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Hotaling Takes on Queen of Tuscany: Cycling L'Eroica

Tuscany, as you may well know, is home to many superlatives:  wine, olive oil, endlessly rolling hills, azure blue skies, historic small towns, famous artists, and of course cycling roads. In October, I flew to Florence and met up with a group of cyclists, and a tour company called inGamba. Our plan was to watch the World Championship Road Race, spend a week on our bikes, and close out the week with the L’Eroica. L’Eroica is a one day ride with roughly 5000 cyclists. Put simply, it is a celebration of the strade bianche, the “white roads” of Tuscany.

Gaiole, in Tuscany’s northern reaches, is the starting point for the L’Eroica. Our inGamba group set off on our vintage bicycles, brakes screeching and headlights piercing the predawn pitch black. Luckily, the rain had stopped sometime during the night and there were a few stars showing.

Tuscany is all about its towns. The first town on the 205km L’Eroica course is La Madonna. It’s also the first segment of white road, looping up the candle-lit drive toward Castello di Brolio and up into the high vineyards. Incidentally, the white roads are actually gravel and difficult to navigate on a vintage bicycle with toe clips and down-tube shifters.

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There is no such thing as flat or straight in the Tuscany. This aspect of the geography makes cycling the region exhilarating, but also taxing. There is no time to rest easy while riding on gravel, as the downhills are where spills are most likely to happen. Riders often find themselves tossed among the olive trees when suddenly unable to navigate a turn on a gravelly descent.

CONTINUE READING AT: http://hotalingllc.com/queen-tuscany-cycling-leroica-ingamba/

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