Interesting and excellent tour today. Kay had the road from Strada to La Panca, then passo de Sugame to Greve in mind. We needed to be there before 1:00pm to enjoy food at her favorite bakery. It is a great bakery and I certainly enjoyed what I had. I packed in my pocket a piece of Strudel that certainly helped my power toward the end of the ride. Don wanted to do the ride from Panzano through La Piazza to San Donato in Poggio, so we did that after the bakery stop in Greve. It turned into a really nice tour with excellent cafe, snacks, great gelato at one of my favorite places in Florence on the return. A little cloudy and cool on the way out, but the skies cleared as we rode and we ended up with a beautiful day. They leave tomorrow for a week in Pescia, a special little town with excellent riding at the east end of the Garfagnana area. I have enjoyed the riding there with them before, and caught some of it last summer when we were outside of Lucca for a couple of weeks. I don't think it will work to get there on this trip, as I am focused on my race / granfondo on Sunday, which is smack dab in the middle of their stay there. I may make it there yet, who knows.
Really nice tour today with a route through Gavinana, Grassina, Strada, La Panca, Passo de Sugame, Greve, Panzano, La Piazza, San Donato in Poggio, Sambuca, San Casciano, Chiesanuova, Scandicci and back home to Firenze. 100.8 kilometers in 4:50 to average 20.8 kph with 1509 meters of climbing. Sweet!
I stopped to wait for Kay with Don by this colorful villa on the
road from Grassina to Strada. I have ridden past countless times,
but never stopped to take a photo. It is beautiful and there are
benefits to waiting for others.
Kay riding past a colorful villa around Ugolino.
Don posed with the big wicker wine bottle in the
main piazza in Panzano, waiting for Kay.
I really liked the color and texture of the stone and the many
shapes in the architecture of this villa, while waiting for Don
and Kay just past La Piazza.
Don and Kay enjoying gelato at B-Ice, a great gelateria here
in Florence on a little detour on the way home. I had some too.
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