How long does a travel book last? The duration of the journey. Or forever. I was thinking about this while reading "Adventurers" (Sardinia Biking, 200 pages, 18 euros), in which Amos Cardia traces, describes, documents, testifies, and ultimately recounts 25 years of mountain biking in Sardinia and two expeditions in the Alps, from the early Nineties to 2016 (the book was published in 2017) across 13 autobiographical chapters.

Cardia is from Sinnai, a Sardinian town about a dozen kilometers north of Cagliari, a boundary stone – as the etymology suggests – between two lands, perhaps the sea and the mountains, perhaps the hills and the plains, perhaps the sea and the sky, it doesn't really matter. The bike entered his life early and will never leave it. Alone or with friends, on trails or roads, by instinct or by sight, from memory or by GPS, by word of mouth or by phone, on day trips or on journeys, Cardia has done nothing but pedal. Across the territory and through life.

If the first outings were daily, the more time passed, the more curiosities multiplied, the longer the crossings became. From the mines to the Serpilonga, from the TranSardinia to the NatuRaid Sardegna, from the TransAlp to the Veneto Trail. Until Cardia, at 40 years old, momentarily dismounted and sat at his desk, remembering and writing by reading the traces he had pursued and the trajectories he had pedaled. "A pioneer," as Enzo Fantini states in the introduction, "despite qualifications and achievements earned in the field of teaching the Sardinian language, editorial activity, journalism, historical and naturalistic dissemination, and the organization of sporting events, always with a strong commitment to environmental respect".

"Adventurers" is a travel book on "bicicreta," as they say in Sardinian. There is the first great "cooking," which "like first love is never forgotten," and there is the first night without a tent, "behind large myrtle bushes" and "good night in theory." There is the climb in the Gennargentu, "hands and feet frozen," and the one on Monte Arrùbiu, which means red, "to be pushed on foot." There is the assault of mosquitoes and the invasion of cattle. There is the ford and the dirt road. There is a tap from which boiling hot water flows, "the taste is good, we drink straight from the pipe and just before leaving, when we refill our water bottles, we notice the water is yellow. But that's fine, a little healthy mud, rich in minerals, has never killed anyone".

Ten years have passed since the last of these journeys undertaken and recounted by Cardia. If you search it for a map, something will certainly have changed. If you search it for a manual, much will certainly have evolved. But if you search it for a feeling or a thrill, a mood and a flavor, an unexpected moment and a surprise, an illumination and a revelation, comfort or encouragement, a desire or a fear, in short an adventure, then "Adventurers" withstands the years and pedals through time.