Vintage cycling conquers the cities: Milan relaunches the Caffè Eroica race.

• Continuous growth
• The sociality of two wheels
• Sustainability and mobility

Cycling, after all, is about movement and competition, but always with a social dimension. It's rare to ride alone, and often the ride is accompanied by a stop at a restaurant, a delicious pasta dish, and a hearty glass of wine. This is also true of the Eroica di Gaiole, which, as always, accompanies the effort and the challenge with numerous refreshment stops featuring ribollita, tripe, beans, bread and olive oil, pecorino cheese, and Chianti.

L'Eroica itself has its roots in a bar. The inventor of the vintage event, Giancarlo Brocci, recalls how his love for cycling began among the tables of the Barrino, one of the centers of Gaiole's social life, where on Monday mornings he would read all the newspapers, from La Nazione to La Gazzetta, featuring Sunday's sporting exploits, which back then, in the 1960s, focused not only on football but also on two wheels, both motorized and, above all, pedal-powered. The era of the Coppi-Bartali duel was over, but Eroica cycling continued to spark discussion and divide the popular masses, with the Anquetils, Gimondis, and Merckxes, who inspired dreams with their rides on mostly Italian bikes. And in Tuscany, two wheels were an institution.

It was there, in the rooms next to his father's pump, that Brocci's passion for a romantic, black-and-white form of cycling was born, one marked by sweat and feats, by legs constantly on the pedals and expert hands fine-tuning wheels and gears, by frames adjusted the night before the race. It's the same cycling he revived in Gaiole and then replicated in Italy and around the world, like a celebration built around the insight that cycling—with its history and stories, its culture of hard work, its dirt roads, and its unique aesthetic—can inspire a different vision of sport, one that becomes a revitalization of local communities, of slow and human-scale tourism, of a life of toil and achievement.

"I believe that the Eroica brand's DNA embodies exactly all the values ​​any brand is looking for right now: sustainability, listening, well-being, giving back, and a sense of belonging. Giancarlo says that the Eroica belongs to no one, but to everyone, in the sense that it's an Italian heritage. I truly believe this," says Totaro, whose goal is to bring those same values ​​to the Eroica Cafés: "Those who come to us enter the Mecca of cycling, and are captivated by a history and an Italian spirit that are hard to find."

The restaurants therefore strive to embody those values: the Milanese venues house the private collection of historic Colnago bicycles, a universal symbol of the history of Italian design and sport. The cuisine is an expression of tradition and quality, made with select ingredients and traditional Italian recipes. At the same time, "employees must embrace the responsibility of conveying the brand through kindness, a welcoming attitude, and a willingness to help."

It may be a coincidence, but Caffè Eroica locations are never the result of chance: while the Barrino in Gaiole was next to a gas station, the Milanese location on Viale Tunisia replaced a car accessories shop and is located along the bike path, just a few dozen meters from Corso Buenos Aires, which has become a symbolic—and controversial—place for the new mobility in the Lombardy capital. Via Tabacchi, a short distance from Bocconi University, is next to the workshop of an auto electrician who is a great bicycle enthusiast, with a career as a racer, which his son also continued. The next location will be in the heart of the CityLife green area, an emblem of a more livable and human-scale Milan.

Business is poised to take off. This year, the contribution from the second Milanese location was limited, having arrived just before the summer, but it still allows the company to close the year with a turnover of over three and a half billion euros, compared to three billion last year, with "a double-digit EBITDA, very attractive by restaurant sector standards," Totaro comments. If the schedule is met, the opening of four to five new locations in 2026 will ensure business expansion.

That this is a truly unique model is also confirmed by its clientele, a good fifth of which are cyclists in uniform who gather here on Saturdays and Sundays before or after their weekend ride. A third are tourists, including foreigners, drawn by the history and word of mouth. The rest are locals and families, parents and kids, traditional patrons, drawn by the allure of the history of heroic cycling that permeates these venues, the hard work and the feats, ready to hop on two wheels themselves.