Fun raduno de San Casciano

A very early morning for me.  I was committed to doing this raduno with the team, and the weather appeared that it would cooperate.  I was up before 6, and on the road by 7 to get to the start location, San Casciano, at the meeting time of 8.  We had a pretty good turnout with 5 of us doing the long course and 3 doing the short course.  Lots of teams and people and a very well run race / tour, a marked difference from last week, when the raduno was very poorly run.  We started with a descent to Calzaiolo, then a slight descent through Bargino to Sambuca.  A few kilometers after Sambuca, we started climbing to just east of Tavernelle, where we turned right and rode to Tavernelle, then turned off to go up and over to Romita.  We rode from Romita over to Pancrazio on a ridge, a little up and down, and one of my favorite ridge rides.

The course was planned to go straight over to Montagnana, but the road was closed for repairs, and we detoured (well marked) down a steep shot (a warning sign said 17%) to Fornacette, joining a nice very very gradual descent to Boccaiano.  At Boccaiano, we climbed to Montagnana, then descended to Cerbia.  Right around Montagnana, a group of around 50 doing the raduno absolutely flew by us, with a person I know from the shop leading.  He is super strong, as I have tried to follow him before.  In Cerbia, we climbed to Chiesa Nuova, and ended up dropping a couple of people who were doing the short (corto) course.  We then did the slight climb back to San Casciano, and stopped at the start area for some food and drinks.  Many of the very fast group that passed us were stopping here, doing the corso corto.  We headed out after regrouping and a 5 minute rest, and did the same descent we started with.

Instead of continuing to Sambuca, we turned off to climb past Fabbricca, then hooked up with the hilly, very up and down, ride over to Quattro Strade.  We did our controllo there and got some water and food.  We waited a while there, as the steep ups and the distance was starting to show on a few of our riders.  After regrouping, we descended from Quattro Strade down past Castello Gabbiano to the Greve river road.  We headed down this road to Falciano, then climbed back up to San Casciano, the same climb I did coming to the meeting point in the morning.  A very fun, but relatively tiring day, especially after the 25 kilometers or so back to the apartment on the route I selected.  The summary is:  83.5 miles in 5:36 rolling time for an average speed of 14.9 mph with 5825 vertical feet of climbing at an average temperature of 52.   Ciao, a prossima.

Raduno - lots of fun, distance, and climbing. by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

A shot of the team on the road from Fornacette to Boccaiano.

The "controllo" where you give a person a little card with the team number on it.

Good refreshments after some up and down terrain, with some of the climbs

very steep.  The steepest was around 19% - ouch!

The team out in front of me in an action shot.  Looking good, team.

On the road between Fornacette and Baccaiano.