality shows, too bad he's the richest and most powerful man around here, and he rules the country.
Luckily Putin is still there, killing tigers, while Medvedev takes care of the boring stuff.

It's nice to work on a bicycle and restore its original functioning. My wife's Rockhopper is still equipped with its original X-1 Suntour groupset except for the shifters: those (push-push underbar Suntour units) were damaged in a crash some years ago, and her mechanic replaced them with cheap Shimano over-the-bar levers (Suntour shifters were already quite difficult to find as spare parts).
Needless to say, after that Frankenstein operation the bike stopped shifting properly. It was still ok for commuting, being used quite seldom, but it was a pity.
I started using that bike last year to take Gaia to school, and the bad shifting started bothering me.
To make the story short, I bought on ebay a pair of second-hand Suntour shifters, mounted them and today the Rockhopper was again... shifting. It's not as fast and silent as modern SRAM or Shimano groups, but the chain gets to the right cog and stays there, until you decide to change. Sweet.


Now, I just have to resist falling into the 'vintage' bike thing. And, no, I won't buy that Cinelli The Next Machine (elevated chainstays) with Campagnolo groupset, I promise.

Weather in Piemonte is getting colder and it's raining almost daily... soon the show will be here.
Since the tyres on my car were a little low on tread, I decided to buy a set of winter tyres. After a quick tour on the Internet and a short talk with my local tyre guy, I opted for Pirelli's Sottozero Serie2.
The driving feel is good, and they're rated up to 205 km/h... I wasn't planning to exceed that on the snow, anyway.

Stories about how much fun we had on the trails last sunday spread and grew... this sunday, we were not just 3 easy going guys, but we were joined by 6 more, some very competitive and on superlight, carbon-framed XC racing machines.
I like riding with stronger guys, but I also enjoy pretty much being the one who sets the pace, occasionally accelerating on long climbs, getting to the top and stopping there for a while to wait for my riding buddies.
Not this time.
We were still riding 'fun', waiting for slower guys, but the riding pace was much faster than last sunday.
Several times I found myself going all-out, especially on climbs, where my heavier dual-slalom frame, long travel fork and Rohloff hub... but especially my lesser fitness (who am I kidding!) asked for a reality check.
Infact, my long time riding buddy Icio, on a similar bike, was keeping up with the 'world-cup' hardtail guys better than I did. He was also riding on super skinny mud tires (Barro Mud 26x1.70... the woods are perfectly dry,  though) and going crazy fast downhill so, respect.

After 3h of steady riding, on the last climb, Icio and Viberti spun easily away from me. While giving all I had to keep my third-to-the-top spot, I started thinking about my own lightweight XC racing machine (the Silk Ti), sleeping in the garage. Would that have made a difference? Sure. Is that the bike I want to use this time of the year? Better not.

Infact, next sunday I'll take the single-speed and get even more beating, physical and psychological. This is the time of the year I want to enjoy the trails and the subtle pleasure or suffering, with burning legs and burning lungs. There will be a time for racing and being fast... but that will be next year. I also need to remind myself not to be always so competitive.

Now, can you imagine passing some of the geared guys on my singlespeed? That'd be awesome!!

Slow Food, the "non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization" (quoting from their website) was created in Bra, the town where I live, in 1989. Among the various events they organise, there're several 'special' dinners, with controlled food and wines coming from specific geographic areas.
Yesterday evening I partecipated to a 'Pugliese' (Puglia is the 'heel' of Italian 'booth' geographic shape) dinner... very simple food, cooked in a traditional way starting from incredibly fresh ingredients: the result was outstanding. Wines were local, Piemontese, starting with white 'Gavi' (very 'round' flavour, medium bodied), continuing with 'Lepre' (a special Dolcetto, with a passage in wood... the result was too strong -13,5°- for a Dolcetto and not very armonic for me...), peeking with Barolo (Fontanafredda 2004, young but very promising) and ending with sweet Moscato.
The company was good, mtbiker/triathlete Icio and Brembo: nice food, wine and friends, the perfect receipe for a successful dinner.