Excellent fall ride with Chris - Consuma and Vallombrosa.

I was blessed with another perfect day to ride today, and my friend Chris, from the London area, texted me last night to ride together this morning.  Chris has spent from 1 to 6 months her annually for 6 years or so, so today he even had a route and plan for the ride.  I love it - I decided on plenty of routes with my solo rides and many work tours.  Today, we went out the main roads to Pontasieve, then hooked over to the back road on the west side of the Sieve river to Rufina.  On the main road for a few kilometers, but the turn for the biggest climb of the day comes soon.  We really enjoyed the climb, with some chatting making it seem shorter than normal when Chris stayed with me.  He is a faster, stronger climber than I, and I encourage him to go his own pace, as I am a believer that your personal natural pace gives you the most efficiency.  It is good to be efficient on a climb.

From Borselli, we climbed almost to Consuma, cutting off on the pretty, but rough road over to Vallombrosa.  With many pictures of fountains these days, Chris has been giving me a little bit of a hard time about fountain pictures, and on this stretch of road is one of my favorite water sources.  We stopped and got some great water, then continued over to Saltino, then descended to Regello where we stopped for a wonder cafe and pastry.  It was so nice we even had a second machiato each.  From Regello, it is a nice descent to Leccio where you catch the Valdarno road over to Pontaseive.  Just after Pontasieve, we caught a couple of Italian riders, passed them and rode back as a group.  One of the Italian guys really wanted to lead, so, whatever, we let him.  He kept a pretty good, nice fast pace so all was excellent.  As we returned to town, Chris decided on adding the climb to Fiesole, but I declined.  Chris loves that climb and often adds it on the end of a ride.  Here is the garmin link for another great fall day of riding here:

Pontasieve, Rufina, Borselli, Vallombrosa, Regello, Leccio, Firenze by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

Chris, at one of his waiting spots on the climb to Borselli.

Chris is definitely a faster climber than I.

Beautiful day, beautiful views on the climb to Borselli.

The vineyards and an old villa on the way to Borselli.

Another of my favorite fountains.  This is between Consuma 

and Vallombrosa - excellent, cold water.