Montesenario in the rain with Luca.

Left to myself, I would have probably not gotten out today.  Luca sent me an SMS late last night, twhich I got this morning, asking if I wanted to get out.  I responded that if it stopped raining, sure.  We forged ahead anyway, and met around 10:30 and ended up having a very nice ride.  Emily and I had guests last night for dinner, which she did an awesome job of creating the menu and cooking for. As can happen for me, in particular as it does not take as much drinking as it used to, I had a little too much to drink last night.  So, getting out on the bike was actually perfect.

We decided on Fiesole / Olmo and started from Piazza Liberta.  It was not raining when we started, but within 5 minutes it was and we stopped so I could put on my rain booties.  The rain mostly stopped, then returned for the climb.  It never rained hard, and for me, light rain on a climb is kind of nice.  I had appropriate gear on - thanks GoreTex for the modern gear that really works - and was totally comfortable.  The descent from Montesenario was quite wet, as it rained until around 10 minutes away from Firenze, when the sun came out.  One of those days!  It certainly makes things interesting, and keeps you on your toes.  We descended very slowly, in particular from Montesenario, as the road was wet with wet leaves all over it.  We allowed the speed to increase when we got to Via Bolognese, as most of the moisture was over.  All in all, a great day for a quick ride in some rain.  Thanks Luca for getting me going.  42.9 km (26.4 miles) in 2:01 for and average speed of 20.9 kph (13.0 mph) with 896 meters (2940 feet) of climbing.  With 17,813 km ridden so far this year, only 2,187 left to make my goal of 20,000 km.  Ciao.

Cloudy, but pretty out there.

After the hard part of the climb was over, I took a couple of

shots of Luca continuing our climb.

Luca on the climb to Montesenario.

The bell tower at Montesenario was slightly in the fog by the time

we got up there.

A view to the Southwest - we will have rain on our descent!