David's sporting challenges

Eroica Hispania - June 2016

I’ve been to both the original Italian Eroica vintage cycling event, at Gaiole in the heart of Chianti land, and the British version in Bakewell, the Peak district, so when I heard of a Spanish one based around the vineyards of Rioja I had to attend. It was bound to be great, wasn’t it? 

Once again I roped in a friend to join me, we sorted out our vintage bikes (mine was my father’s Raleigh from the late 70s partly restored to its former glory, the other – less so).

So early June on a Friday afternoon we flew into Bilbao, picked up the hire car, and set off for LaGuardia about 100km away, close to Cinicero where the start was. The route was simply beautiful. The weather was glorious. The hotel was reached, bikes put together, and as it was late had dinner at the hotel. The food and wine was delicious. I had a good feeling about the event.

Which lasted until we got to Cinicero the next morning to register. Whereas Gaiole and Bakewell are extremely pretty villages, Cinicero was simply a fairly standard suburban town with little or no charm. Nor was there a centre, really, where all the riders could congregate. So whilst at the other places I mentioned above it was obvious there was a major cycling event going on, here there was little or no evidence. 

The locals had wine tasting on offer. But unlike Italy where an enormous tent had been erected, and the vineyards had come to town, we had to choose a vineyard to visit. So we didn’t. I guess that lead to a poor decision, namely having a lunch that started at 2pm and finished around midnight. Neither of us recall what and where we ate at the end of the lunch.

 Morning came, and with fuzzy heads set off for the start line a few km away. At 9am we were the only two starters. I couldn’t tell if we were amongst the first, or the last, to set off. Still, off we were, with a mere 90k to cover on a mixture of tarmac and gravelly type roads. It was hot. And sunny. 

After around 10km it became apparent we’d lost the route. Unbelievable. My friend’s bike had a mechanical. When we turned a corner and came across LaGuardia, which should not have been on our route so early, my friend called it a day. A dodgy bike, coupled with dodgy route markings and a dodgy head meant another 80km could not be faced. So he simply stopped at our hotel to relax in the sun with a hair of the dog.

YI carried on to find the event’s food stop in LaGuardia to try and figure out where I was on the route and what had gone wrong. Another disappointment. One  tiny table, gels, bananas and water. I thought back to the other Eroica events, and metaphorically shed a little tear.

However, I did find out that somehow I was on the second half of the long route, with around 80km still to go. So rather than backtrack and start again (after all, I was there to cycle these roads, didn’t really matter which ones) I would carry on. The signposting left a lot to be desired. In one example the riders were directed to a village, but not out of it. Since there were three roads leading out it was trial and error to find the right one. It was there, too, that I met Jan, who turned out to be the organiser of the UK Eroica, and his friends who had also got lost in the same way we had. That actually relieved me, as I was wondering if the after effects of yesterday’s lunch had caused the error.

In another, much larger town, once again I couldn’t find the route, which was supposedly spray painted onto the road. By then I was with some other riders and we split up, with the first to find the route to shout out (as it wasn’t built up we could still see each other). I found it, shouted back and they promptly called out to yet another group who were heading off in the wrong direction.

The final leg of the ride was hard. The combination of hills, lack of gears (6 speed bike) and yesterday’s lunch all combined to make me suffer. I stopped only because I saw a photo opportunity for the bike (see below!). That taken care of, I got back on the bike and rode to the finish. 

There I perked up a bit. I was presented with a bottle of Rioja, but then collapsed at a bar. I sat there for too long, drinking iced tea, as I started to seize up. Still, nothing that another superb meal couldn’t fix. So it was back on the bike to get back to the hotel, and it was then that I saw how we’d got lost initially. On leaving Cinicero we should have turned left just outside the town. However, the sign highlighting the turning was small, and on the left side of a 4 lane carriageway. No wonder, riding on the right, it had been missed.

So overall I’d score the event only a 5/10. Yes it is beautiful, yes some of their Strade Bianchi were great to ride on. But if the sense of occasion is missing, then there’s little reason to go back.

Still, it was only their second year, I believe. It can only get better…