I’ve just signed up to ride the Strade Bianchi Gran Fondo next year and wanted to see if anyone here has ridden it before and has equipment advice. I’ll be taking my Grevil with a 1x setup but keen to get tips on gearing and tire choices for this sort of gravel.
Hi Peter, I haven’t ridden the granfondo itself, but I have ridden a big chunk of the route on my Aeroad with 28mm tyres. So you’ll be more than fine with Grevil I guess
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I’ve ridden that fondo every year since it started. I’ve ridden it on an Open UP, Factor O2, Pinarello F10, and even a Cervélo R5 California with tubulars.
It’s the most champagne gravel you’re likely to ever see. It’s 100% a road bike course. It’s not rough enough to need an endurance bike, a race bike is fine. I personally run 28mm Conti GP5000s but would be just as happy on 30 or 32. You would still have an amazing day on 35s, but they’re definitely not needed.
But if you want to bring your Grevil by all means do that. It’ll be a lot of fun no matter what you ride. It’s just not really a gravel race, more like a road race on dirty roads.
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Just a note on gearing - there are some seriously steep climbs in it. You won’t regret lower gears. But the climbs aren’t long so you can grunt up them with whatever you have. I rode Monte Santamaria on my vintage race bike in the Eroica and managed to get up the 18% pitches on a 42x21 though I wouldn’t want to do it again.
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Thanks all, this is great. Maybe I’ll take my Aeroad instead of the Grevil then!
I rode it in 2024 and agree with everything others already wrote. Some paved parts of the course are rougher than “sterrati”.