Meet, greet, and ride with Pedro.

I did what is called a meet and greet this morning for Dominick at Exclusive Italian Tours.  Basically I meet the client at the bike shop, make sure he or she is set up, and help them out of the city.  Today, the client, Pedro, wanted to have some more challenging routes than what Dom's standard service set him up for.  He was off to Radda to stay tonight, and is a 28 year old, very fit, cat 3 racer.  I devised a new route to get him to Radda with two additional climbs, and probably an additional 40k for the ride.  I tried to sell him on hiring me to guide him, but he said he was spending as much as he could for Dom's service which includes hotels and baggage transfers, and nice service.  I tried to talk him through a number of options and what I thought he should do, but in the end, decided to simply guide him for most of his ride, as it seemed the right thing to do.

I was taking a route that I enjoy riding, he was a very nice, happy, enthusiastic kid, and it just seemed I should do it.  Hopefully, this kind of thing repays itself with more business in the future, but regardless, it was a nice ride and I enjoyed his company.  Dom accompanied us to Osteria Nuova, around 1/3 the way up to San Donato in Collina.  Dom turned around, and we continued up to San Donato in Collina. I showed Pedro where the water supply was there, and that they looked similar in most towns.  I also told him how to ask where the fountain might be.

From San Donato, we enjoyed the descent to Le Valle, where we had a cafe.  In particular at the start of the descent, Pedro was whooping for joy.  At San Donato, we enjoyed the view, and Pedro was interested in trying to climb the mountains that are your dominant view there.  I explained to him the Vallambrosa ride, and after our cafe stop in Le Valle, we rode over to the small bridge then on the east side of the Arno.  After crossing the bridge, I explained that he would go a couple of kilometers to the left, then follow signs to Vallambrosa.  It is a cat 1 climb, and he was pretty keen on doing it.  We rode over on the east side of the Arno to the bridge to Incisa, where I found the new water source there.  We refilled bottles, then rode over to Figline, then started the climb to Passo de Sugame.  I left him just after Dudda, just below the top, and explained the route to Greve, where to eat there, and the remaining route to Radda.

I rode up to La Panca, then enjoyed the super descent to Strada.  At Strada in Chianti, I refilled water, and enjoyed a snack.  From  there, down the ridge to Grassina, over the bridge to Cinque Vie, then home on the viales.  A really fun few hours of riding.  The summary is:  47.4 miles in 3:12 riding time for an average speed of 14.8 mph with 3320 vertical feet climbed at a sun affected average temperature of 88.

Meet, greet, 2/3 of a tour with Pedro by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

Dominick and Pedro just before Osteria Nuova.