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The first staging of L’Eroica Britannia – the "most handsome bike race in the world", staged annually in Tuscany – will take place in the Peak District, 22nd June 2014. The ride will be staged alongside a three-day festival of cycling.
"Come and join us on our Great British Adventure, three weeks before the Tour de France comes to the UK," invites the organiser of L’Eroica Britannia.
"We embrace the romantic idea of heroic cycling as it once was, placed alongside aspects of lifestyle, belonging and the Great British Countryside."
As at the original, 17-year old Italian event, only cyclists with "heroic" bicycles will be permitted to participate in the two longer rides. "Heroic" bicycles are defined as "road racing bikes, built before 1987, with gear shift levers on the down tube of the frame" although there’s an exception for "pre-1980 bar-end gear shifts."
There will be three routes to choose from: 30, 60 and 100 miles. The entry fee is £70, with a £15 discount for the first 500 entrants.
Corporate entries are available at £2,000, for up to 10 riders including branded race day jerseys complete with company logo.
For the 30 mile ride, other types of bicycles will be admitted, such as postmans’ bikes and other "municipal" bicycles so long as they have "vintage characteristics."
MTBers turn away now (unless you’re Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze or one of the other pioneers and have a pre-1985 clunker): "mountain bikes are excluded because they did not exist before 1985."
Paid your entry fee but turn up on a modern bike? Tough. "Any registered cyclist who arrives at the start line or is found on the course with a bicycle that does not conform to the rules and regulations of the event will be disqualified immediately."
L’Eroica Britannia is not a race it’s more of a period sportive and is run on "open paved and white gravel roads." In Tuscany, L’Eroica is run on the region’s famous strade bianchi, white roads.
The event is sponsored by Brooks England, Peak Cycle Hite, Pedal Peak and others.
