l'Eroica 2013 My ride Part 3

Sunday morning dawned and as I opened the shutters I was greeted with the ends of the night time darkness, and early morning mist/fog. The ground looked damp but not wet so after a quick shower and breakfast, dressed ready to ride, I put the Raleigh in the car and we headed off to Gaiole. Well as the sun came up and the fog started to clear the contrast to Saturday could not have been more stark. The views down into the valleys were spectacular with vineyards as far as the eye could see, it was....well beautiful.
My spirits lifted, we headed down into Gaiole but could not get into town so decided to park up in a Winery car park just outside the town centre .

We walked into town passing many riders whom had already started and the atmosphere was vibrant to say the least .In town I made my way up a side street to the back of the que whilst Sue walked up the main street to wait  for me to ride through. There were vintage bikes everywhere you looked, it was truly a feast for the eyes. During a conversation with other riders I met up with an english chap called Mike Marber and we cycled some of the route together. Good weather, good conversation , the Strada Bianca and the feeling that you were part of something unique, it just made for one of the most memorable cycling experiences of my life. I think the photos below say a lot more than my writing efforts so please take a look and as to the question would I do it again, you bet, it was bloody brilliant!!

Well thats my ride finished, the smile says it all!!

Final stamp check

A well earned double espresso

 My Flicker LEroica 2013  file with all our trip photo's http://www.flickr.com/photos/50167860@N02/sets/72157636802329983/

L'Eroica 2013 My ride Part 2

  So we had arrived at http://www.villagloria.it/index.php?lang=eng just north of Siena and about 20k from the small town of Gaiole, the start of L'Eroica. We woke up on the saturday morning to mist, low cloud and rain and my heart sank as to what might be for the Sunday ride. However we ate a quick breakfast jumped in the car and drove to Gaiole to sign on, soak up the atmosphere (and the rain as it turned out).
We made our way from Quercegrossa via Vagliagi towards Gaiole over some of the Strada Bianca that we would be cycling the next day. It didn't look good in the rain with rutted roads and steep descents, I was worried as to how we would fair? However we arrived in Gaiole, found somewhere to park up and made our way to the centre of town to sign in.

The un-organised chaos of signing on to the L'Eroica

Finally at the front of the que!

Following signing on we had a good look round the stalls and wondered the side streets taking in all that was on offer. Vintage bikes, parts both NOS and some that looked ready for the skip were  available for sale but as forums inter-mated in the UK, prices were of the inflated variety and although there were some very tempting things to purchase prices were just to steep for me.

I think these need a little work 

Parts old and new ( well almost)

Seats covered up as the rain pours down.

 The rain just kept on falling so we decided to get some food and made our way to a restaurant . It was supposedly a Pizzeria that couldn't serve Pizza (the oven wasn't fired up) or indeed Cappuccino ( the machine was broken!!!) Not a great start to the weekend and as the rain fell we headed back to the car and our hotel for hot showers and hot food. Tomorrow was another day and lets hope it was to be a dry day

L'Eroica 2013 My ride Part 1

So this weekend saw Bobs Bike Shed in Sunny Tuscany for this years L'Eroica. It had been a long term dream of mine to ride in this event having followed it for a number of years since it was first run in 97 and for those of you that have read previous entry's will no that over the winter of 2012/13 I rebuilt a 1980 Reynolds 753 Raleigh team Ti especially for the event.
Entry for the event changed this year with a pre-registration rather than a first come first served basis and following an email I received from the organisers, i mistakenly assumed that I had a reserved place, so flights were booked along with hotels and hire car and all I had to do was wait for the next email to complete the entry process. Well upon further investigation it seemed that i had jumped the gun and although I had been given a number (1347) it was outside the  initial 1000 places set aside for foreign riders. Oh well I thought, we shall still go and just enjoy being there.
A few months later I got to a tweet from one of the people I follow, that stated some charity spots were available for riders that missed out on one of the initial 1000 places. Well that was it, in with both feet I paid my money and waited to see if I had been accepted?
Now for any one that has visited the official L'Eroica website they will tell you that its not the most user friendly, easily understandable site in the world and it was a few more tense weeks wait until I could confirm that I actually had an official place on the ride and I have to say when it was confirmed I was rather pleased.
So preparations began.

Now for some time i have been toying with the idea of hiring out bike box's to traveling cyclists and I though what an ideal opportunity to try out one of my suppliers hard case offerings and see how it faired traveling to Italy. Polaris is a company I have  admired for a while having had and used a number of their products over the years so a call was made and a new rigid bike box was despatched to the shed.

Polaris rigid bike box

So here are some photo's of the Raleigh Team Ti being loaded into the box.

The empty box minus its foam inserts

Foam inserts in place

wheels packed and ready to be covered with the foam inserts

bike packed 

So the bike is packed and ready to travel.

The Raleigh Team Ti packed in its Polaris rigid bike box just about to be loaded on to the Plane at Gatwick

So its reached its final destination at Hotel Le Loggia unpacked and ready for  riding ( well apart from its pedals)