Riding with Cosimo, custom cycling tours in Tuscany: Close in Chianti ride with many ups and downs.

The camera was fully charged and worked well. The garmin unit worked fine on the ride and downloaded fine. I don't really understand what happened with it yesterday, but thankfully, it was fine today. I have to admit, I am starting to get really into checking Strava to see how my segment times compare with other times I have done the ride. I did get my new Permesso de Soggiorno yesterday, and it is good for 2 full years. Hooray! I was a little worried that I had some bad karma going with the other glitches yesterday. When I returned home from the 2 plus hour trip to the Questura to simply pick up the new card, I broke in the very cool mug that we all received when we finished the Firenze / Modena on Sunday.

Today, I decided to do a bunch of close in favorites to the south in the Chianti area. I am thinking longer tomorrow, perhaps Radda and Cassellina, but we shall see. I started by climbing the Viale to Poggio Imperiale, then descending to Galluzzo. I took the nice, little road over to Cinque Vie, then did the climb through Vacciano to San Gersole. I then hooked up with the main road to Imprunetta, continued climbing through Mezzomonte, and Monte Oriolo, then cut off before Imprunetta to descend through Baruffi to just North of Tavernuzze. I took the main road through Tavernuzze, Falciani, then turned off for the Luiano climb just before Ferrone. What a great climb and road - it never dissapoints. At the top of the climb, I jogged a 100 meters or so on the main road, then turned off to take the descent, the climb to Montefiridolfi. Another great road.

I decided not to stop in Montefiridolfi for a cafe, and rode the ridge over through Bibbione, then descended into the valley below, and hooked up with the main road. I took this over to the turn off for San Pancrazio, and stopped in Ponte Rotto for a cafe at one of my favorite spots. Well, I found out they are closed on Wednesdays, so no cafe today. I did not really need it anyway. From Ponterotto, I did the wonderful climb to San Pancrazio, then along the ridge through San Quirico, turning off to take the detour through La Ripa, then over to Cerbia. From Cerbia, up to Chiesa Nuova, then over / down to the Scandicci turn off, then the fun descent into Scandicci. I took the main road back to the big roundabout, then hooked up with the Viale and returned home.

Another great ride. The summary is: 52.7 miles in 3:42 rolling time for an average speed of 14.2 mph with 3810 vertical feet of climbing at a sun affected temperature of 82. It will be interesting to see what the sun affected temperatures are when it gets hot. Today the ambient temperature in the shade when I returned was 70. Today, you can check the Garmin link for all the info. Ciao.

Close in Chianti - San Gersole, Tavernuzze, Luiano, Montefiridolfi, San Pan by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details