Sabado giro con Squadra - Vinci, San Bartono

I went on the first ride with the team in a while today, and my first time with the "kit".  We met at the Iliopesca, a fish market in the Scandicci area.  We started with 7, but had dropped one person by the time we were in Montelupo.  My experience is that if someone is slower, the group may go ahead, but someone will drop back to see if everyone is OK, and the group will wait at certain places.  Anyway, the first person must have decided early on that the pace was too fast and told Alessandro, who was back with him, that we should go on.  After Montelupo, an Australian guy who's name I have forgotten, decided the planned tour was longer than he wanted, and he split off before the first climb toward Vinci.  I was talking with him, and he seemed quite fit to me, but said that he was just getting back on his bike, and he did not want to do more than 70 k.

That left Riccardo, Alessandro, Moreno, Mathias (a Dutch rider and former pro racer, who is in Florence for 4 years to earn a PHD in history, and has just arrived a couple of weeks ago), and Me, the old man.  We had a beautiful tour.  We took a different route to Vinci from the Empoli area than I had in the past, which was quite a beautiful road and climb, as we dropped down into Vinci from the East.  I had ridden up to San Bartono once before, and today reinforced my thoughts that this is a great climb.  I did not check, but it felt like a 4% or so steady climb, and I know it goes for around 12k at that grade.  Anyway, beautiful morning, great climb, and I stayed with Alessandro and Moreno, as Riccardo and Mathias took off early on the climb.  It always amazes me how fast some people can climb.  The three of us were all in the big ring for the climb, so I would not say we were exactly slacking.

Riccardo had noticed that my seat seemed a little high from the action in my hips as I rode, so I lowered the seat at the top.  We descended a different route than the last time I was here, and it was really beautiful.  We descended to Lamporecchio, the Cerreto Guidi, then to Empoli.  Great, with a little climb in the middle.  We returned on mostly the same route we came out on to Lastra a Signa, then took a different route into town.  People peeled off as they were close to their houses, and I showed Mathias how to get to San Domenico, which is not too far from where we live.  Around 70 miles at an average moving speed around 17, which is pretty fast, at least for me.  Check out the details at the Garmin link - map, profile, temperature, speeds, etc.  Sorry, no pictures today, as we stayed in motion almost all the time.  Ciao!

Sabado giro con Squadra - Vinci, San Bartono by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details