Great long ride to Pinone, Montelupo, then Ortimino.

I planned a relatively long day today, and basically stayed with the plan.  I started later than I thought, but my afternoon commitment was cancelled, so it was fine.  I did a couple of errands for Emily, as she needed some different supplies, as Viola was home sick adding to her babysitting load.  I did a nice ride combining a couple of favorites - one relatively new and one a standard to the southwest.  I rode out through the Cascine again, then over to Signa.  I branched off in Signa to climb to Comeana, Serra, then Carmignano.  These are very nice, quiet, gently climbing roads and are a pleasure to ride.

After Carmignano, the road gradually gets steeper until it is around 8% to Pinone.  A nice, kind of challenging climb.  I stopped for a cafe and crostata at the little bar / restaurant at the top, then headed down.  The last time I was up here was with the team and we climbed from Vitolini, but descended on this nice little road to Limite.  I did this descent again today and it is a blast.  There are a few places where 3 or 4 switchbacks combine to almost make it feel like powder skiing.  Back on the flats in Limite, then powering over to Montelupo where I refreshed my water.  Then off on the tiny roads through Samontanna and Villanuova to the main road to Ortimino.  Fun riding, and the Ortimino climb is nice in that it is quite gradual in a river valley, then eventually breaks off from the valley and climbs to a ridge.  So, the grade sneaks up on you until it is around 6%.  The ridge ride to Montespertoli continues the climb, although with a couple of exceptions it is a totally mellow grade.

A nice descent from Montespertoli, followed by the climb to Montagnana.  Another descent to Cerbia, then the standard climb to Chiesa Nuova.  I almost always get water here, as it is really tasty, cool, and fresh.  Then today it was over to the Galluzzo switchbacks, always fun, although today I caught up with some slow traffic around 2/3 of the way down and had to mellow out my pace.  From Galluzzo, the nice cool down to Cinque Vie, the two little climbs then descent to the Viale, then the power cruise home.  Super fun ride.  61.0 miles in 4:06 rolling time for an average speed of 14.8 mph with 3537 vertical feet climbed at an average temperature of 75.  Sweet!

Nice long ride to the West and Southwest. by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

I thought the road was so pretty climbing to Pinone, that

I had to take a couple of pictures.

What a pretty, fun climb to Pinone.

if you look hard, you can see a tree lined approach to a villa 

on the ridge in the background.  

The vineyards West of Samontanna in full fall color.  Che bella!