Oro Strade Bianche

We are in the midst of a wonderful Indian Summer. It is early October. L’Eroica riders are pedaling their vintage bikes over hallowed roads in Tuscany, and it is time to refine our handling skills on familiar and unfamiliar gravel roads around the Upper Left Hand Corner.

In the past we’ve written about the Glories of Gravel in Jo Daviess County, but this week, we stick closer to home. We discover that gravel roads take on the personality of their caretakers—the township road commissioners who maintain them.

These surfaces can very greatly given the material used and the attention given. A finer grade of top limestone can pack in nicely and be very tame indeed. We even rode our old ‘83’ Trek 760 East on Lamb Road to Farwell Bridge Road. We returned to Freeport on Maize Road and had an easy time of it with 700 x 23 Vittoria Rubino Pro tires. The Rubino Pros look more like a 25 diameter tire. They are very quiet, grip well, and are extremely tough—a good road tire on well maintained oro strade bianche.

We had an entirely different experience along Block, Silberman, Raders and Heitter Roads. The size of the gravel material is simply too large and has not compacted even months after the top surface was laid down in the Spring. These roads were barely passible on my cyclo cross bike and would have been a chore even on a my Trek 7000 mountain bike.

The township commissioner responsible for those roads is either unfamiliar with how to prepare and maintain a gravel road surface or just plain stubborn and sadistic—maybe both.

Nevertheless, we continue to ride our oro strade bianche (golden white roads), because they are sparsely travelled and scenic. Also, we can capture a bit of the heroic of L’Eroica right here in the Upper Left Hand Corner of Illinois.