In true fashion, it takes nine people to put the clock up, seven of those help verbally. Now we can see the time we can see that it is late and that everyone should get started. Don’t tell the riders that have already filtered off though, getting their first stamp of the day and spinning away into the darkness.

It might be dark o’clock but the small Tuscan town of Gaiole in Chianti is brimming with woolen jerseys, shiny spokes and nervous anticipation for the day’s ride through the full 209km L’Eroica route.

Pushing his glasses back up with one finger his eyes scan the bikes walked past and funneled through to the two official tables. It is Claudio’s task that is of the highest; “I am looking for the respect of the rules,” allowing himself a quick acknowledging glance over to me. “It is very simple, the cable is external of the brake levers,” making an arc with his hands, “the gear levers are….old style, “his right hand mimicking changing down tube gear levers “and no,“ his hands signaling stop, “absolutely no quick release pedals.” 

The L’Eroica rules are defined, are fairly simple, and maybe slightly skewed depending on your history. The ideology is that all bikes must be of pre-1987 spec, the time deemed when carbon and clipless started to infiltrate the peloton. There is some official lenience, Claudio admitting that Cinelli M71’s are accepted, and that the Alan style aluminum bonded tubes are also allowed to pass (both valid as they are both pre-87), but he is still stringent on the spoke count (minimum of 32, and the rim must have a low profile) and that the saddle conforms to the pre-’87 spec too; “it is for the realness… for the respect.”

Our conversation stops abruptly as he shouts over to one of the riders, pointing at his bars. His brake cables are routed under the bar tape, Claudio stating that he simply cannot start like that. A solution is found, a Stanley passed through the crowd, the rider watching helplessly as another hacks through his tape to drag out the cables enough to satisfy Claudio, the sliced bar tape rewrapped with Cellotape passed through the crowd from the stamping table, the rider now allowed through.

He doesn’t leave his post until the last of the riders pass through, nearly 7000 heading off over the famed strade bianche to ‘rediscover the beauty of fatigue and the thrill of the conquest’ as race creator Giancarlo Brocci so poetically describes. But after spending time with Claudio, I feel it is also to rediscover the beauty of those builds and to spread the word that you don’t need the latest new everything to get the stoke of riding a bicycle.