Team of two ride on a rainy, cloudy morning.

Team ride this morning, and as I have my first tour for Florence by Bike tomorrow, I wanted to get out with the squadra today.  The weather was not very cooperative, and I did not expect anyone to be at the meeting point when I left home, as it was sprinkling very lightly.  The forecast was for clearing skies and the rain to stop, so I went for it.  Davide was there, and we waited a little and took off, thinking if it really rained we would simply do a shorter tour.  It actually started raining right as we left, but not hard, and it pretty much stopped 1/2 hour into the ride.  The roads were totally wet though, and for me, it made following someone very sloppy.  Sometimes I hung in there, other times, I just held back enough not to get the tire spray from Davide in my face.  

The weather got better as we rode, although it was quite dark and a little cold.  We rode out to Montelupo, and decided to continue through Samontanna then over and up to Montespertoli.  Just before Montespertoli, Davide had something happen to his front derailleur, and we stopped in Montespertoli to look and have a cafe.  Neither of us could figure out why it was not switching gears, but it worked to change the front by hand, so he could climb as needed, then switch at the top.  We continued our tour through Bacciano, then Montagnana, Cerbia, Chiesa Nuova, then back to Firenze through Scandicci.  We both stopped at the shop, I wanted to complete the new team kit and purchased the new bib shorts.  The shirt was free, but the bibs were around 1/2 price, but they are nice, and it is good to have some complete kits here.  

It ended up being a really nice tour.  It appeared that Andrea would be able to repair Davide's bike for the raduno tomorrow, so all is good.  48.8 miles in 2:59 rolling time for an average speed of 16.3 mph with 2001 vertical feet climbed at an average temperature of 57.  

Davide on a very dark day, climbing toward Montespertoli.  

Here is Davide climbing toward Chiesa Nuova, after the skies

brightened up.  We even saw a little sun.

Montelupo, Samontanna, Montespertoli, Firenze con Davide by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details