Interesting weather, but fun to get out. Love the riding here!

Tomorrow is the first Raduno of the year with the team, so I planned a shorter ride today.  Good thing, as it either rain or sprinkled until around 12:30.  This was pretty much in line with the weather forecast, which made me trust the forecast for the remainder of the day, which was cloudy, but dry.  Oh well, as a former neighbor of mine used to say, "what's the problem, do you think you will melt?".  Well, I certainly did not melt, but I certainly got a little wet.  Kind of a strange ride today, as it only really spit rain during two different sections of the ride, leaving Florence and returning.  The interesting thing is that the roads  were at their driest when I was in the rain showers.  The rain showers stopped as I started the climb on Via Carota, but the roads also turned totally wet.

Whatever, for me it always makes me happy to get out there.  I love the Via Carota climb, and the climb to San Donato in Collina is a sweet continuation of the climb from Ponte a Ema.  Great descent, although a little slow with the soaking wet roads, to the turn off in Cellai.  The route to Bombone starts with a short but steep climb, then it is simply a wonderful 8 kilometers or so of totally back roads.  Mostly there is more climbing, but only steep in a couple of short spots.  In Bombone, you connect with a more main road, then basically descend to Rosano.  Again, caution due to the very wet roads, but lots of fun anyway.  From Rosano, over the bridge to Pontasieve, then the power crank home.  Today, a really nice tail wind from Rosano all the way in.  Makes one feel very fast.  33.3 miles in 2:19 rolling time for an average speed of 14.3 mph with 2119 vertical feet climbed at an average temperature of 50.

Via Carota, San Donato, Cellai, Bombone, Rosano, Firenze by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

Dark skies, but green and beautiful.

All this rain makes it super green out there.

Beautiful even on a very gray and slightly rainy day.

I love this little connector road between Rignano and Cellai.

This is about as bright as it got out there today, approaching 

the little town of Bombone.