Dear Listmembers,
I really do not have much more to add to this subject other than Robin and I enjoyed ourselves hangin with the CR crowd and doing the L'eroica thing. It was especially gratifying to experience the event with first timers. If you are thinking about doing L'eroica in the future, I strongly endorse this experience. It is a bit like Cirque, a bit like Velo Rendezvous, but yet different. If you are thinking about going, figure a travel budget of $5000. for two people.
While it is not a must, work with Blufreccia. Those guys are great. They make it easier plus provide van support for the non-riding better half. Food is part of the Italy experience. Avoid doing more than one group dinner. Split into groups of eight and order off the menus because the restaurants pre cook the group meals and it does not taste very good.
Avoid Alitalia Airlines and stick with US carriers. We got screwed on the baggage costs plus they charge in Euros, not dollars. Besides they are in bankruptcy and have supplier issues. If you are an elite member on a particular airline, use that airline because they will give you more weight allowance.
Thanks to Matteo for coming down and hanging with us. I finally got to meet my namesake counterpart, Michael Schmid, a real cool guy and Lorenzo Savarino, Mister Rocvale on ebay. I also want to again acknowledge Guy Apple and Peter Neiman who worked with me on the Dale to Italy project.
I was impressed with the number of swap meet vendors that knew Steve Maasland.
The hill towns of San Giminjano, Cortona and Montepulciano were stunning. Siena and Firenze are also not to be missed.
The shear size of L'eroica needs to be considered. The feed stops were much more crowded this year. I hope they stick to their guns next year and move the mountain bikes off the course at the 38K mark and keep the event to historic bikes. The Saturday swap was larger than last year and so that was cool.
Last but not least, my photos are now up on Wool Jersey. I rode the same bike as last year; a Frankenbike called a Resurrectio. This years version, I went to different wheels and tires, a Brooks saddle instead of an Ideale, and changed the rings to a 32T inner instead of a 26T. The MKS travel pedals eliminated the need to carry a pedal wrench. (remember about keeping the baggage weight down).
While in Italy, I picked up a new bike. A 1954 Bianchi Compione del Mundo. This lead to some logistics problems since I only had one travel case and two bikes. After some soul searching, I landed on the final solution. See the link.
http://www.wooljersey.com/
The link to my site at wool jersey is.
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Enjoy and write with any questions you have if you are thinking about doing this event.
Mike Schmidt
Stirling, NJ