The routes of the inaugural L’Eroica Britannia have been unveiled.
Routes of 30, 50, and 100 miles will be offered at the inaugural event, billed as a Great British Adventure, and due to be staged in the Peak District on June 22, 2014, just three weeks before the Grand Depart of the Tour de France takes place in Yorkshire.
Organisers announced the route in the Tuscan town of Gaiole in Chianti on the eve of the latest edition of the Italian L’Eroica event, last Sunday, and revealed that the UK event and accompanying festival will be centred in Bakewell.
“We thank the Eroica guys for allowing us to continue the journey,” Gian Bohan of L’Eroica Britannia told an audience in Gaiole. “We want to continue what they’ve done in the manner that they’ve done it.”
Bohan pledged to uphold the “core elements” of L’Eroica, and said the British event would retain the same principals and regulations. Rules for the Italian event bar road bikes from after 1987 on the longer routes, for example.
The white roads of Tuscany – the strade bianche – lie at the heart of the Tuscan event, and L’Eroica Britannia will have its own unpaved sections, courtesy of sixty-five miles of traffic free, former railway lines.
“The routes are key to the heart of the event,” Bohan said. “That’s so important. We’ve been so fortunate. The Peak District national park has been instrumental in helping us to create a route that is spectacular.”
Sections of the disused Monsal Dale railway will be reopened, offering a uniquely British take on the famed strade bianche of Tuscany. The former Midland Railway, which passes through Monsal Dale, and which was opened in 1866 as part of the London to Manchester service, closed in the late 1950s.
Carnivals, morris dancers, local bands, and well dressing – a local custom where wells are decorated with flowers – are among the attractions planned for the British event.
RCUK spoke to Carol Parsons from the Peak District National Park Authority, a lifelong cyclist who helped piece together the route.
“Back in Britain, there’s great enthusiasm already growing,” she said. “A lot of the villages want to be part of it. They’ve got local food initiatives, and they see it as a great way to showcase what they can offer, as well as the heritage and the landscape that the Peak District is famous for.”
“It’s a hilly area, and we have the old railways lines,” she continued. “We’re utilising as many of those as possible. We’ve got over 65 miles of former railway lines and in between we’ve got fantastic quiet lanes and a range of by-ways and bridleways.”
Organisers have worked with Chatsworth House and the estate of the Duke of Devonshire, which will open several private roads to the event. Cronford Mill, one of first factories, and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, will feature on the routes.
“There really are some treasures out there,” said Bohan.
Pre-registration for the event has opened. For more information, visit Eroica Britannia.
Many thanks to Guido P. Rubino and Cyclinside.com for the picture. Click here to see more of Guido’s pictures from L’Eroica.
