A bar, preferably a tavern, is always an excellent destination for a bike ride. It should always be the finish line; it should always be the only possible one.

A home is certainly fine too, maybe with a little garden and a pergola, but not everyone has them, in fact, very few can boast a little garden and a pergola. So, let's go for the tavern.

The wheels slow their roll, they stop, and you dismount. Greetings, pleasantries, things like that. Then a few words. A glass of red. Not a prize, only the spiritually poor need to reward themselves. A glass of red wine is a finish line, a banner to cross. Red wine invigorates the blood. And the bike also invigorates the blood, as it accelerates its flow; there's no risk of letting it stagnate while pedaling. And it floods the brain with endorphins. It's good blood that you get after riding. And if you have good blood, you must toast, thank the bicycle for providing it.

There is nothing more fitting for the bicycle than wine. Nothing more appropriate. Unless you're a professional. There are few professionals, many cyclists, and those who want to live like professionals without being one may not truly love the bicycle.

Because the bicycle is a bridge to the world, to what's around us. It's a recharge of life, positive thoughts, joy, the best means to free the brain from the enclosures it constructs, from the networks of egocentrism that inevitably lead to either overestimation or self-pity. It's swept away. Cycling is life. Life that moves around, life that moves within. A great celebration. And the celebration has always been accompanied by wine. The right amount, the one that suffices, which can be a lot, or it can be a little, but it can't be nothing. And it's better if it's diverse. Because it means you are moving, you have left nearby areas behind and ventured into elsewhere. And it's always wonderful to ride somewhere else. Because novelties increase, the eyes fill with things never seen before, and the pace becomes slightly slower. It's not necessary to go fast in other places. It's necessary to grant yourself time, which is sometimes a luxury because one way or another, we have decided not to give it to ourselves.

Time. The right time to stop, discover what the land has to offer, toast to the land, to the bicycle, and to us, who have decided to toast to all of this.

Giovanni Battistuzzi