L'eroica 2014

I'm in. Chat I can't promise. A good varied line in climbing agony and descending panic faces I can.

Here already. So nice and chilled in town last night. Bring on the party

I'm in. Chat I can't promise. A good varied line in climbing agony and descending panic faces I can.

I'll give you a tow up the hills. As I have uber on call.hahahahahahaha

What time are guys starting and which route are you going for?

around 6AM, for the 209km

I'm on the 75 not sure of the timing

@Rox What length are you doing? I am tossing up between 200 and 135 but was just be rolling on my own, happy to meet up if you want company.

Also, if anyone is interested in going for a roll on the saturday, I am riding from Castellina to Gaiole to check out the market. Would be keen to go for a good 70km or so before getting to gaiole. Meet up would be good also.

I'm doing either the 135 or 75, so if you spot an overweight English bloke on a "not that good" white raleigh (without any decals except the headbadge) feel free to say hello or shout abuse :)

@wjwat1 I was originally planning on doing the 135km route, but I might have to shorten it to just the 75km loop. We have no hills to speak of where I live so I don't know what I've gotten myself into. I guess I will figure it out when I get to the junction. Right now I'm just trying to figure out how to get all my stuff to the airport.

a tip that's too late to be any use, but if you replace the wheelbags in your padded bike bag with a double bodyboard bag then you can fold the bike bag into it and cycle with the lot on your back,

Just dropped my bike off at City Airport.

9.30 flight to Florence.

I am excite!

have a safe trip everyone, I'm leaving at 4 am tomorrow!

The weather forecast promises sunny 24 Celsius for Saturday and Sunday. I can't wait to get going, but my flight leaves Saturday morning.

5am start tomorrow, doing the 75k again. Will be in Gaiole around 2 tomorrow if anyone fancies a drink. Long dark hair, glasses, 1979 Guerciotti. Say hello!

I will be there too in Gaiole at around 2 pm for the 135 km. Short journey for me, just 200 km …. I am italian …:) ! For me a Jan Jansen in blue and gold.

Great to see friendly faces and an amazing Saturday as ever.

@tapsnbath is thinking about riding the 38km rather than the 135km in which case I'll be riding the 205kms...

@tapsnbath on the pink woodrup, me on the black hetchins.

More beers/chianti after?!

Good luck to all riders, whatever the distance....I'm gutted not to be there this year........I'll be back next year though!

Who was riding a Witcomb that was not me? Was just sitting in a cafe in Radda, and saw you cruising stately past. Chapeau.

not one flat tyre between the 3 of us... but 2 broken chains, 1 lost (and found) jockey wheel, loose shifters that had to be tightened with literally every upshift and a crooked front derailleur. in any case it was a beautiful, sunny day!

Stuck the Garmin in my back pocket; http://app.strava.com/activities/203725959

some more pics are in the 'tell us about your weekend ride' thread: http://www.lfgss.com/comments/11870177/

I special mention to 3-4 holdsworths (including an equipe) really nice and a Bates I saw at the end in Gaiole.

did the 75km this year stupidly thinking it would be an easy ride -

Not so much! managed to make it with a swollen hip and creaky knee + a 2 hour lunch stop in Panzano. didn't have to get off and walk but it was definitely a challenge - looking forward to next year already!

I managed to ride the 135km. I was knackered by the time I got to finish line, but it sure would have been nice to get on that 200k podium. Anyways it was struggle all the way from the start. First I cut myself in the dark and my finger was bleeding. The bike had worked fine the day before, but in the morning I realized I had problem with autoshifting. There was no way to fix it so I just screwed the rear derailleur half way. I guess the 28t would have been too easy anyway :) Once I got it fixed by the friendly mechanic in the soup depot I started to feel confident I could actually finish the event. The etruscan gods had another surprise stored for me. On the next downhill I managed to blow both tires at once.

So i rode the 205kms this year. Somewhat slower than @peter_v - chapeau sir.

Last 2 years we have ridden the 75kms which has been a lot of fun, taking in the wine and enjoying a relaxed ride (just tough enough I think), admiring bikes and meeting people.

Having spoken with a lot of people post their 205kms and seen some of the stravas I'm not going to say I underestimated it; but it was a long hard day in the saddle, a different kind of fun.

The hetchins held up well but even with adjusted gearing (40/23) the 4 speed didn't get me up all the hills but I was stoked when I made the cut off mid afternoon and was on roads I knew for the last few hours, knowing that I'd get to queue on the right hand side this year.

Hope to be back again to enjoy the sunshine - the weekend gets better and better every year and I hope that l'eroica Britannia has inspired the Italians even more.

And if course I made the classic(o) mistake of putting my bottle of wine in my hand luggage at Pisa, only to be relieved of it by an unsympathetic/non-cycling security... And wasn't able to be quite as smooth talking as @stedlocks - I'll drink it next time....

Bravo to the organisers yet again and it was great to see pros like Marianne Vos riding - although she was in the bar on Saturday afternoon I'm pretty sure she didn't have quite the number of beers we did!

Just got back home after yet another hugely enjoyable l'Eroica.

Having done the 135km the last two years I did the 75km with the Mrs and really enjoyed it. The only downside was being penned in the high street at Gaoile for the start, which took until post 9am to get through. The result was a godawful bunfight on the Brolio. I endured it because Wifey wanted to get her card stamped, but if we return next year, I'll register us for the 135km, set off earlier and head off on the 75km at Pianella to enjoy the Strade in blissful isolation. Bollocks to the card stamping.

Still, a great day, particularly the 'look' Jayne gave me half way up the hill from Panzano which said: "why the fuck are we doing this?" All forgotten at the end though as we celebrated in the queue at the end with beers.

Our bikes performed with aplomb, particularly her 70s/80s Carlton Courette See update in Current Projects. The only problem was that yours truly was so intent on protecting her brand new Brooks saddle and bag I wrapped it in bubblewrap and left it on the garage workbench at home. I was so fucking annoyed with myself when I realised the cockup Jayne actually took pity on me instead of giving me an earful.

So a trip to the bike mart in Gaoile yielded a new seat post and black rolls saddle for €50. I was glad to get off that lightly as she had her eye on a NOS leather Rolls, which would have been considerably more.

My 1980 Peugeot PXN10 Super Competition also proved up the challenge and I saw a couple of others kicking about amidst the Colnagos, Mosers etc.