L'Eroica is the most romantic event in cycling. 209 kilometres of Tuscan strade bianche on a steel bike older than most of the riders. Wool jerseys. Toe-clip pedals. Downtube shifters. The kind of ride where the wine stop at km 80 is part of the plan, the dust gets into everything, and the atmosphere is half race and half pilgrimage to a version of the sport that mostly disappeared in the 1980s.
Here is the thing nobody tells you about L'Eroica. The climbs aren't the hard part. The strade bianche aren't the hard part. The hard part is doing 209km on a bike with 42x21 as your easiest gear, on rolling Tuscan terrain, in October sun. Your modern climbing technique — sit down, light cadence, ride the gradient — does not work on a 5-speed freewheel. You grind. You stand. You grind again. And after eight hours of that, the legs are different than they would be on the same kilometres on a modern bike.
Here is how to train for it across 14 weeks, with the right physical demand, the surface-specific work, and the gearing rehearsal that turns the vintage bike from a handicap into part of the experience.
Key Takeaways
- 14-week build for the 209km route with a 6-8 hour weekly base
- Peak volume 9-12 hours/week with at least one weekly ride on rough surface
- 2.8 W/kg minimum for 209km, 3.2-3.5 W/kg for 9-12 hours, 3.5+ W/kg for sub-9
- Train on vintage-equivalent gearing for at least 6 long rides pre-event
- 80g carbs/hour from the start — Tuscan aid stations are wonderful but slow
- Wool jersey + cap + steel bike + October Tuscan sun = test the kit pre-event
- Pick a route that matches your training reality — 135km is not a lesser day
What L'Eroica Actually Demands
209 kilometres across the Chianti hills of Tuscany. Around 4,600m of climbing total — most of it on strade bianche, the famous white-gravel roads that wind through the wine country between Gaiole, Castellina, and back. Most finishers are out for 9-15 hours. The October date and the Tuscan setting mean late-summer warmth that drops sharply at sundown, dusty roads that cake in everything, and a finish-line atmosphere that runs into the night.
The bike is the part that changes everything. Pre-1987 means a steel frame, downtube shifters or non-aero brake levers, toe-clip pedals, and a 5-7 speed freewheel. Typical gearing is 52/42 chainrings with a 14-24 freewheel. Your easiest gear is 42x21 or 42x24 — not 34x32. On the steep pitches of the Tuscan climbs (Montemaggio averages 6.1% over 11.2km, with sections at 12%), you will be grinding at 40-50 RPM in your easiest gear. The legs feel that.
The strade bianche themselves are different from modern gravel. They're chalk-dust over compacted earth — fast in the dry, slippery in any moisture. October is generally dry, but morning dew can make the descents technical. The surface adds 10-15% to your perceived effort at the same wattage; you're constantly adjusting line, micro-correcting on rough patches, and bracing through the bike rather than spinning a clean stroke.
The aid stations are wonderful and slow. Pasta. Wild boar ragu. Wine. Pecorino. Espresso. The day becomes part picnic, part race. That part is the joy of L'Eroica — but it's also the trap. Spending 25 minutes at every aid station turns a 9-hour day into a 13-hour day, and the legs cool, the back stiffens, and the second half becomes harder than the first.
The defining demand is durability on a constrained bike across rough surface for 200+ kilometres. Train the bike, not just the body.
The Physical Bar: W/kg and Endurance Capacity
Three numbers tell you whether the L'Eroica finish you want is realistic.
FTP in W/kg. 2.8 W/kg with disciplined pacing finishes 209km inside 12 hours. 3.2-3.5 W/kg lands you in the 9-12 hour bracket. Above 3.5 W/kg with vintage-bike fluency you can finish in 7-9 hours. Use the W/kg calculator to set the number. The vintage gearing constraint flattens the FTP advantage — a strong rider on 42x21 still grinds 12% pitches at 50 RPM, so muscular endurance matters more than peak threshold.
Long-ride durability. You should have ridden 6-7 hours on rough surface in training before October, ideally on a bike with vintage-equivalent gearing. If you train exclusively on a modern road bike with 34x32, your first long ride on a 42x21 the week of L'Eroica is the one where things go wrong.
Climbing under cadence constraint. The Montemaggio climb at km 100 is the day's hardest sustained effort — 11.2km at 6.1%, with vintage gearing forcing you into 50-55 RPM territory. Train sustained climbs on a modern bike using a heavier gear (53x21 or equivalent) for at least three sessions in the build. Your legs need to know how to push at low cadence for 60+ minutes.
If those three boxes are ticked by week 11, L'Eroica becomes the romantic ride it's meant to be. If they aren't, the day becomes a grind that you remember for the wrong reasons.
The 14-Week Framework
Three blocks of base, build, peak, plus a 1-2 week taper. Volumes assume a starting base of 6-8 hours/week.
Weeks 1-4: Base
Volume: 7-9 hours/week.
Four to five rides, 80% in Zone 2. The aerobic engine. Stephen Seiler's polarised principle is the anchor here — easy stays easy. Riders who run base block in the grey zone are the riders who plateau at week 7.
Anchor session: long Z2 ride building from 3 hours to 5 hours over the block. Mix surfaces if your local terrain allows — gravel days build the bike-handling that the strade bianche demand.
Weeks 5-8: Build
Volume: 8-10 hours/week.
Two quality sessions per week. One threshold (4x10 minutes at 95-100% FTP, building to 3x15 minutes by week 8). One sustained tempo on rolling terrain (2x30 minutes at 80-87% FTP) — L'Eroica is rolling tempo for hours, train the duration you'll race.
Add one weekly low-cadence session, ideally on a climb. 4-minute efforts at 50-60 RPM at RPE 7/10. John Wakefield prescribes this kind of torque work for muscular endurance, and at L'Eroica it has direct application — you'll spend hours at low cadence by necessity.
Long ride climbs to 6 hours, ideally including a section on rough surface.
Weeks 9-12: Peak
Volume: 9-12 hours/week.
This is the block to ride the actual L'Eroica bike if you have access to it. At least 4 long rides on the vintage setup, ideally including one full distance at 80% race effort. The bike-fit, the saddle, the brake feel, the gearing — all need testing before October.
Long ride includes 3-4 sustained climbs of 15-30 minutes on the vintage gearing. Quality sessions tighten to event specificity: one threshold session, one sustained tempo on rolling surface, one low-cadence climbing session.
Dan Lorang's athletes ride sustained tempo blocks before the spring classics — the principle scales: protect easy days, drop volume on intensity days, train the surface-and-gearing specifics.
Weeks 13-14: Specific + Taper
Week 13 is the final stacked weekend. Saturday 5-6 hours on rough surface with vintage gearing. Sunday 3 hours easy. Volume holds at 9-10 hours but quality work shifts to race-pace simulation.
Week 14 is the taper. Volume drops 50%. Two short rides with 5-minute openers at threshold. Travel to Tuscany 2-3 days early — pre-ride 30km of the route, dial the bike, eat in the local rhythm. The fitness is in.
If you build your plan in TrainingPeaks, the structured workouts replicate the rolling-tempo and low-cadence blocks precisely, and the ATL/CTL tracking makes the build legible.
Tuscan Aid-Station Nutrition Strategy
L'Eroica fuelling is a unique problem. The aid stations are wonderful — pasta, ragu, prosciutto, pecorino, wine, espresso. Fuelling on the bike takes a back seat in popular imagination. In reality, you cannot ride 209km on aid-station food alone, and the riders who try it bonk between aid stations regardless of how good the lunch was.
On the bike. 70-90g carbohydrate per hour from the gun. Vintage bikes don't carry frame packs well, and jersey pockets fit fewer modern gels comfortably. Plan the carry: 3-4 gels per pocket, plus bars, plus one bottle of concentrated electrolyte mix. Asker Jeukendrup's research on multiple transportable carbohydrates is the basis for the standard 2:1 glucose-fructose mix used by most riders.
Aid stations. Eat real food. Drink real coffee. The atmosphere is part of the day. But move on inside 15 minutes. 25 minutes at every aid station is how a 10-hour day becomes a 14-hour day, and the legs cool every time you sit. The wine pour at the km 80 stop is famous; have one if you want, then leave.
Hydration. 600-750ml/hour through the day. October Tuscan sun in midday touches 25-28°C and the strade bianche are exposed. Sun sleeves and a cycling cap matter. Electrolyte mix in every bottle.
Pre-race carb-loading. 8-10g/kg body weight in the 24-36 hours pre-race. The Italian dinner before L'Eroica — pasta, bread, wine — is famously generous; lean into it.
Caffeine. A caffeine gel before Montemaggio at km 100 sharpens the climb. Tuscan espresso at the aid stations is real coffee, real caffeine, and worth taking if you're a coffee drinker.
For underlying fuelling science, the carbs-per-hour guide covers gut training and absorption.
Common Mistakes
Treating it like a modern sportive. L'Eroica is a different event. The bike, the surface, the atmosphere, the pace — all different. Train the specifics or arrive surprised. The riders who finish well are the ones who treated the vintage bike as part of the training plan, not as a costume.
Skipping the bike rehearsal. Riding the vintage bike for the first time on race day is the most common reason for a tough finish. The position is different from your modern bike; the brakes feel different; the gear changes are slower. Three or four long rides on the actual race bike pre-event is the bar.
Spending 25 minutes at every aid station. The atmosphere is wonderful. The food is excellent. But the clock keeps moving and the legs cool. 10-15 minutes per stop is the working window for a controlled day. Sit too long at km 80 and you'll feel it at km 180.
Underestimating Montemaggio. The day's hardest climb. 11.2km at 6.1% average with sections at 12%. On vintage gearing at km 100, this is a 90-minute sustained effort at low cadence. Pace the first 90km specifically to arrive at Montemaggio with cards left to play.
Wearing the wool jersey for vibes without testing it. Wool is comfortable in the morning chill, hot in midday sun, and slow to dry if you sweat through it. Test the kit on a long training ride before October. Some finishers wear modern bibs under a wool jersey — that's a defensible compromise; some keep it pure. Either works, but don't discover at km 60 that pure wool in 28°C is a survival decision.
Picking the 209km because the medal is more impressive. It is. It's also a 12-hour day on a constrained bike. The 135km route is a beautiful, legitimate L'Eroica day. If your training base is 5-6 hours/week, the 135 leaves you wanting to come back next year for the 209. The 209 on insufficient training is a long walk in dusty wool.
Kit, Gearing, and Logistics
Bike. A pre-1987 road bike with downtube shifters or non-aero brake levers. Steel frame. Toe-clip pedals. Exposed brake cables. The event has a partner programme for rentals — book early because demand is high.
Gearing. Typical vintage setup is 52/42 chainrings with a 5-7 speed freewheel topping at 24-26 teeth. If you're ordering parts to spec, prioritise a 24-tooth largest cog over a 13-tooth smallest — the climbs need it, the flats can wait.
Tyres. 28-32mm tubular or clincher tyres. The strade bianche are smooth-ish in the dry but unforgiving over square-edged stones. Run higher than gravel pressures to protect the rims.
Clothing. Wool jersey (period-correct), wool cycling cap (mandatory for the event), shorts (modern bibs under the wool are tolerated by most), wool socks, retro cycling shoes if you're committed. Gilet for the cool dawn start. Sunscreen and sun sleeves for midday.
Hydration carry. Two bottles minimum. Vintage bikes don't accept frame packs well — plan jersey pocket loadout carefully. Concentrated electrolyte in the bottles plus water at aid stations.
Bike fit. A 60s-80s steel bike has different geometry than your modern bike. Saddle height, reach, drop — all different. Get the position checked on a long pre-event ride. Race day is not the time to discover the saddle is wrong.
Logistics. Stay in Gaiole in Chianti, Castellina, or Siena. Tuscany in October is post-tourist-season but still busy for L'Eroica weekend. Book accommodation when entry confirms.
Free Plan Templates (Inside the Community)
Inside the Roadman Cycling community on Skool we host a free library of plan templates — sportive, road racing, gravel, base, build, VO2 max and FTP builder blocks. For L'Eroica, stack a base block into a build block and overlay this article's low-cadence and surface-specific work in the peak block. Same structural templates we use as the starting point for paid coaching. Free to join.
How Roadman Coaches This
At Roadman Cycling we periodise the 14-week L'Eroica build around your starting fitness, your access to a vintage bike for training, and the route distance you've chosen. Generic plans break on this event — the gearing-specific work needs to land in the right block, and the bike rehearsal has to be planned around the bike you're actually riding on race day.
Most of our coached athletes work through TrainingPeaks — structured workouts, daily metrics, and a coach who actually reads your data instead of pasting templates. Coaching tiers run from $175/month for structured plan oversight to $1,250/month for full one-to-one coaching. Learn more about our coaching or how we work with riders across the UK, Ireland, and the US.
L'Eroica is one of the few events that is half race, half pilgrimage, half cultural festival. Train the bike, train the surface, train the gearing. Pace the early kilometres on heart rate, eat at every aid station but leave inside 15 minutes, and ride Montemaggio at sub-threshold knowing the back 100km depend on it. The medal is wonderful, the wine is real, and the day is one of the great days in cycling.