L'EROICA continues
Saturday was the bike exposition and
registration for the ride. The swap was much larger than last year with
a number of dealers staking out space on the lawn in front of the hall
as well as inside.
All sorts of things were for sale from
jerseys to small vintage bits and most items were quite reasonable,
something I looked at but forgot to go back for were some WWII vintage
dust goggles(ex Italian Army) for 10E. The number of sellers was double
of last year and I expect this to be a growing part of L'EROICA. There
was a fellow selling front pages from vintage Gazettas(most of which had
Coppi in the headline) for 5E and I bought one to wrap my spare with
(now that I look at it again I dont think I can)
The bikes on display were divided into 2
categories, either Vintage collectables that were display only or bikes
that were going to be out on the road the next day.One of the organizers
has a substancial collection which he had on display and rode during the
day with appropriate period clothing. The bikes ranged from Ordinarys to
1930s bikes including a bike that Petite Breton rode in the 1911 Tour
of Italy (GIRO).
We had come prepared to visit with
Valeriano Falsini ,former pro racer and team mate of Fausto Coppi,
presenting him with a shirt with the image of Coppi. He still rides and
Dave Benson has a short video of him out on a training ride the day
before. (which hopefully he will post) Valeriano ever the loyal team
member rides to Coppi s hometown and grave site every year. He would
also lead out the L'EROICA the next day on his 1952 Bianchi Team bike.
Guy Apple was quick to point out a number
of Bianchis which had decaling which he (or I ) had never seen before ,
a black trimed bullseye logo,
obviously a European only item. A wonderfull selection of bikes with
Cambio Corsa, PR , Margarita, Simplex , Campy and everything else was
on display. I think we would have a hard time pointing out a favorite.
Mid day they cleared the hall in
preparation for registration for the ride , Mike Schmidt, Rita and I
walked over to the town square to find something to eat. After finding a
place to get a sandwich we found all the shady seats or tables were
filled and walked down the street looking for a spot, Mike ever the New
Yorker walked up to the front of a hardware store which was closed for
lunch and pulled down a few chairs from their outside display , instant
shady table and chairs! the people next door kept looking out their
window at us (maybe it was their hardware store?) After a leisurely
lunch we put evrything back and walked back to the Hall to get our numbers.
At 3 PM the hall reopened and we went
inside to pick up our packets, sadly no one asked me to show my racing
license which lists me as a member of the Squadra Coppi cycling team (I
have the jersey and the club is probably wondering who their new member,
a Cat 5 racer out of California is)
We all went back to our hotel on the
townsquare for some refreshments before dinner , Dave Benson (NZ) and I
were asked if we would give an interview to a reporter from the french
magazine L'EQUIP. (sp?) During the interview a fellow and his entourage
walked up to say hello to the reporter, he was told the reporter was to
busy with his interview to chat. Gianni Motta walked away, blown off by
the reporter who was more interested in what brought Bob and Dave to
Chianti!
The evenings event was the "Heroes
Dinner" with representatives from the Coppi and Bartali teams of old.
Gianni Motta was sitting at the next table and was quite approachable, I
think most of us in the room had our picture taken with him. After 5
courses of vegetables and a lot of empty wine bottles we went back to
our hotel. Dave and Courtney would start early on their 125 K course
while the rest of us would roll out with the large crowd of 75k riders
in the AM.
http://wooljersey.com/