Nice solo ride with beautiful spring weather - finally!

I got up to meet a pretty regular group at Le Due Route, but I was a little late and no one was there.  The three people I know who normally do this ride were all busy with other things, which I found out later.  I was totally happy going out solo, and kind of hoped this would happen.  I had a ride in mind with the nice weather.  The weather predictions are finally showing real spring, with a vast majority of days not showing rain - hooray!

I took of from the shop and caught a bridge over the Arno, then rode out to Bagno a Ripoli.  From there, I climbed through Osteria Nuova, to San Donato in Collina.  Then a great descent, one of my favorites through Troghi, Cellai, Pallazuollo, to Incisa.  You ride along the Arno to Figline, and eventually hook up with the climb to the Passo de Sugame, which takes you over to Greve.  About 3/4 of the way up, there is a little town called Dudda, where I stopped for a cafe machiato.  I had stopped here a little over a month ago, when I was previewing the gran fondo course and took a wrong turn.  That day I was pretty cold, and relatively tired, and it was a great warm up and energy.  Today, it was just as nice, the people were very warm and welcoming, but I ordered my machiato, and took it out to sit in the sun on a bench, which was great.  Bench surfing in Dudda, Tuscany, sweet.

You continue climbing for a kilometer or so, then turn off toward La Panca, which gives you a short descent followed by 400 vertical feet or so of climbing to the town.  It is a beautiful road, almost no traffic, and a gentle climb.  What more could you ask for.  After La Panca, there is a wonderful descent to the road to Strada in Chianti, which is a favorite of mine.  You have to do a little climbing to get to Strada, then you have around 8 kilometers of a ridge road before a descent to Grassina.  At Grassina, I hook up with the Cinque Vie road, then up and over to the viale at Piazza Ferruci.  From there it is 5 k or so back to the apartment.  The summary is:  44.6 miles in 3:18 rolling time for an average speed of 13.5 mph with 3250 vertical feet of climbing at and average (sun effected) temperature of 62.  Sweet!

Beautiful morning, solo after trying to hook up at Le Due Ruote by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

A church up on a small hill I had never noticed before,

on the climb to La Panca.

Some beautiful purple flowers on the climb from 

Figline to Dudda.

An explosion of yellow flowers below a county villa 

on the climb to La Panca.

The bar where I had my mid ride cafe machiato

in the tiny town of Dudda.  I love this place!