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One of the many things you can buy on RAGBRAI My RAGBRAI shots (the photogallery doesn't work that well in CHROME) I've just returned from bouncing around like an email selling Viagara .... NY, Philly, Texas, Eugene, Seattle and finally IOWA, where I rode across the state with 10,000 others on RAGBRAI. Including Lance, who, at all times, seemed to be riding his bike just outside my field of vision. After many 'Where's Lance?' moments I lightheartedly accused his yellow and black clad platoon of fundraisers of being paid to say 'here's over there' while pointing in precisely the opposite direction. I saw one guy who I swore was Lance except on dropping my gaze to his shoes I saw a pair of sandals. Would Lance wear sandals? If he was wearing ballet slippers with a large gold button on the toe I'd know it was him - I read somewhere he was dating a NY fashion designer called Tori Burch whose signature creation for 2007 are those very slippers. B...

My my NYT book review has attracted at least one new sale as evidenced by this fan letter I received just today: Dear Ms. Chiang, I just finished reading your book "The Handsomest Man in Cuba" and I must comment that I have never read such egotistical drivel from a so-called travel writer. Your website says it all when it states "the self-indulgent writings" et al. If you're going to write about your travel adventures and expect other people to read them and enjoy it, please write about the culture, the people and the history of the countries that you visit and your experience in relationship to these cultures so that you can convey to your readers a sense of the country. All you did in "The Handsomest Man in Cuba" was basically bitch about everyone and everything in the most untrusting way. I have been to Cuba several times and my experience was totally different than yours. Perhaps because I didn't think solely of myself the entire tri...

The Handsomest Man in Cuba has just appeared in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, June 2, 2007 - 'The Summer Reading guide'. It's about about 8 inches of review in a Travel book Section. My agent Peter McGuigan (pictured below) says it's very unusual for a first time paperback, especially by a fabulous nobody like me to appear in the guide. A friend in NY said, and I quote, "you should expect to get laid by the literati every day for a year now." (He's mortified that I actually wrote that, saying it drags the tone of this blog into the gutter). He'd better not read my book then! Bike Friday even gets a mention! Thanks to all the folks at Globe-Pequot, Bike Friday, Peter McGuigan, and those who made it happen along the way. Read the full review on the NYT site or read the text of it below. Read the blurbs from the first two pages of the book . +++ Travel books can generally be divided into two categories. First there are the ones...

This is a re-post of a trip review written for Bike Friday and Ciclismo Classico. Bookmark this chronicle Ciao tutti! Ready for a truly stellar, fully escorted bicycle tour of Italia? One that comes standard with stupendously good food, spectacular walled cities, a panoramic pedal through the Appenines with several challenging climbs into a luxury 4-star hotel bed? Put another way, if you're over pulling rocks from under your Thermorest, scrubbing congealed oatmeal from your MSR stove, and standing on traffic islands with a fragmented map flapping in your face, welcome to touring the Ciclismo Classico way. I was privileged to review one of the company's most popular tours:  Bike Across Italy . Spanning 'the mid-calf to the mid-shin' of the boot of Italy over ten days, this moderately challenging tour takes in the regions of La Marche, Umbria, Tuscany and Lazio, starting in Fano on Adriatic sea and ending in Porto Ecole on the Mediterranean. The average mileage...

A Bike Friday, a regular bike, or a Ciclismo Classico bike - Dave Pruitt and the Gal choose different ways to Bike Across Italy Bike Across Italy full chronicle Some notes on the gear and getting to/from for Ciclismo Classico's Bike Across Italy trip, as experienced by former Bike Friday Customer Evangelist, Lynette Chiang, who did the trip in the May 2007. FLIGHTS and CONNECTIONS The Ciclismo Classico staff, Erika and Jewel, were able to both arrange all travel and give me detailed advice on the connections. Because Bike Friday folks tend to be independent, I wanted to know if it was necessary to bring the Bike Friday Travel Trailer. My connections were as follows: NYC -> (London, 6 hour flight) -> Rome (4 hour wait, 2 hour flight) -> Rome Airport Train Station (has elevator) -> Roma Termini Train Station (30 mins, 11 euro) -> Overnight in Hotel San Remo, Rome (20 minute walk from station with bags, tired) -> next morning, Roma Termini Train Sta...

A duffel, a Bike Friday, and a laptop on your back - the uniform of the professional BF World Traveler  Bike Across Italy full chronicle May 12, 2007: Day 1 PHOTO GALLERY JUST MY LUCK. I haven't landed in Italy in primo health. I've been uncharacteristically under the weather for more than a month after suffering a bout of laryngitis that came down on me like a ton of bricks on Easter Sunday. It took an eternity to pass. Darn damp Oregon weather. I had to cancel my Indianapolis and Chicago talks and head straight for NYC. All the fitness I'd acquired from 3 months in Australia riding three times a week with the BF Club of Sydney over winter and attending Desert Camp in March seemed to go down the tubes. Well that's how it feels. But rather than complain, we must simply treat life like the weather - there will be sunny days and stormy days and you just, well, weather it. I got on the plane in 97% condition and, suffered a second setback....

Towns: Fano, Bellochi, Calcinelli, Calmazzo, Fossombrone, Urbino The customary dipping of the rear wheel in the Adriatic sea - the start of the journey west. Bike Across Italy full chronicle MAY 13, 2007: DAY 2 PHOTO GALLERY If Day 1 put a smile on everyone's faces, Day 2 quickly turned it into a grimace. Thank heavens the medieval splendor of our destination town, Urbino, made everyone forget about the climbing immediately before. "It's not really any harder than any other day, it's just because it's the first day," said Dana. Things started out chipper with a dipping of our rear tires in the Adriatic, something I've never really bothered to do, but made for a great picture - as long as you don't get sand in your rear hub. As the week wore on, we all became stronger, but those of us who never train, or treat the first day of any tour as the first day of training, like yours truly, were taken by surprise. I found my legs comple...