The white roads

The strade bianche are the unsealed white-gravel roads that lace the hills between Gaiole, Radda and Castelnuovo. They were simply the roads, until asphalt arrived and left them behind. Then in 1997 a few people in Gaiole decided to ride the old routes on old bicycles, and L'Eroica turned the region's neglect into its signature.

The riding is genuinely hard. Loose surfaces, long climbs, and dust that gets into everything in August. It is also the best cycling in Tuscany, because the gravel goes where the cars do not — past Brolio, through Castagnoli, over ridges where you can see three castles at once.

You do not need a vintage steel bike. Anything with tyres over 32mm and low gearing will do. What you do need is to start early: the climbs are unshaded and the valley holds heat well into the evening.

For navigation, use komoot or the official waymarked network — they have the traces, the elevation and the surface data, and they are corrected constantly by people riding them. We are not going to pretend to do that better.

What we can tell you is which stretch is worth your Sunday, where the gravel turns rough after rain, and that the right way to end a ride from Gaiole is a table at La Gorgia and something cold.