L'Eroica: Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 October in Gaiole in Chianti

The event between history and cycling returns to Chianti

There is dust, fatigue, bicycles cared for with maniacal passion. There are nature, dirt roads, glasses with round and dark lenses to make accountant Filini envious and unforgettable names and symbols for those who love cycling or simply know who Coppi and Bartali were.

It is the Eroica, the cycling event born more than twenty years ago from an intuition of Giancarlo Brocci to recall the stages raced on dirt roads by the greats of cycling that returns on time with its colorful and varied platoon of fans in Gaiole in Chianti, where it was born and where it branched out to bring the experience around the world.
But wheels and pedals are above all tools to enhance the environment, to exalt a sustainable lifestyle, to keep clean the image of a sport that, in other contexts and situations, has lost some of the light that animates it for more than a century.

So here are the vintage bicycles, the wool or acrylic uniforms embroidered with the names of the sponsors, the water bottle holders on the handlebars, the lunch in the jute bag on the shoulder and everything that reminds us of cycling in the past.
5,000 cyclists, from the 92 who began the adventure, will meet behind the starting line to ride along the white roads of Chianti, the preservation of which is one of the priorities of the Eroica Foundation: five routes, from the 46 kilometers of the walk to the 209 of the long route, through valleys, woods, vineyards, along daring descents and exhausting climbs.

Brolio, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Montalcino, Murlo, Siena, Castellina and Radda are among the towns crossed where cyclists can find hospitality, refreshments and accommodation that remain so every day of the year, in order to experience the Eroica also with the permanent route. Kid Road Book to the hand is in fact possible to be affixed the stamps: to the sixth one comes "rewarded" with the diploma of "Eroico" to feel a little bit Coppi. Or Bartali. An eternal dilemma.

If you want to stop in Gaiole for lunch or to visit this little pearl of Chianti, here you will find all our suggestions!

Running times
Saturday 1 October
Km 209: from 4.30 to 5.00 a.m. for bicycles built before 1930
Km 209: from 5.00 am to 6.00 am
Km 135: from 6.00 am to 7.00 am
Sunday 2 October
Km 106: from 7 am to 7.30 am
Km 81: from 8.00 to 9.30 am
Km 46: from 8 am to 9.30 am

This year L'Eroica is broadcast on RAI. Sunday 2 October from Gaiole in Chianti live images from 9.00 am on RAI3 and from 9.40 am on RAISPORT. Channel 3, the main reference point for the province of Siena and much of Tuscany, also ensures extensive television coverage.