While the 135km route takes a shortcut on asphalt road from Pianella to the finish line in Gaiole, the long one takes a detour uphill via Radda on gravel roads. After having cycled 180km I wasn’t too keen on another climb but then again: no pain, no gain! Also, the route to Radda turned out to […]

The back pain was not the only problem caused by the bumps. My rear wheel got bent during the ride and started to touch the frame with every rotation. When I stopped to have a look at the damage I realised that one of the spokes had broken at the nipple. There was nothing I could […]

The refreshment stop at Montalcino was followed by a long gravel stage with some nice bumps and holes. On one occasion I wasn’t paying attention and hit two bumps in a row. I could feel almost immediately that this caused some severe trouble to my lower back. The longer I cycled the more it hurt. […]

On race day the plan was to get up early and be ready at the starting line at 5.00am. Well, that was the plan. I had quite a bad night and couldn’t sleep very well. While I was pretty relaxed in the weeks before L’Eroica I became a bit nervous at the last minute. We got […]

The initial plan was to travel to Italy the day before the big event as we did the year before. However, we reconsidered our options in September and checked with the B&B if we could arrive a day earlier. We wanted to have a less stressful day on Saturday and have the chance to do […]

After L’Eroica is before L’Eroica. Our preparation for the 2016 edition of L’Eroica, the 20th jubilee, started earlier compared to the previous year. In March I contacted the winery where we stayed during Eroica in 2015 and booked the same apartment we had a year earlier. However, we missed the first window of opportunity for buying tickets […]

A couple of weeks before going to Eroica Markus went to a bike shop in Chiasso, Switzerland, very close to the Italian border. The owner, Fausto Stiz, used to be a road race cyclist in the 70s who won the Girobio in 1978, the so-called Baby Giro which is considered the amateur version of the […]

The day started beautifully with candles lighting the way up the first climb to Castello di Brolio. However, on the way down to Siena we could see the first dark clouds in the sky and pretty soon it was pelting down with rain. Obviously our decision to leave our rain cover at home turned out to […]

Due to the fact that we decided rather spontaneously to take part in Eroica 2015 apart from finding a suitable bike another challenge was finding the right accommodation. After a few enquiries I realised that this might be even more challenging than finding a vintage bike. Most B&Bs in Gaiole, Radda and other towns in […]

In 2015 my preparations started with finding the right bike. I used to have a Bianchi road bike when I was 16 but I gave it away many years ago (it wouldn’t be allowed in L’Eroica though as it was built in the early 90s). In Austria the hype around vintage bicycles has only started […]