L'Eroica crazy bikes 27th settembre 2011

On Sunday I will compete in L'Eroica - The Heroic. This is a bike race through the Tuscan chianti countryside on the Strade Bianche - the white gravelled roads. To make it Heroic it is 205 km, extremely hilly, extremely gravelly/rocky and to cap it all off you have to complete the race on a bike from before 1987. It is a beast of a ride - if you are able to complete it in under 12 hours you get a special prize of booze and food.

http://www.eroica-ciclismo.it/english/home.asp

Not only does it go up and down, but the ups and the downs on gravel are pretty dangerous, roads are not closed and of course it is just tough on the hands, bike and back. The bikes have to have shifters on the downtubes, no integrated brake or gear cables, old style toe clips, and no quick release. The bike has been a pain in the rs to set up. Eventually after truing the back wheel for ever I gave up and brought a new back wheel. This was after 4 exploded inners. Have bought some Vittoria green tyres at over €60 each, and changed the rear cassette to take it from a 23 tooth to a 28 tooth. Without that change I would not have been able to get off my own road. Wheels are now loose again and need truing. The brakes are terrible, and the stem feels like it is shaking itself apart. In fact, going over the gravel between the shaking of the gravel and the terrible braking it is quite a workout. Today I took the wheels of steel down the sprint hill here where I can get some great speed up - I've managed 48 mph before. Today I just did not trust the bike enough so slowed down at only 36 mph, and the bike went into the wobbles as the front brakes are a lot more effective than the rear. Nope - no trust. In fact, I daren't go on one of my proper bikes else I will lose all the limited trust that I have!

Training is going ok, but can always be better. I've not been well, in fact I've had some sort of low level virus for about 5 weeks now which means I cannot do any training. Schweet. Here are some data from a ride on Sunday with a friend from work. Slow and steady will be the plan on Sunday coming. Of course, this being Italy the most important thing is the feast the night before the race, rather than the race, sorry, course, itself.

http://app.strava.com/rides/1750445

Great video about it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcTV9FBHOlM

The bike came courtesy of Stuart and freecycke. A classic Peugeot Esprit from 1984. Unfortunately it's a crock of the proverbial


http://www.gustocycling.com/leroica.html