Cercina quick ride on an errand filled day

Today, I was planning on riding with the team in the morning, but I overslept, which almost never happens to me.  So, when I got up, I had 15 minutes until I would need to leave and it was raining lightly.  So, no way.  I had a leisurely breakfast, read a great article about the Grateful Dead that Ben had sent me from the New Yorker, cleaned the apartment, and spent a couple of hours catching up with the remainder of the Italian lessons I missed while in Denver.  The sun came out, and a quick ride beckoned.

Although the sun was short lived, I had a wonderful ride.  This almost always is the result when I get off my ass and motivate.  I rode up Via Bolognese to the turn off in Pian de San Bartolo, then contoured / climbed to Cercina, then the church above Cercina and took the right branch for the super fun descent.  The sun came back out, and it was really beautiful.  As the bottom, I rode past the Carrieggi complex, then took the cut off, which is actually a bit longer, but keeps you off any main roads back to Via Bolognese.  I took one different turn than normal, and I was back on Via Bolognese, where I descended a very short amount then turned off on Via de Bardi, which I had walked recently, and brings you down to Via Faentina just prior to the Sotto Passeggiatta, which I took and was back home.  The summary is:  14.3 miles with 1700 vertical feet of climbing in a rolling time of 1:22 for an average speed of 11.5 mph.  Check out the map and details below if you wish.  Ciao.

Cercina quick ride on an errand filled day by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

A little grey and cloudy, but a joy to ride.

I thought the sky was particularly pretty around Cercina 

where I took these two pictures.