Castellina in Chianti con squadra.

I was up early for a ride with the team this morning.  Only 4 of us showed up, as most likely people have specific plans with the Giro coming to Florence tomorrow.  I have clients to take out and ride / view the Giro, but I know many of the team will do a great ride tomorrow and see the Giro pass in two places.  Anyway, we waited until around 8:10 in Tavernuzze, then took off.  We made pretty good time with a pace line of 4 to Greve.  We climbed to Panzano from Greve, and the group broke up.  Terenzio and Chris dropped me, and I dropped Leonardo.  I did have a personal best by a couple of minutes on the climb, so I give myself an atta boy.

From Panzano, we descended together to a valley, then did a fairly long climb to Castellina.  The same climbing order happened, but on this climb an Italian out riding solo rode with me the whole climb, then turned off for Radda.  I managed to communicate with him, although he spoke no English.  We rode into Castellina and found a bar for a cafe.  This felt very good, and with cafe and pastries taken in, we set off for our return.  We had to climb out of Castellina, then had a long gradual descent down a ridge to San Donato in Poggio, then continued descending to Sambuca.  Here, we rode along a valley bottom, more or less, doing a gradual descent with some hills added in until the climb to San Casciano. The same grouping happened again on the climb, and I again made a personal best, this time by close to three minutes.  Yes, Strava is dangerous, but probably good for my overall conditioning.

In San Casciano, we regrouped, and Chris and Terenzio decided to add on 40 kilometers or so by riding down from Chiesa Nuova and over to Montelupo before returning.  Leonardo and I continued through Chiesa Nuova then down to Galluzzo where we split up.  I returned by riding the Cinque Vie route to the viales, then home.  Great day, great ride.  The summary is:  66 miles in 4:00 for an average speed of 16.5 mph with 4170 vertical feet climbed at an average temperature of 67.  Sweet.  A prossima.

Greve, Casellina, San Donato, San Casciano con squadra by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

Our return route awaits in Castellina in Chianti.

The squadra this morning at the bar where we had

cafe and pastries in Castellina in Chianti.