L'Eroica the aftermath - Ottobre 2011

Well - the race was long and hard and took a toll. I was fine but the bike was a mess - here are some piccies. Took ages to clean it up!!!
Those white roads give a lot of damage and dirt to the bikes.
I spent a long time cleaning up a bike that I will never use again - fool that I am!

Eroica Part 2 Ottobre 2011

http://www.eroica-ciclismo.it/ We were ready to go. The night before we had stashed spare sports drinks bottles on the course for emergencies and we could go. Up at 04:00 aiming to be away for 04:30 and there and ready to go at 05:00 it all got a little rushed. We left at 4:45 and by the time we were 5 km away from Gaiole the first riders were coming down. It took ages to put the bikes together and Riccardo was waiting all the time. Then getting through the registration was very slow, eventually we got underway at 6 am. It was still very cold and dark, but we were very excited.
The race begins downhill on tarmac and then climbs up on tarmac. Then there is a sharp and hard climb through the first white road, which is torch lit as it is still dark. The first descent came and there was a big noise from my bike and then bang! an explosion. I think a stone had gotten stuck in my brake blocks and my front inner tube had gone. We changed it in the dark, learning that my bike was badly bent, and it took two people to get the front wheel off - one to bend the frame and forks while the other hit it with a hammer or equivalent. However, my wheel was no longer round. So we changed the inner tube again. And again. And again. In fact we must have wasted at least 45 minutes, and that was after starting late. And my wheels was still egg-shaped and quite entertaining going downhill fast. At the same time, Riccardo's bike was worse than ours and had a 23 tooth back cassette which meant that he was slow getting up the hills.

Still, we were enjoying it, the weather was great and the atmosphere amazing. We kept it ticking over and enjoyed the first food stop which was late, maybe after 40 miles. We stopped and had a long break. After we went on the traffic started to thin out. We were good uphill (except for Riccardo) but amazingly slow downhill. I'm not sure about these Italians - they either have balls of steel or amazing balance, but they made us look shoddy. We even saw someone in a fixie go past us at one point. Finally we came to the big decision point when you could turn left for 125 km and right for 205 km. We turned right, most turned left, and we only ever saw a handful of people again. Riccardo got dropped and we decided to stop waiting for thim, as we were getting behind time. There are set time limits for the checkpoints and we were in danger of missing some of them. At Montalcino we met our support crew after a big lunch. Riccardo was long gone and we stopped for a good while and changed my front wheel with one from my Claud Butler which I had stashed in Dawn's car. We carried on in good spirits.
Some of the climbs were incredible. It was very hot, the bikes are terrible, and we were not fit. Riccardo eventually snapped his seat post and didn't make. Sadly, Stuart who had never failed anything in his life had to stop as he was getting dizzy and could not breathe and was frankly looking unsafe.
I left Stuart at Asciano and carried on alone. I met up with a brit who had just left his brother behind too and we carried on together for a bit. This was the steepest part of the whole course and I was reminded of the Great Wall of China. It was like someone had built the course across the crest of the hills rather than taking the easy part. We were in the Crete region of Tuscany - the craters and the landscape was barren. The brit left me quickly even though we had actually walked a couple of the hills together, the only time I did that. I started to be alone, only one guy I saw and now they were no longer stamping my card as I was too far behind the pace. At Castelnuovo Berardegna they told me that I could no longer complete the full course and had to go back the main road as it was not safe to carry on on the white roads in the dark. This nearly broke me and the next few miles were really really hard. Again I met Dawn and the support crew at Pianella and this stretch had been simply unbearable. I was miserable, it had got dark, lights on, yellow jacket on, and I was really tired. Not muscularly tired, just tired for having been awake for hours!
At Pianella I was really really hoping the organisers would tell me to go home the short way. I was exhausted and miserable. However, there was noone there except my lovely support team and so they geed me up and I went on. Two head lamps and into the blackness of the white roads in the dark. I got slower and slower through the incredible darkness, but eventually I made it. I got in to Gaiole at 22:40 a full 16 hours and 40 minutes after I had set off and over an hour after they had dismantled the finishing stage. A rapturous welcome from my support team - thanks a million to Dawn, Suzy, Stuart, Derek and Riccardo and I ate a whole load of beautiful pasta. I was tired, very very tired, but I think just the tiredness of someone who had been up for 18 hours. My data is below....well most of it - I had ridden 128 miles but my GPS had run out of battery at 111 miles. I had never ridden so far and doubt I will again, unless I do this again. Al

though next time I would like to do the shorter route so that I can start in the light and finish in the light! http://app.strava.com/rides/1835925
In fact I was tired, but for the next days I had no muscle fatigue. Next year.........

Eroica Part 1 Ottobre 2011

L'Eroica is a classic Italian bike race. Actually, it is far from that. It is an unique event in this world. It is called "The Heroic" and has been established about 20 years. It involves over 4000 riders from all over the world attempting to taking on some really tough Tuscan roads in old old bikes. I really want to use Anchorman here and say "old old wooden bikes" but there would be no humour as it is true - more on this later!
The bikes have to be pre-1987 - that is: gear shifters on the down tube, no hidden cables, no clipless pedals, etc etc. And they are extremely tight on this, any non-qualifying bikes will be kicked out. The race takes place on the first Sunday in October, when it is still just about warm, and takes in 205 km of Italian white roads. Yes, 205 km, of which 125 km are off road on the famous strada bianche - the unpaved white roads. In fact, the event was set up originally as a tourist thing to help save the white roads (more on that later). And now there are permanent brown signs of a percorso ciclisto turistico. There are official guides and they say that a fit person can comfortably achieve the full course in 3-5 days!!
There are other options - 38, 75, 125 and 205 km but that is just cheating, unless you are doing something like attempting it on a penny farthing in which case it is allowed.
Before the event there are days of preparations with fantastic markets of old bikes, and yes - old, old wooden bikes. Particularly old wooden-rimmed wheels - apparently this was how it was done in the past - insane! Lots of pictures attached.

The bike I was using was a Peugeot Esprit 1984, kindly found by Stuart on freecycle, sorted out by his mechanic and posted over. I received it and tried to get the tyres and inner tubes sorted and this was when the fun started. I got it set up and running, took it out for a first ride and after about 300 yards the rear tyre exploded. Well, it wasn't the classic old white wall tyre but the inner tube. I'm glad it happened after 300 yards because I was wearing flip flops and was topless! So I changed the inner tube and took it for another spin, this time taking in some white road. I came across a roundabout and as I was going around, rather gingerly (obviously!) the rear tyre exploded. This meant a 3 mile walk home in the blazing sun, this time I was wearing shoes, but still had no top on! After one more go, and another explosion I gave up and took it to my mechanic. When I went in, and told him I was planning on doing the grand fondo he started laughing and almost never stopped. So I left the bike with him for a week...
A week later I came back, he had done nothing. Git. So I stood with him whilst he fixed it. First he swapped the rear 6-casette from a 23 tooth to a 28 tooth. This made the world of difference, he changed cables, and spent a long time truing the original wheels. He then put on the same tyres they use in the Paris Roubaix - €66 each. In all it cost over €200 :( I got it back, took it out and the front tyre exploded. At this point I lost my temper and lobbed it across the street and beat it up a little. I had done that with my Claud Butler earlier in the year, regretted it, and not learnt my lesson.
I jumped into the car, and haven given up with my mechanic, drove 75 km to a good shop I knew to see if I could buy a new bike. I got there and there was nothing, so eventually I ended up buying a new, old-looking wheel. I got it home and all was ok.
I spent a long time in the final week, tweaking and changing and poking and sorting. Maybe two hours per night. I hate to think of the money that I and Stuart spent on a bike that I used once and will never use again. In fact, when we were at the market before L'Eroica we found the world's most amazing mechanic who worked on it and found some more problems and fixed them all for free - a wonderful man, it was amazing to see all the crowds stood just watching him work in the street - he was amazing.

The market had all sorts of great stuff - retro clothing, belts and wallets made out of recycled tyres and inner tubes, classic old bikes, and classic clothing. Some of the old bikes were incredible, self oilers, manual gear changers - some that you had to reach to the rear derailleur for, wooden wheels, brakes that pressed down from above onto the actual rubber of the wheel, and all sorts... However, strangely enough it was the two water bottle holders, purchased for £5 each including water bottle from his local shop that was getting the crowd going. Tens of people were stopping and looking at Stuart's bike and taking photos. Preparation was complete, but had not been perfect. Bikes had been shit, and our final ride the day before had not been fun with Stuart having bike problems (see data below). I had been ill for a month and had not trained and Stuart had had a chest infection and was still on antibiotics. However, the weather was amazing - still over 30 C, and the scenery was fantastic. Start time was 05:00 the next morning from Gaiole a mere 20 miles away from my house, and we were riding with Riccardo from my office. We had matching retro campagnolo tops at the ready. We were ready! http://app.strava.com/rides/1814701
To be continued...

Cycling in a Tuscan Autumn 21 ottobre 2011

The countryside is beautiful at this time of year. The hills continue to roll and as the leaves die you can see the sites so much better from your bike. As the leaves turn from green to yellow to red to brown and drop off you can see the countryside spring up where before there were just leaves. Even better the weather is still pretty wonderful when the sun shines. It can be a little windy but in the warm midday sun it can be over 20 C. Midday is also preferable for me to cycle as at this time most Italians are eating and visiting family, usually both, and the roads are very quiet. It seems that every day something changes in the countryside. There is also a lot of wind, which can be annoying for cycling, but this gets the leaves off quick and leaves (!!) the view behind.
Anyway, one time we went with the "amici di bici di Siena" - the friends in bikes of Siena, a rather sweet group of people, who are clearly not pros but are lovely dedicated people. They say "in bici e meglio" - on bike it's better and I love them for that. The camaraderie is great, and we went on a slow meander to the castle of Monteriggioni, where the mayor showed us the view from the ramparts, and then on to an Abbey where we had a tour and were fed some amazing food. Along with some rather splendid wine (of which I did not drink - I don't drink when I ride, mainly as I know that I would not be able to stop or say no, but also after what happened to Lesley G I will definitely not do that). Also, I guess that the Italians would not drink as much as I would,

Anyway, on the tour was this guy wearing these amazing clothes. I just do not know where to begin!!
For other cycling it is wonderful to see the vines turn yellow. Actually, the colours aren't as bright as last year, when I really regretted not having taken my camera, as the reds were incredible and when I went back a few days later it had completely changed.
It's great to be a rider this time of year.
Happy pedalling!