If you're reading this blog, chances are you're a cycling enthusiast. You surely appreciate the feeling of freedom when you pedal on a sunny, car-free road, with the wind caressing your face and the landscape unfolding before your eyes. You forget professional and family obligations, you simply ride, and you let the endorphins do their work.
You know that feeling, I'm sure!
Now imagine that same feeling, but this time you're cruising through the white roads of Tuscany in Italy, perched on a vintage Marinoni equipped with Campagnolo from end to end, and surrounded by one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth...
It's enough to make you dream, isn't it?
Yet, this is exactly what Marc-André Lebeau, the owner of Bicycles Quilicot, will experience next Sunday during the very popular L'Eroica gran fondo.
For the uninitiated, L'Eroica is a gran fondo held annually in the Tuscany region of Italy. With the full course covering 209km and 3700m of elevation gain, it's certainly not a leisurely Sunday stroll. However, it's not the difficulty of the course that characterizes this event, but rather its strict rules. Indeed, L'Eroica offers several routes ranging from 50km to 209km, but it cannot be completed on just any bike. Participants must complete the course equipped with a vintage bicycle (produced before 1987) and matching gear, from the padded helmet to leather shoes, including the wool jersey.
You read that right: over 200km in the Italian hills, on chalk-white dirt roads, dressed like your favorite cycling legend. Just a few photos are enough to appreciate the beauty of this unique event that immerses you in the heart of cycling's golden age, when riders didn't look like robots dressed in neon spandex.
So keep an eye on our blog and our Facebook page if you want to follow Marc-André on this Italian adventure, which promises to be memorable. And if you want more information about this very special event, we invite you to visit their website here .
We're already looking forward to seeing the photos Marc-André will take for us!
Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/Eroica?fref=ts
Eroica video link: https://youtu.be/Qc2xigpK-qI