Riding with Cosimo, custom cycling tours in Tuscany: Day 2 with Roger

The weather report for today was not good, but it ended up fine. I planned the ride to allow us multiple points to cut things short or turn back, but none of the above happened. We only had a half hour or so of real rain. I met Roger at his hotel in Piazza Santa Spirito at 10, a perfect time to get started, after all he is on vacation. We rode back through the center of town, and past my apartment, then over through Piazza della Cure, then up one of the back roads to San Domenico. We hooked up with the main Fiesole route, then turned off to descend through Maiano to the Chiesa San Martino. Here we started the Vincigliata climb. I told Roger that it continued up for a while with few turn offs, and he decided to go for it. He is a super strong rider, and he dropped me like I was standing still, and it was a personal best for me for this climb on Strava.

He came back down from the top and we rode together to the right turn then over to the road above Fiesole. We rode up the very nice, mellow road to the turn off for Sieci, descended hard and fast to the turn off for Santa Brigida, then over through Santa Brigida (getting water), Fornello, Doccia, then to the Molino de Vento. We descended down to Rufina which is a wonderful descent. At this point, it really looked like it might be clearing, and we enjoyed an hour or so of something approaching sunshine. From Rufina, we turned left and headed up the main road toward Scopeti, and turned off for the climb to Borselli before Scopeti. I had decided on this climb as it gave us some additional distance and was a more difficult climb than my normal climb to Diacetto. The climb was around 2400 vertical, and the first 1500 vertical is pretty relentless at around 10 to 12%. Again, I gave Roger the scoop on the route, and he took off.

I enjoyed my climb, but was admitting to myself that I was getting pretty tired. Roger doubled back down from the top and we rode the last 2 kilometers of the climb together. At Borselli, I got a quick snack, and we found a couple of water hydrants, but they were not working. We descended to Diacetto on the main road, then turned off to return to Rufina on the route I usually climb. It is a fun descent, but the road is a little rough, which works better on a climb than a descent. It started really raining hard at Diacetto, and I stopped to put on my rain pants and riding hat under my helmet. We descended to Rufina, then went over to the tiny road on the west side of the Sieve that we call the "Pope's road". It is a fun ride to Pontesieve with a few difficult climbs. In Pontesieve, I navigated us to the main road, and we took turns leading back to Firenze.

I got us back to Piazza Santa Spirito, where we were both very hungry and had plates of pasta "carratiere" at Borgo Antico, which hit the spot. 10:00 tomorrow at the same spot. Summary for today is: 65.2 miles in 5:13 rolling time for an average speed of 12.5 mph with 5870 vertical feet climbed at a nice average temperature of 65. Not too much rain, and a fun but tiring day. Ciao.

Day 2 with Roger - another great day - Borselli. by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

Riding through town to get started, we rode though

Piazza de Duomo, and Roger wanted a picture.