Excellent raduno con squadra.

It had been a few weeks since may last raduno, a multi-group ride that one of the teams sponsors.  Today's was really fun on a great course.  We met at Santa Maria Novella, at Fratellanza Militare, the sponsoring team.  Sign up was easy, and we had a group of 7, which eventually became 8 in Panzano.  A group started pretty close to 8, and we followed.  A few of our group was dropped on the climb toward Galluzzo, but I stayed with Danelle until we were getting close to Tavernuzze.  I slowed considerably, as I figured we would wait anyway, and Danelle and Jean Lu went to get the lead group.  Eventually Davide and Jean Pietro caught me, and we took off.  Jean Pietro was soon dropped, and Davide said we should wait in Greve or Panzano.

Davide is a very strong rider, and really pulled us back to the lead group, averaging around 45 kph on a slight incline, which is fast for me.  We caught the lead group of around 40, and located Danelle and Jean Lu.  We stayed with the lead group, but it slowed considerably just after Greti, and Davide took off again, and the four of us stayed together.  Danelle wanted to continue up to Panzano before waiting, so we hit it pretty hard.  We were easily the first from the raduno in Panzano, had a cafe, and waited for the rest of the team.  Marco Pasquini rode up after around 20 minutes and said he had not seen the other 3.  We decided they had done the short course, and took off to finish the ride.  A great descent follows to the valley where we turned off to climb through La Piazza to San Donato in Poggio.

This is a great road, super scenic, tiny, and twisty for around 10 kilometers.  A couple parts of the road climb pretty strong, but mostly it is a gradual climb / contour.   Really, just a very nice ride on a perfect late June day.  We slowly passed a number of people in the raduno who had gone ahead of us while we waited in Panzano.  After the sweet descent to Bargino, we did the final climb to San Casciano, then descended to Falciani to connect with the same road we came out on.  We hooked up with another team from Campi Bisenzio, and they pulled us into town, before they branched off toward Scandicci, while we rode back into the centro.  The food and pasta were quite good at the finish, and we even ended up with a rather large trophy.  Fun day and great ride, ragazzi!

Raduno con squadra - Panzano, La Piazza, San Casciano, Fi. by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

David and I slowed for a while at the start to stay with a couple

of others.  They had told David they were doing the short course

so he took off and I stayed with him as he pulled us both

back to the lead group.  Awesome work, David.

Our remaining group doing the long course from the 

team, in the shade (ombra) on the way to La Piazza.

Another shot of our group climbing toward San Donato.  

What a beautiful road and beautiful day.