Nice ride with some friends from London and San Diego.

I met Lorenzo, Ray, and Chris at the shop this morning for a ride, which turned out to be kind of short, but really nice on a perfect day to ride.  I spaced out turning the garmin back on after meeting at the shop until we were almost at Olmo, so there is around 15 kilometers missing.  Oh well.  Chris is in London most of the time, and this is his second visit this year, and it was nice to hook up with him for a ride.  He is a very strong cyclist, young, and a very nice, personable guy, so it is always fun to ride with him.  Ray lives in San Diego, is closer to my age ( a few years younger), and also a very good cyclist and nice guy, so it was fun to ride with him as well.  Lorenzo and I ride together most weekends with the team, but it was nice for us to be in a smaller group today.  It appears that everyone will be at the team ride tomorrow morning as well.

We rode up through Vincigliata to above Fiesole, but by a different approach than my normal route.  It was fun, and we approached through last years World Championship finish section.  With the Worlds going on right now, it was fun to re-live last year as we rode through.  We climbed Vincigliata, and I stayed with Chris the entire climb, which kind of surprised me.  We all continued over to the main road above Fiesole to Olmo.  Around 2 k from Olmo, I checked my garmin, and realized I forgot to turn it back on after meeting the guys at the shop.  So, it is missing around 15k, but it did pick up the vertical.  Whatever.  From Olmo, we rode over and up to the road to Pratolino, then down to Pratolino, stopping for a cafe there.  Up to Monte Morello, then down to Sesto, then home in busy city traffic.  At Olmo, we picked up a guy who grew up in Florence, then has lived most of his life in Switzerland, and has returned to live in Florence again a few months ago.  It appears he will join the team ride tomorrow.  Nice ride on another pretty perfect day for cycling.  Here is the garmin link for most of the ride:

Vincigliata, Pratolino, Monte Morello, Firenze by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

Nice ride with some of the guys this morning, and we picked up

a person on the way who will probably join us on the team 

ride tomorrow morning.

The posed shot at Monte Morello with me in the picture.