Sad Sunday morning with the team. Moreno crashed yesterday and is in the hospital.

A cold, foggy morning, but off to meet the team anyway.  Checking the internet this morning, I found out that a couple of the team members had crashed yesterday and one was hurt pretty badly.  Moreno is in the hospital with 2 broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a broken femur, and a head injury.  He is the only team member who rides without a helmet, so I hope his head is ok.  On the way back to town today, we stopped in to visit, and he looked pretty banged up, but was smiling to see us, although we were allowed in only one at a time.  I was cautious to say the least on the ride, and will keep it in mind in the future.  I love going fast, and want to have fun, but also want to do it without any real injury for a long time, hopefully into old age.

We took off toward Lastra, but stopped to meet some other team on the way.  Eventually, we all hooked up, but a few of us were a little cold from waiting, so were happy when the tour started again.  By the time we got to Lastra, we had lost 5 or 6 of the overall group and were down to 5.  We continued, and as I don't really understand the rapid fire Italian, I just stayed with the group I was with and was happy with the tour we did.  We climbed from Lastra over the little pass to Ginestra, then rode over and up to Montespertoli.  We regrouped in Montespertoli and were down to 4, but continued on down along the ridge to Artimino, always a fun ride, although I rarely do it in this direction.  From Artimino, we continued down to the valley, the down the valley to turn on the road for Sammontana.  Again, a different direction for me, but nice.

As we left the Arno river valley at the start, we climbed into sunshine from fog, and the temperatures got warmer.  We rode from Sammontana back to Montelupo, then down the Valley to Cerbia.  Climbing to Chiesa Nuova, we hooked back up with 4 of the people we lost on the way to Lastra, and rode with them to Scandicci.  As I said before, a few of us stopped to visit Moreno in the hospital, then I rode home.  52.0 miles in 3:13 rolling time for an average speed of 16.2 mph with 2365 vertical feet climbed at an average temperature of 46.

Lastra, Ginestra, Montespertoli, Artimino, Sammontana, Cerbia, Cheisa Nuova by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

The guys in front of me on the ridge ride to Artimino.

You can kind of see the view from the ridge ride to Artimino

from Montespertoli.  I took the picture riding quite quickly, 

so that is my excuse.