Erzulis Boat 

My oldest brother and I at the top of Cypress. I spun out on the loose-pack and had to get off and restart, but he made it 100% no stop! What a beast!
Incredible Eroica this year. I felt emotional when I crossed the finish line and got my medal.

I ended up riding the Serotta vs. the Faggin this year because the Faggin is just too flexy when I gas it hard, the rear triangle flexes and it ghost shifts. My brother rode the Somec that I gave him for Christmas.

The most fantastic day weather-wise imaginable. Great ride!

gaucho777 

There seemed to be a lot of volunteers, especially at the 2nd rest stop. They could have spread out those volunteers and added another rest stop between Cayucos (~mile 14) and Halter Ranch (~mile 50). I asked and was told at the registration table that 900 people registered for Eroica CA. I don't know how many were planning to ride each route.

Erzulis Boat 

We thought that the volunteers did a fantastic job, and the rest stops were awesome. ZERO complaints from our end!

Thalia949

I had a great time with meeting new friends and catching up with old friends. It is the camaraderie that makes these events special. I wonder though if the event is sustainable into the future? It seemed like the organizers were playing catch up for the cancelled event.

A couple of examples - the poster was from the old event, check the dates.

And the free bag of coffee was well past its best before date ( I checked it this AM and made an espresso, it is fine)

Caliwild

BRAVO! I did the 72-mile route on Saturday (Nova Eroica) on my modern gravel bike. Even that was brutal. So kudos for doing the same route on the vintage bikes... I can't imagine how sore my hands would be during the descent from Cypress, holding on to vintage brakes...

repechage

the admission of aero brake cable routing...
but, at 900, there was no excess to turn away.

Erzulis Boat 

Are you kidding me? Look at this incredible spread! The organizers did a FANTASTIC job this year. We do this every year, and the 2022 Eroica was legendary.


Somewhere along the route....................just incredible. What a ride.

The river after the Cypress descent. I stopped to give my hands a reprieve from braking. Almost done.

Erzulis Boat 

If you think that having aero routed cables is cheating, then you would have stroked out if you saw how many guys were riding triples.

OldCoot

I had wonderful time! I enjoyed making new friends and riding buddies. I rode along with Rich and Joe ( and others too...) on the Pierdras Blancas route.

Also wanted to thank Doc for picking me up on call from Andrew after my freewheel dropped all it's ball bearings on the way to Saturday's lunch in San Simeon. Would have been a long walk back otherwise.

Nice to PUT faces, names and online names together. Let's see how well I do at keeping them all straight.

gaucho777 

The spread in Cayucos was incredible. Not arguing that. My issue is that after leaving Cayucos, it was a long way before the next rest stop. The website said there would be a water/rest stop at the top of the Santa Rita climb. However, when we reached the summit, there was just a small empty table waiting for us. A volunteer drove up with extra water just before we rolled down the hill, but many didn't get water or anything else there. Then, the next rest stop (Halter Ranch) was a long way away, and they ran out of some food early. The only thing left was warm soup. I got a slice of bread to go with my soup, but not everyone did. Wally from Wally's Bicycle Works brought up a couple cases of cold soda to the top of Cypress Mountain, but I'm not sure that was an official stop. There was no water or other volunteers at the top of that climb (though it was designated as a water stop on the website). The photo above is not representative of what you would find after leaving the first rest stop.

Don't get me wrong. I still had a wonderful time. I brought plenty of my own snacks and never ran out of water. However, I know that wasn't the case for everyone.

repechage

triples did exist way back, on touring bikes.
maybe there needs to be a cyclotourist division.
yes, at some point there needs to be tech parameters. Obviously the original standards were modified.
I have a 1972 bike with 1985 aero brake levers, more comfortable and a lot cheaper than Campagnolo at the time. In 1985 it was just an out of date old race bike, 120 spacing, nutted brake fixation, regular reach brakes, toe clips and straps.

I will note that the price of the event is a deterrent. I'm sure next year if there is an event it will be more.

Erzulis Boat 

Fair enough. I brought 2 bottles this year, because I kinda' know how Eroica runs, but nevertheless, the organizers still get great marks this year. I am still over the moon about the ride.

Classtime 

If you can’t find a place in Cambria next year,


Cayucos near 15th St.

Erzulis Boat 

It's hard enough without being a stickler. Triples, CX tires, etc. are fine in my book for the Vintage class. In fact, I would say the majority of the Nova (modern) riders were walking their bikes up Cypress.

repechage

But their Mod bikes should have been SO much lighter, should have levitated up.

tmnguuyen 

I was lucky enough to ride with a real winner. Here we are together at the finish line.




One of perks of winning at the concours is you're assigned a personal photographer. Here are some action shots of Brad.




Here is a photo my new Eroica friends all happy that we all finished without crashing on the last descend.

northbend 

I had a Pro Shift RD on my Yo Eddy for years. It looked great and shifted flawlessly on 9sp XTR shifters until a stick put an end to it on a trail ride.
It was amazing how many pieces it broke into. Was really sad to see it go....

tmnguuyen 

I second that. The end results are all positive, we all had a good time i think. Checked the medal and it was from 2020, it is all good.

As far as organization goes, it is difficult to start up after so much disruptions from pandemic. If you have worked in manufacturing or production of any kind, the most costly and problematic to a program is restarting a production line. So taking everything under consideration, i'm glad and grateful the event was held this year.

My wife and I volunteered at Cayucos on Saturday. We were unsupervised but we made the best of it. We wanted to help more but had no replies from the organizer about some of the questions we had on coordination so we only did the on day at Cayucos.

Hope they keep at it, it will get better. It was smaller turn out than expected from what i gathered.

Manny66 

Well I had a BLAST at the L'Eroica ride this weekend. I rode the NOVA route on Saturday and the short Lighthouse ride on Sunday. I attended the Dinner on saturday night with the family and had a wonderful time chatting it up with some old friends and some new ones as well. The Italian contingent livened up the night with their Celebratory Chants ( which were in Italian so I didnt have a clue, but it was fun to watch) as well as the all you can drink Verrazzano Chianti they had set out for us on the tables. A big hats off to the Ride Organizers for all the hard work they put in, as well a to Aaron Linn for the food and assistance provided . Considering all the recent Obstacles we've had ,I wont fault Them one bit for any logistical issues during the Event .

The highlight of the weekend was finally meeting all the Bike Forum members in the flesh, It was great to put faces to the screen names that Ive known for so many years.. So many good conversations and so many genuine smiles from all the guys here, and From the looks of it Everybody had a Great time too.

heres a few pictures of the weekend. and yes, My # was 420 .

nlerner

Best parts: the ride, the scenery, the CA weather after a Boston winter and “spring,” the friends old and new, the endless talk about old bikes. All possible next year at a date of our choosing, with no registration fee, and several winery stops!

Manny66 

Just a short video

Classtime 

Yes the course is challenging no matter the bike you ride but I would heartily applaud implementation of ages/categories for bikes being ridden. If your ride is a vintage race bike with race gearing your suffering should be acknowledged officially (maybe a tourer category could include loaded Panniers). A beautiful Colnago was in front of me for much of the ride to Cayucos (with reversed seatstay caps? what is that?) with a 12-23 and he was a first timer. Upon checking ride results, how wonderful if he found himself one of few 70+ y.o. riders doing the _______ route with such gearing? Pretty neat eh? Or if your bike one year had Cat # gearing and your results encourage you to loose a few pounds or challenge yourself to "fully" restore your Grand Criterium for next year. Yea it's trouble but I would get a kick out of it and would be willing to help/volunteer.

btw, I rode on Saturday and most of the Gravel Bike riders easily pedaled up all the climbs. I got back to the start long after the awards ceremony and I didn't walk.

OldCoot

Well your bike was definitely on of my favorites. I am glad you brought it!

Kilroy1988 

I had a great weekend and it was fun to meet so many fellow forum members! My wife and I just got home this evening so I'll have to organize some photos and my thoughts and post a full report in the morning... For now, here's a shot of me preparing for the ride Sunday morning. Cheers!

-Gregory

Andy_K 

I agree with this assessment. The volunteers were great and did a wonderful job making the most of what they had. Both volunteers and resources were unevenly spread around. Having ridden EC in 2018 and 2019, I was prepared to be mostly self supporting. I had two large water bottles and a large supply of snacks. I finished one water bottle at Cayucas and refilled it. By the top of Santa Rita I was back down to one full bottle and seeing none available there I started mentally rationing. I took my last swallow at the gates of Halter Ranch, but had been very thirsty for quite some time by then. I guess I could have stopped at one of the other businesses we passed along the way, but I shouldn’t have to.

By the time I got to Halter Ranch (just before the first of the heroic route riders arrived), the offerings were wine, soup, and water. I don’t like soup or wine, so I refilled my bottles, drank one while I rested and refilled it again and continued subsisting on my own food stash. When I arrived at the top of Cypress (much later) I found only other riders. There was a volunteer with water a short way down the descent but I didn’t discover that until I was ready to roll again.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the finish line was still staffed when I got there, despite my very late finish (a bit after 6), and I got a hot-ish meal with my medal. Anyone who finished after me (I think there were two or three) didn’t get the food as far as I know.

Finally, while I’m airing grievances, I’d like to note that there’s a substantial difference between what I’d like to see on the spread at a fancy reception and what I’d like to have available to me to fuel a tough ride. For instance, the shrimp at Cayucos looked great, but I wasn’t about to touch it with almost 60 miles ahead of me. Maybe this breaks with the Eroica ethos, but I’d like to see things like salty snacks (pretzels, nuts), fruits, and some kind of electrolyte replacement drink mix. Cayucos had both kinds of food, but there was no more on offer after that. I was quite glad I brought my own.

Enough ranting from me though, when I get home tomorrow I’ll post a much more positive account of my overall experience.