Lauren Hefferon
Lauren has been a devoted cyclist since she was a teenager, long before it became popular, accessible, or fashionable. While in high school in Southern NH, Lauren discovered her passion for pedaling after a serious ski injury prevented her from downhill ski racing and playing many team sports. She decided that bicycling was the best way to satisfy her craving for fitness and activity, and it offered the added bonus of soothing her growing wanderlust and yearning to explore and learn about her world. Along the way, she decided that somehow cycling would remain at the “hub” of her life and serve as the spark for a life of adventure.
By the time she graduated from high school, Lauren had ridden and scouted out every road within a 50-mile radius of her home in Keene, NH. After high school, she took her first bike-camping tour to Nova Scotia, and upon entering Cornell (which she chose as much for its gorgeous Finger Lakes cycling as for its academics), she helped design and guide bike tours for Cornell’s Outdoor Education freshman orientation program. After returning from six weeks in the Wind Rivers with National Outdoor Leadership School, she was sold on a serendipitous “roll” that would integrate outdoor education with her anthropology degree.
After graduating in anthropology from Cornell University, Lauren Hefferon spent the summer on a solo bicycle trip to search out her roots in Italy’s Le Marche region. She was welcomed by her mother’s Fracassini cousins in Genga (the inspiration for our Bike Across Italy tour) and explored as much of Europe as possible on two wheels. Her European cycling journey ended when she arrived in Florence on a Rotary Scholarship, where she studied fine arts by day and, in the afternoons, explored the roads of Tuscany with a newfound tribe of (pazzi) Italian cyclists who remain her Florentine Famiglia.
After three years in Florence, working, attending school, scouting, and leading bicycle trips for teenagers through Camp Interlocken, she returned to New England, earned a degree in Graphic Design at Mass Art, and, upon graduation, decided to follow her entrepreneurial instincts and launched Ciclismo Classico. The company name and its pedaling rooster mascot are inspired by the Chianti Classico vineyards of Tuscany. She founded Ciclismo Classico in 1988 as a blend of her passions for cycling, photography, graphic design (she art directs all Ciclismo branding), and experiential education. She still drives the company’s visionary aspects, from itinerary design and tour leader training to marketing and company strategy. Her most satisfying moments are still cycling side by side with her guests and sharing her infectious love of bicycle travel.
Lauren is considered a pioneer in adventure and educational travel and has served as an advisor to the Adventure Travel World Summit, a panelist at the annual National Bike Summit Panel on Tourism, and has founded the annual Ciclismo Classico Bike Travel Film Festival.
Under Hefferon’s leadership, Ciclismo Classico has blossomed into one of the top companies in the adventure travel industry, garnering awards from Outside magazine and National Geographic Traveler, and being named one of Boston’s top 100 woman-Led businesses three years running.
Hefferon has been profiled by Entrepreneur magazine, and her tours have been featured in an array of media outlets, ranging from USA Today and The Wall Street Journal to Bicycling, CNN.com, and Forbes.
As a specialized boutique bicycle tour operator since 1988, Ciclismo Classico offers the most authentic, distinctive, and culturally immersive vacations in the adventure travel world. Its award-winning educational trips in Europe offer immersive experiences in local art, language, music, folklore, and cuisine. By combining legendary service with rare cultural experiences, the Ciclismo Classico travel experience continues to energize and transform every guest’s life.
