Fast Sunday morning ride with the team.

I had a great ride with a few members from the team this morning.  We met in Scandicci, and decided to do most of a ride I suggested, as the scheduled raduno did not get any of the 4 of us excited.  The other 3 guys were definitely some of the strongest riders on the team, and I was thinking it might work me pretty hard.  Well, it did.  I stayed with the group until the climb to Ortimino around 2/3 they way through the ride.  And on that climb, they only put around 5 minutes on me.  This has not happened to me lately, as I am one of the strongest climbers in particular, but when you get 3 of the 5 who are definitely stronger, it happens.  I really enjoyed it though, and got a very good training workout.

We rode out through Lastra a Signa to Montelupo, averaging around 40 kph, where normally a pretty quick pace for a group is 30 kph, so we were really moving pretty good.  In Montelupo, we found the connections to go through Sammontana and Villanuova, and surprisingly kept the pace close to the 40 kph mark.  We turned left on the road to Oritimino and Montespertoli, and quickly hooked up with another team on their ride.  The pace mellowed for a while to around 33 kph, which felt really good, but then as we approached the climb to Ortimino, the leaders picked up the speed, and it seemed like everyone but me climbed this piece in the big ring.  Davide waited for me after the turn off for Montespertoli, as we are pretty good about this on the team.

We continued to ride up to Montespertoli and a good pace for me, but did not see the other two on the team, who had stayed with the other group until Montespertoli, and the other group was gone.  We just continued moving, and descended to Bacciano, then climbed to Montagnana, where we took a little, around 5 minute, break.  Then the descent to Cerbia and the climb to Chiesa Nuova.  Davide had to hang back again to ride with me, and the other two added an extra 20 kilometers to the ride, so I did not see them again.  I would note that on all the climbs where I was dropped, I continued to pass a number of other riders, keeping my ego feeling ok.  From Chiesa Nuova, we headed down / across the ridge, then down into Scandicci, then powered back to Firenze.  Although the pace definitely challenged me, I really enjoyed the morning ride.  Thanks, ragazzi.  48.2 miles in 2:45 rolling time for an average speed of 17.6 mph with 2087 vertical feet climbed at a nice average temperature of 67.

Montelupo, Sammontana, Ortimino con squadra - fast! by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

Davide had to wait for me on the climb to Montespertoli.

Climbing to Chiesa Nuova, I tried to get a good shot of the belltower

in La Romola above the road.  You can see it if you really try.

On the last climb of the day, I tried for a picture while attempting to 

climb fast of these old stone wheels at Molino de Sugano.