Lots of new features will be added to the 2016 edition of L’Eroica, starting from the new 125 km route through the Chianti Classico Gallo Nero region and the first edition of the Concours d'Elegance to award the most authentic bicycles and cyclists.
L’Eroica started in 1997, with just 92 heroes. Since then it has been a continuous crescendo of infinite emotions for a sport that attracts millions of people of every age and social class from every corner of the world. Gaiole in Chianti was defined one of the best towns to live in Europe by the American magazine Forbes in 2008, hosted over six thousand cyclists in 2015. With its magnificent routes (46, 75, 125, 135 and 209 km), L’Eroica is also an extraordinary media phenomenon, with between 100 and 120 accredited journalists, photographers and TV operators from all over the world.
The twentieth edition of L'Eroica will be even more special. It’s a huge achievement that came from a “crazy” idea which was thought up for fun, passion and love of the environment and which has now travelled around the world. This birthday will be celebrated by many happy initiatives, two of which will be introduced into this year’s programme, and which we are pleased to present.
The first is the possibility to choose a fifth route, of approximately 125 km. This route has been created to celebrate 300 years of the Chianti Classico Consortium and the territory in which it is produced. This route will include a detour to Vagliagli (at km 31 of the current 75 km route), with a good stretch towards the Municipality of Castellina, before venturing into the Florentine Chianti and returning then to the original route in the area between the historical Panzano and Volpaia food stops. There will be a slightly lower percentage of white roads but challenges and beautiful scenery will abound in an incomparable Chianti landscape.
The other initiative we are working on is the Concours d’Elegance. This is something L'Eroica tried to do in a simple way its first editions, when the number of participants permitted it. About 100 bikes of particular value will be admitted to the competition, together with cyclists dressed in appropriate attire. This is a way to enhance the extraordinary work of safeguarding the historical and mechanical heritage that L’Eroica originally created, it’s also a way to kindle the passion of the collectors who are most attentive to the authenticity and style of their bikes.
