Chianti tour with Dave Raymond - beautiful day!

I had a surprise email last night, around 10 pm of a referral from Dominick for a person who wanted to ride today.  It basically worked, and with a few emails, I went to bed at midnight thinking it would probably work this morning.  I had a confirmation email around 8 and met Dave Raymond at Florence by Bike at 9.  It turns out he was on the Ford Motor Canada group ride that I took out in April.  We got a bike rented, pedals on it, and we were off.  From our day in April, I remembered that Dave was a strong rider, so we went out of town pretty fast.  Our through Piazza Ferrucci, the up and over to Ponte a Ema, accessing the back road to Vacciano.

Here we left the city and started our first real climb.  To this point, Dave was right on my tail no matter how hard I pushed.  On the climb, both the local knowledge and my abilities climbing made it apparent that I would not be pushed too hard today.  Before the climb I had told Dave that if he was faster than I we could work something out so he could go faster.  But with so many climbs, we settled into a really nice pace for the whole ride, and I just had to back it off a little on the climbs.  We continued on up to Impruneta, stopping for a cafe in the town square.  We descended toward Falciani on new pavement, then hooked up to climb through Luiano toward Mercatale.  We descended, then climbed to Montefiridolfi and took a very short break and filling our water bottles.  We rode across the pretty ridge road, then descended to the main road below.

I gave him the last option talk, and he wanted to add in San Pancrazio, so we went through Ponte Rotto, then climbed to San Pancrazio.  More water there, then over through San Quirico to Montagnana, then descending fast to Cerbia.  Dave was tiring on the climb to Chiesanuova, and we stopped at the top for more water.  We made a good pace over, then down to Scandicci, then back to Florence by Bike.  Great job, Dave, and thanks for the business.  I love staying busy.  Ciao.

Chianti hills with Dave Raymond - great tour! by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

Here, Dave is finishing the climb above Vacciano, at least the steep part.

Here is Dave enjoying the short flat section between Vacciano 

and San Gersole.  What a beautiful morning.