For nine years, several hundred people have gathered every August in Eltville-Erbach to celebrate the festival of bicycle culture, the Eroica Germania. The highlight of the event is a group ride – not a race – on classic racing bikes under relatively medieval conditions: steel instead of carbon, a cumbersome gear system, rudimentary brakes, baskets instead of clips. 

Why do people voluntarily choose this seemingly cumbersome mode of transportation? What is the appeal of a bicycle that relies on muscle power instead of motor power, offers no weather protection, and has a miserable reputation among many other road users?

Uwe Buhrdorf, one of the organizers of the Eroica Germania, takes the audience on the day before the start of the 9th edition on a journey through the history of the Italian L’Eroica, which becomes the Eroica Germania in the Rheingau. This concerns the origins and philosophy of cycling and bike racing, bicycles as design objects, community and identity, the special connection to Riesling – and much more. Of course, there will also be historical racing bikes to see – and to touch.