Beautiful tour with some teammates to watch the Tirreno Adriatico race come through.

What a fun day and tour today.  I decided yesterday afternoon to join some teammates to take a tour to watch the pro peleton from the Tirreno / Adridatico come by at the top of the only real climb of the day for them, at Poggio alle Croce.  We ended up with 6 of us, which is pretty good for a Friday.  The weather was again just perfect today.  We rode out through Grassina,  and Cappanuccia to San Polo, where we all filled water bottles.  The real climb to Poggio alla Croce was next, and it was really fun.  There was somewhere between little and no evidence that a big pro tour race was coming through in the next hour, which is totally different than when you watch the Giro.  The were a number of riders, both riding and waiting on the side of the road, but the numbers were maybe 1/10 th of what you would see for the Giro.

It was really kind of nice and low key.  The riders are all totally top flight, and the peleton was pretty big, I would guess around 150 riders.  When we reached the top and regrouped, we were able to hang with the race official who had a radio telling us the timing.  We had time to ride into town for some paninis to bring back to the top, which we did.  A break away group of 5 came first, and three of them sprinted away at the top for the extra points available.  Fun to watch the acceleration they can produce on a relatively steep climb.  After another 5 minutes, the whole peleton came by, which was awesome.  What a colorful site with all the pro kits and excellent riders.

A couple of impressions were that they are so smooth with their pedal motion it was cool.  Definitely something to work on always.  Also, there are so many vehicles associated with a pro race like this, around 40 motorcycles, probably around 50 team cars, and other associated vehicles.  Really cool and fun.  They were gone before you knew it, and all of us but Francesca decided to descend to Figline, then climb to La Panca, then cruise home through Strada.  Just a super fun day.  Again, a privilege to be here and enjoy the cycling community and culture.  Wow!  45.5 miles in 3:12 rolling time for an average speed of 14.2 mph with 3734 vertical feet climbed at a sun effected temperature of 74.  Che Bello!

Beautiful tour to Poggio alle Croce to watch the pro race. by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

Our group from the team starting the climb toward San Polo

on another simply perfect day for riding.

Awaiting the pro peleton - people looking downhill for the riders,

a few people up top, and probably around 

$100,000 worth of bikes lying there.

Here comes the peleton.

The colorful pro peleton.  So much fun to watch them fly by

with perfect form and a seemingly effortless pedal stroke.