An "I'm not worthy" moment

Valeriano Falsini.  Photo: Bob Freitas

The old gent that I met on Saturday morning is Valeriano Falsini, who was a team mate of Coppi's in 1951 & 1952. He is 78 years old.
Every January, he leads a ride to Coppi's birthplace at Castellania on the anniversary of Coppi's death.

On Saturday afternoon when we arrived at the Eroica registration/swapmeet/bike display, he was just inside the doorway of the hall, with his bike, photos from his racing days, and a book of his racing reminiscences.





Valeriano Falsini was not the only famous local boy in evidence.
A large display commemorated the achievements of sprinter Ferdinando Teruzzi, who won the Tandem Sprint at the 1948 Olympic Games.





The display and swapmeet spilled out of the hall into the yard outside, but the capacity of my saddlebag limited my acquisitions to a pair of souvenir wool shorts.
For those with greater load carrying capacity, there was no shortage of garb, racing memorabilia and high grade junque.

MORE PHOTOS at my Wool Jersey Gallery album.

Vintage Bianchi sighting

This morning I passed an Italian geezer, 70 years old if he was a day, on an early 50s Bianchi that could have belonged to Fausto Coppi.
We were climbing towards Gaiole on the road from Montevarchi, probably a 300m climb.
While I was twiddling in 32 x 21, he was in about 46 x 21, leaving the 24 sprocket in reserve.
Click HERE for video

I was on the road by 9am today, planning to ride up to Greve on some backroads, then back to Radda on the main road.
The ride started out downhill for a few kms, and cold- for the first time while I have been here. Both the topography and my body temperature soon reversed as the descent turned into a 3km, 15% climb. At the top I turned right instead of left as planned, which I only discovered when I had descended about 300m altitude and found myself in Castelnuovo del Sabbioni rather than on the road to Greve. I decided that this was no bad thing, since I would be back in Radda for lunch.

The Eroica program starts this afternoon, with a vintage bike display in the Gaiole gym, and a dinner. I will be surprised if I do not have a couple of hundred more bike photos before the day is out.

Tomorrow I'm doing the 135km ride with Courtney Johnson, a fit looking specimen from Minnesota. He's riding a very tidy Richard Sachs, with a truly manly 41 x 24 low gear.