I went to this at the end of May, and took this Eddy Merckx Professional circa 1982, with a Campagnolo Victory Eroica spec set up (compact type).

It was good to bump into old friends, Eugenio Simoncini was in a bar so we had a Spritz…

Eugenio is the third generation of his family working in the family company building artisan frames in Tuscany. This ribbed / ‘stellar’ tubed model he silver brazed and finished in cromovelato…

This was his own bike, for the long route, and with an ‘Eroica’ set up…

I also bumped into Libero Colombini , a heroic Eroica veteran , with 12 long route rides under his belt…

I also bumped into Roberto, aka King Carube…

The Colnago stall was good, nice to see the guys. They were kind enough to give some lugs , and a Gilco tube…

The ride start on Sunday…

I chose the 150 km route, and 90 or so into it , I crashed on a gravel descent…

I got up and carried on, until I came by a man in a van on the road, who was kind enough to put what bandages he had on the wound. Then I carried on to the finish line…

When I finished I got the wound dressed by a kind ambulance crew…

The right side of the bars suffered a bit of gravel rash unfortunately, but I managed to polish out the brake lever scratches some time later…

My jersey handled the impact the most impressively. It was like nothing happened. I designed it as a Giro D’ Italia Maglia Rosa tribute, and it was made by 3M Caverni from Firenze. Available on pre-order…

Once I was bandaged up, I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon…