The Eroica cyclosportive is an event with which I am intimately acquainted, having ridden it four times between 2004 and 2007. My first participation was on Cyril, my 1932 Raleigh Record, followed by three rides aboard my 1985 Roberts road race bike, which I sold in 1988 and reacquired in 2005.
The 2009 edition of the Eroica marked a return to the event’s roots. By 2007 the ride was attracting a field of over 3000 across the four distances with many entrants for the long route turning up on state-of-the-art modern machinery, presumably either to make the ride easier or becasue they couldn’t find an older bike. Since the ride was supposed to be at least in part about the difficulties posed by obsolete machinery, something had to be done.
In late 2008, organiser’s assistant Claudio Marinangeli rang me to ask if I’d write an English version of the new bike regulations for the following year, which wasn’t very hard to do. Basically, a bike had to be either pre-1987 or be equipped with toe clips and straps, friction shift levers and non-concealed brake cables. Concealed cables arrived for racing in about 1980 and clipless pedals in 1985 so there is some overlap but all bikes would apparently have to pass scrutineering. Whether pre-’87 bikes with concealed cables and clipless pedals got to take part, I have no idea.
Anyway, here’s a video of the 2009 event; if it inspires anyone to ride, it takes place on 3rd October 2010.
