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 […]