Saturday, October 6, 2012

Con Squadra - Illiopesca, Montelupo, toward Empoli, Castelfiorentina, Montespertoli, Chiesa Nuova, Firenze

I had a wonderful ride this morning with the team.  We met at Illiopesca, and I was over 10 minutes early today, after being 8 minutes late last weekend and missing the crew.  We started with 6 and headed out the back way to Signa a Lastra, then on the beautiful road by the river to Montelupo.  The weather this morning started out foggy (nevuloso), and stayed foggy / misty for a while.  The landscape was shrouded in misty clouds until it cleared, which was a few hours into the ride.  Really beautiful, and fun to explore new places in this weather.  From Montelupo, the new roads began for me.  I am told this is a more typical ride for the team in the winter, as you don't gain a lot of net altitude.  We rode small back roads, curvy, but mostly flat, to Sammontana, through Villa nuova, to Pozzale, then turned toward Empoli, dropping off Moreno there.  He is the only one in my age group, although I think he is 8 or so years younger than I.

From Empoli, we continued on nice relatively flat country roads, then climbed to Monterappoli, which was a great climb - not too steep, and not too long.  We then continued along a beautiful ridge, gradually descending to the valley that after another 10 kilometers takes you to Castelfiorentina.  From there, we did our biggest climb of the day to Montespertoli, and I had been on portions of this road before.  After Montespertoli, we road down to Bacciano, then up to Montagana, then down to Cerbia, then up to Chiesa Nuova, then over and down to Scandicci, eventually completing the loop.  I then took off back home.  A really fun ride.  I love exploring new roads, and having the team makes it easy.  Check out the details on the link.  Almost 60 miles, around 2600 vertical, average rolling speed close to 16 mph - fast for this old man.  Ciao.  (Sorry, no pictures, as the team rolls along pretty quick)

Con Squadra - Illiopesca, Montelupo, toward Empoli, Castellina Fiorentina by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

No comments:

Post a Comment