Prima raduno of the year. Great team effort!

An early start, but a really nice tour today with the team on the first raduno of the year.  Each team in the area takes a Sunday from now until the end of October to host a raduno, an organized ride with all the area teams invited.  They are a very fun scene, and I would guess around 150 riders showed up for today's, the first of the year.  It was pretty well organized, but I was hoping for food at the controllo point, which was not there.  A pretty good pasta party and a bottle of spumante were at the finish, which was nice.

We had 14 from the team, and 12 did the long course, which was a very nice tour.  After the control point, around 2/3 the way through the ride, I left with 4 others to the finish, then waited at the finish for the other 9 to show up.  It was a really nice course with a fair amount of climbing, which I like.  We started off by going from Scandicci to Tavernuzze, then out the Greve road to the Luiano turn off.  The pace was fine out the basically flat road and we all stayed together to the first climb.  The first climb of course spit everything up, and we all regrouped at the top after a little wait.  We descended then climbed to Montefiridolfi, I think the steepest climb of the day.  We again waited in Montefiridolfi, then headed over to Sambuca, then climbed to San Donato.  I was third arriving there, but no one was waiting, so I continued riding over to Tavernelle, where I had a cafe with Paolo, while the three of us waited for the remainder of the team.

We got going again, and rode over to the control point in Marcialla.  They just took our tickets there and sent us on, so that was our last regrouping.  I basically rode with Luca and Paolo, but waited a little for the other Luca and Alessandro, then finished the ride with them.  We went over to Montespertoli, then back to Firenze through Montagnana, Cerbia, Chiesa Nuova, and Scandicci.  I hit a pretty big hole right before the turn off for Scandicci, and had a flat front tire.  Both Luca and Alessandro helped with the repair, and we were back on the road in less than five minutes.  We all got back together eventually at the finish, and enjoyed the pasta party and picked up our third place trophy for the team.  Fun ride!  60.3 miles in 3:48 tolling time for an average speed of 16.0 mph with 4134 vertical feet climbed at a sun effected temperature of 54.  It was nice to have the sun for most of the ride today.

Raduno - Luiano, Montefiridolfi, Tavernelle, Montespertoli, Firenze by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

A little portion of the scene at the start.  This is mostly our team

getting ready to start after registering.  

The riders in front of me on the way to the Luiano climb from

Tavernuzze.  A nice, civilized pace kept most of the large 

group, I would guess around 150 together to the first climb.

Lorenzo and Andrea try to take a bite out of the trophy for 

our good showing at the raduno.

After  the posed photo, a few from the squadra at the pasta

party.  Lorenzo with the trophy.