Sette Ponte with Dom and Le Due Ruote.

I am guiding a tour for another operator in early July, Dom, and he wanted to get together to ride and talk about the business and the tour.  We met at Le Due Ruote, and there was a pretty good showing from the team for the ride.  We started by going out to Pontesieve at a pretty reasonable pace, and Dom and I had most of our discussion then.  Dom has a good touring company, of which cycling tours are only a portion.  There are many future prospects, so, hopefully a good discussion for both of us.  For the July tour, I either need to go with Dom or by myself to preview the route and find the vineyard where we will have a tasting and a tour.  After my return from Scotland and my busy 5 days.

After Pontesieve, we followed the road on the east side of the river all the way over to the turn off for Mattissino.  The pace ramped up all the way from Pontesieve, and we were riding at what I consider a pretty good pace for a slight uphill most of the way, exceeding 35kph most of the time.  We turned off, and I did not really know where we were going, so I simply followed.  With a road closure changing what must have been the plan, we headed up to Castelfranco, then rode the sette ponte route to Reggello.  Super fun.  The whole group really pushed the pace, and it was great to do this wonderful stretch of road with a group of 7 pretty much hauling.  At Reggello, Dom and I stopped for a cafe and some water while the remainder of the group kept on going, at least in the direction of straight back down to the river road.

Dom and I had a nice cafe, then decided to ride at a mellower pace, but go over to Donnini, then climb to Tosi.  I had forgotten how much downhill there is between Reggello and Donnini, but there is quite a bit and it was fun.  In Donnini, we started the real climb to Tosi, one of my favorites, as the steepest part is first, then it mellows out to Tosi.  From Tosi, a great descent through Pelago, with a slight uphill into Pelago, then hooking up with the Consuma road and continuing the descent to Pontesieve.  We started down the main road from Pontesieve, but turned off and crossed the river to return to town on the other side, which turned out to be pretty fun.  Back into town, and home.

Another great ride.  I enjoyed a different group, although I did not really try to do much communication with them.  At the end, before Dom turned off we compared data on our Garmin units.  He had 1450 meters of climbing, while mine had 1060 meters of climbing.  Interesting.  I am thinking his may be more accurate due to the under recording of the 3200 meters of climbing on the Firenze / Modena course, which being a Giro route, is a known commodity.  Ride summary is:  66 miles in 4:04 rolling time for an average speed of 16.2 mph with 3510 vertical feet of climbing (my garmin's total) at an average sun affected temperature of 73.  Great day!

Sette ponte with Dom and Le Due Ruote by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

A picture of the group in front of me leaving Castelfranco,

starting the super fun sette ponte portion of the ride.