The holy week of L’Eroica has begun. On Saturday, October 3rd and Sunday, October 4th, approximately 9,000 cyclists from every part of the world will arrive to pedal on the magnificent gravel roads of the province of Siena and participate in the XXIX edition of L’Eroica.

Almost thirty years ago Giancarlo Brocci invited the first cyclists to pedal on the roads of Chianti, within that idea of a magnificent Cycling Park of Chianti that he had imagined a few years earlier. Today those same roads have become one of the most desired destinations in the world for bicycle tourism. The scale has changed, the community has grown, but the spirit of those days has remained: the beauty of effort and the taste of endeavor.

At L’Eroica, in fact, the endeavor begins long before the start. It begins when you pull your uncle's bicycle out of the attic, when you recover the one that seemed destined for the scrap heap, you search for the missing piece, you fix the derailleur, you adjust the brakes and you polish the frame. It begins when you mend your grandfather's wool jersey or one found at a flea market. And increasingly often you prepare together with friends.

The road to Gaiole, therefore, can be started from very far away from Tuscany. You start from your doorstep, you cross roads and territories, you pedal together and you arrive in Gaiole with your own story already underway.

An example comes from Brescia, where Daniele Superti and Marco Cominotti created the Brescia Slow Bike group a few months ago. There are eleven of them and they will arrive in Gaiole already on Saturday, October 3rd, after some preparatory rides on routes chosen to have characteristics similar to those of L’Eroica. They have learned to pedal on vintage bicycles and, above all, to stay together despite different paces and abilities. Their goal is to arrive all together, without breakaways and without leaving anyone behind.

A small story that well illustrates how L’Eroica can begin long before arriving in Gaiole, even hundreds of kilometers away.
«True modernity, especially now that professional cycling seems firmly in the hands of the hyper-technical and science, will be to recover precisely the pure gesture of a simple means», writes Giancarlo Brocci. And he adds: «Because if you bluff about the beauty of effort, there are no more tastes for endeavors and you end up doing another sport».

This is also why there is no ranking at L’Eroica. It is a bicycle ride, not a race. The cyclist with the surname beginning with A will always win, just as the one with Z will be condemned to last place. In between there will be thousands of people, each with their own route, their own effort and their own finish line.

In Gaiole each participant will also find the race package, a sort of small journey into the world of L’Eroica and its partners. There will be food products, from spelt to pasta, a breakfast proposal, wine and other small gifts, along with maps, informational materials, coupons and proposals dedicated to bicycles. A deliberately diverse collection that puts territory, food, bicycles and the realities that accompany L’Eroica throughout the year in the same package.

Then, at the finish line, the medal of the XXIX edition will arrive. This year it will be made entirely of wood and printed with ecological inks, a choice that links the memory of participation to responsibility towards the territory and the desire to reduce environmental impact.

It is the traditional “wooden medal”, the one that in competitive sports identifies fourth place. At L’Eroica, however, we are all fourth: there are no stopwatches to beat, rankings to climb or opponents to overcome. Everyone reaches the finish line after completing their own endeavor.

The grain of the wood is all different, just as the stories of those who pedal are different. The medal thus becomes the memory of a shared day and of a community in which everyone participates in the same spirit: the beauty of effort, the taste of endeavor and respect for the world around us.

But the most beautiful gift will be the one that no race package and no medal can contain: the satisfaction of having completed your own endeavor and the joy of having done it together with thousands of other cyclists who came from all over the world.

Then there will be the gravel roads, the climbs, the dust, the effort and Gaiole. And each one will have their own story to tell.

THE L’EROICA FESTIVAL
From Thursday, October 1st to Sunday, October 4th, Gaiole in Chianti will be animated by the L’Eroica Festival, with appointments, meetings, music, exhibitions and initiatives that will accompany the XXIX edition.

The complete program of the L’Eroica Festival