Frank Yantorno
Colorado native Frank Yantorno’s enthusiasm for cycling dates back to childhood, when he vividly remembers repeating “I can do it. I can do it” as his father pushed him on a two-wheeler. He got a cool, white Peugeot 10-speed with 24-inch wheels at the age of 10 and was racing by the age of 15. Soon afterward, he started working in bike shops. In fact, cycling was such a passion for the entire Yantorno family that Frank’s parents opened a bike shop in Denver when he was in high school. The shop did well enough to put four kids through college (and graduate school) before the family sold it.
Frank has been “happily unmarried” to fellow Ciclismo guide Dana Geraghty for more than 25 years. The pair ran a high-end customized bike shop in Aspen before moving to Italy in 1999 to begin a new chapter of their lives. The following year, they began guiding for Ciclismo. To date, Frank has led well over 100 Ciclismo trips!
When not on tour, Frank is usually still on the go. He says, “Dana designs really great multi-day rides for us as soon as we’re off tour, which I resist to at first, but then love more than anything…except for skiing, hiking, photography, and making art.” Frank also enjoys making mead from honey that he and Dana get from beekeepers they discover while touring, and then distilling it into what Frank calls “a very nice grappa-like digestivo.”
Frank’s passion is to live a life of maximum adventure with minimal impact, a lifestyle he makes a reality by traveling by bicycle or public transportation whenever possible (which is almost always). He says, “I think living without a car is more liberating than limiting and helps to slow things down to a pace more conducive to a full sensorial experience.”
In Their Own Words
“I love living in Italy in general as every region has its own cultures, traditions, and characters, and is small enough to experience most of it by bicycle. I love Piemonte specifically, not only for the beautiful roads which wind through some of the most important vineyards in Italy (and therefore the world), but also because it is home to much of the Alps, which I love for riding, hiking and tele-skiing.”
“All of our itineraries are well designed and thought out, and are great rides. It’s impossible to say a favorite. I love our Maratona dei Dolomiti tour, which is a week of riding some of the world’s most famous mountain passes, culminating in the actual Maratona dles Dolomiti, a gran fondo considered by many to be the mecca of cycling events. It’s also hard to beat the beautiful rides, classic towns and villages, and cultural events on Bike Across Italy. But I have a special love for Bike Across Italy 2, as it passes through some very remote and undiscovered territory in southern Italy. It also finishes only a few kilometers from where my dad’s family is from in Calabria, so it is like soul food for me!”
“I love being outside and on bikes all day long looking at magnificent scenery and showing guests places they might not ever have been able to experience without a bicycle, or maybe it’s the food and wine. I think many of our guests are able to leave behind some of the pressures of daily life and really allow themselves to be receptive to experiencing life in the moment. It sounds cliché, but our tours are conducive to mental and spiritual recuperation. And hopefully they also discover something new.”
