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 Giro d’Italia. Markus mentioned that he was planning to cycle L’Eroica and having taken part in previous years Fausto obviously knew everything about the event. He gave Markus one piece of advice: “Wear good shoes because of the steep hills of Sante Marie!”.
We kept in mind Monte Sante Marie but as we didn’t really have a look at the profile of the route beforehand we had no idea when we would encounter the most famous climb of L’Eroica. After having had some difficulties in the early stages of the tour we had a rather pleasant ride to Asciano, another refreshment stop of the 135km route. We rewarded ourselves with plenty of delicious Tuscan treats including prosciutto, cheese, cake as well as the famous local stew called “Ribollita” accompanied by some red wine. And of course: more cake for desert 🙂
Shortly after leaving Asciano we had to take a sharp turn right into a gravel road and there it was: the steep ascent to Monte Sante Marie where the challenge is to do it on the pedals. What a great timing! With a belly full of cake I went into the first climb but I pretty soon realised why Fausto Stiz was talking about good shoes. It was time to get off my bike and push it up the hill. As it turned out, this was only the first of several steep hills to come. And I wasn’t the only one to push a bike.
The good news was that Sante Marie was the last hurdle towards the final stage of the 135km route. However, after having passed the final refreshment stop at Castelnuovo Berardenga Markus got some difficulties with changing gears. We stopped and I had a look at his bike – the shift cable of the rear derailleur was ripped! In addition, the front derailleur somehow got stuck and Markus had to continue his ride with only one gear left. He basically finished L’Eroica with a single speed bike 🙂
When we cycled towards the finish line there were different lanes depending on which route one took. When we entered our lane and received the 135km medal we both had a jealous look in our eyes witnessing the heroes on the next lane collecting their medals on a podium under the cheers of the crowd. And in that moment, we both knew that we had to be back and cycle the long route of 209km. We had to be on the podium!
Next chapter: L’Eroica XX Edizione