The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

Piedmont 2022

May 21st to June 3rd

Ride Director: Julie Leever
Ride Co-Director: Tom Leever
Report by: Arleen Sakamoto

Cycling through the Piedmont region of northern Italy has to be one of the most delightful bicycle adventures.  You see vistas of the Italian Alps and the French Maritime Alps while traveling from west to east, and changing horizons marked by profiles of towers and castles.  This is the land of quiet roads, vineyards that yield exceptional wines, home to Nutella (hazelnut capital), and ah, the revered Alba White Truffle.  In 2014, these Langhe-Roero & Monferrato areas of the Piedmont region were designated as a UNESCO cultural landscape, heralding the combined action between man and nature. 

Besides a beautiful ride, we had a great group.  We had the honor of 6 newly initiated adventurers join us.  There were 2 tandem couples from France, Rich from Madrid, a gang from New York, many of us from the NW, a few from the mid-west and of course our illustrious and legendary leaders, Julie and Tom Leever.  Tom expressly emphasized friendship, international collegiality and referred to BAC’s motto “friends leading friends”.  

The tour meets in the capital of Piedmont, Torino, Italy.  A morning guided walk in the historic yet modern city steers us to local best places for chocolate, Bicerin (layered hot chocolate, coffee, milk served in a glass), a Torino aperitif, other traditional Piedmontese culinary delights and several museums.

Saluzzo was the first base point to start our rides.  It’s the small town osteria where you find wonderful savory slow cooked beef cheeks in red wine sauce that just melts in your mouth.  The meat was probably local Piedmontese beef coming from a breed of cattle possessing a unique genetic makeup.  It is prized for its heavy musculature in which the muscle fibers remain tender without marbling.  

En route to Barolo opens up to grand views of rolling vineyard covered hills with small villages atop.  There are multiple shades of green before you always with the bird songs following.  The town of Barolo is a popular attraction having a 10th century fortress and an acclaimed wine museum to visit.  The city was appointed as “Italian

City of Wine 2021” winning a competition between municipalities with a wine and ecotourist vocation.  This is where we were captivated in wine tasting, learning about the strict order of DOCG quality category.  The controlled and guaranteed designation of origin wines must pass an evaluation, analysis and tasting by a government licensed committee.

Our last stay at the agriturismo, Le Due Cascine, we experience the pride of Italy.  The Bartolo family has great pride in their craft, generations of growing grapes and producing wines in the Asti area.  We learn this from Bartolo’s son, Armando, now running the business.  They live on the premise, cater to the local community, and serve locally made beer only.  Their collegiality is heartfelt by all.  Ciao Italia.

Note:  Tom acquainted us to the origin of BAC which can be found on the website under General Documents.