eroica 2011

pullingteeth

Retro Guru
anybody know much about it, i have read the threads, and have already paid and signed up via paypal , but do you know if this means you have a place.
Don't really want to book the flight then find out we don't have a place.
Which airport is the closest...flying out from London, Pisa or trevisio?
any advice would be helpful, thanks
 
Entering around now should be assured of a place - the organisers have agree to 'cap' entries to the numbers of last year, so approximately 3000 - they were still accepting EOL last year, so wouldn't expect it to sell-out until a lot nearer. In terms of airports, Florence is closer, but Pisa is cheaper - Trevisio is on the other side of the country!
 
Brilliant, I need some L'eroica talk o help me make my mind up whether to take the plunge or not! I've been trying to talk myself into thinking of it as a lots of Italian food and wine punctuated by short, relaxed pootles through the Tuscan countryside but then reality keeps intruding...
 
Hopefully Ed will be along shortly to confirm what a great experience it was and I'd certainly be interested in doing it again but it was such a good event - although I'd probably try and get to the start earlier to benefit from riding in a bunch and enjoy myself more at the food stops. We stayed in Sienna which is about 30 minutes drive from Gaiole - in a very reasonably-price campsite with mobile homes and an excellent restaurant on-site. There are few cheap hotels, the vast majority being deluxe villas with prices to match.
 
Watch out for accomodation here in Tuscany we have the disagreeable tendency to overprice anything.

DON'T I repeat DON'T buy ANY wine from nice friendly little local shop. You can get high end wine in any supermarket.

For tips, just PM me.
 
I'll try and sort a place to stay pretty soon, I'd like to stay close or in the town itself or maybe Sienna as we"ll need to hire a car. Agrotourismo has been recommended, they all look really nice, most stuff seems to be 130€ a night on average, some are around 200 but it seems to change to low season in October
 
OCT is deffo low season. Drop a PM to andreaviola: he might tell you something useful, he's from Siena (I'm from Grosseto, South of Siena). If he doesn't answer you pm, get in touch with me
 
As Fraser suggests above, it's an absolutely smashing day out and I'm sure that if you have entered and paid you are definitely in - from memory I didn't enter last year until late in the summer. I'd be going again this year if it wasn't for OWMTBC11.

The best bit in many ways is that you can decide mid ride which course to take (I'm thinking of doing the medium instead of long course rather than setting off for a 28km pootle and deciding it's good so going for 200km+) so if mechanicals or weather strike there's a ready made alternative option. Plus as it's a fairly circular route you can alawys cut back along tarmac roads if need be. I found having that safety net comforting, even though I didn't need to use it.

One last thing for now is to not underestimate the amount of climbing involved as Tuscany is pretty undulating with precious little flat - I chickened out to an extent and used a compact chainset but at least that meant I rode all of the climbs wheras there were several people pushing. Was the climbing in the long route close to 5,000m in total? Regardless, the fact that I rode it all may have had something to the generous glass of chianti that I had at 8.45 a.m. And 11.20 a.m. And 2 p.m. And 3.59 p.m. etc. You get the idea.

I suggest practicing cycling with toeclips and straps if you have been using clipless as it was more than 20 years since I had and although there was memory, flipping up a pedal and inserting your foot in one, deft motion does take a bit of remembering.

I'm sure I could waffle on for a while, indeed have done, but will stop for now.

Crucially, what bike are you taking?
 
Eroica

Sounds fab, going to book flights today.
I have a 1984 ciocc which I was going to build with slightly later 90"s chorus orcroce d une.
Will I get away with index gears if they have downtube shifters. how fussy are the scritineers?
 
ciocc

please can i apologise for the terrible typing of the last thread, it was sent from my iphone when i did not have my specs.
Are any other rerobikers entering?
 
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