Fun in the sun to the North of the city.

I had a very slow morning today, with a big breakfast, and a nice couple of hours in the Centro with Emily.  After returning home, I cleaned and lubed the bike and took off for a short ride in the heat of the day.  The heat is backing off a little, and the average temperature for my ride was 92, which is not too bad considering I left home around 1:30.  I rode out through Piazza della Cure, then up one of the back ways to San Domenico.  I hooked up with the main road to Fiesole, and turned off toward Maiano.  It is a fun, fast descent, but I was very close to the worst crash in quite a while on the descent. I was coming around a totally blind corner, hidden by a wall on the side of the road, and around 15 feet into the corner, two cars were stopped trying to get by each other.  I hit the brakes as hard as possible, and got my front wheel between the cars, went forward with the front wheel locked, but held out my hand on one side and stopped falling forward holding on the the car on the right side.  Close, but any real problem was avoided.  I looked around after stopping and backing my bike out of the way, and I don't really know how I could have avoided this aside from riding very slow, which is not what I want to do.  I was lucky to be paying very close attention and to avoid any real problem.

Well, after that, I finished the descent to the start of the Vincigliata climb, and enjoyed the climb up to join the road toward Fiesole, then over to the main road to Croce alla Vetta.  At the top, I went over to Pratolino, which involves a little more climbing, then descending into Pratolino.  I branched off to get water at a beautiful fountain in the shade, which routed me over toward Monte Morello, but I turned back to Via Bolognese.  I descended Via Bolognese to San Bartolo, then went up and over to Cercina. I went over and up to the church at the top of the climb and picked the first option for the descent.  I had not done this one for a while, and it was fun.  Back down and over to above the Carregi complex, then back on the main roads to the apartment.  27.5 miles in 2:10 rolling time for an average speed of 12.7 mph with 2970 vertical feet climbed at an average temperature of 92.

Climbing and descending close to home. by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

On the road from Fiesole to Croce alla Vetta.

The water fountain in Pratolino with an awesome view in the background.