After a nice, slow start to the day, I did a fair amount of paperwork / errands, mostly for the resolution of my Mother's estate. Small things do take some time from Italy, but, Skype is my savior, as it is basically like having a phone in the US to use. So, I was off around 12:30 for a ride to the South, which when I am doing shorter rides, I tend to ignore. So, I had not been over here for a little while, and rode out through Piazzale Michaelangelo on the Viale to the Poggio Imperiale climb. From Poggio Imperiale, I went up / down to Galluzzo, then over toward the start of the Pozzolatico climb, but turned off on the small road to Cinque Vie before the climb started. This is a nice road, basically flat, small and not very busy. At Cinque Vie, I cut under the highway, then started the back road climb to San Gersole, through Vacciano. I love this climb. I almost never see any cars, and with a couple of stretches at around 12%, it is hard, but not too hard.
From San Gersole, I went over to the Pozzolatico / Impruneta road, and finished the climb to Impruneta. Nice, relatively easy climb. I rode through Impruneta and turned off for Ferrone. The sign is totally hard to see, but I remembered the piazza where the turn is. I took this road, and ended up on a different spur than the last time I took this route. Actually, the road was much more major than the alternate way, but is pretty darn steep, fine for a descent. I ended up just on the North side of Ferrone and had a couple of kilometers to ride back toward Tavernuzze to get to my next turn. I turned to climb up past Luiano to the Metcatale / San Casciano road. I road up and over to San Casciano, then through Spedellatto, Chiesa Nuova, then down the sweet switchbacks to Galluzzo. On the descent, I had perfect timing, as I caught a car at the end of the last turn when the car speeded up and did not make me slow down.
From Galluzzo I rode back in the main route taking the great, curvy route from Poggio Imperiale to Porta Romano. You can get it going pretty fast by pedalling hard at the start, then the curves are so well engineered that you don't need to adjust in the curves or touch the brakes, just rocket down the road. From Porta Romano home through the city center and Piazza de Duomo. Lots of fun, but surprisingly tiring. The summary is: 37 miles in 2:54 rolling time for an average speed of 12.7 mph, with 2670 vertical feet climbed at an average temperature of 49 degrees F. The garmin link is:
Here are a couple of shots of the tiny town of Vacciano, on one of my climbs today.
I could not decide which was better, so included them both.
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