Firenze to Castel San Pietro

I must confess it was with somewhat of a heavy heart that we rode out of Florence this morning. It's a very beautiful city with lots to see & do.

I have a ton of photos, the majority of which were taken yesterday which was a rest day but unfortunately I am not in a position at this stage to upload any as they were taken on my proper camera and hence the file sizes would bring the entire net to a standstill if you were to try and view them on line. I don't have enough memory capacity on my laptop to load Photoshop, hence don't have the ability to manipulate or save the files as a smaller image.

What I can tell you however is that our campsite, which was located on the top of a hill overlooking the city and close to a lookout area, meant that it was only a fifteen - twenty minute walk in to town. Slightly longer for the return journey mainly because the stairs were so steep, though one's propensity to indulge in a couple of gelatii's or two probably doesn't help the issue.

Anyhow, getting back to the story at hand, today's ride was in many ways similar to that of Gerace to Nicoliosi both in terms of distance & metre's to be climbed and as a result I was a little anxious / keen to see how my performance would compare. Things didn't start too well, as I found myself at the back of the pack very early on in the game, having experienced a bit of hassle negotiating my way through the morning's traffic on the way out of Florence. The road headed upwards and I found myself catching back on to the stragglers within the pack. As the gradient went upwards, I found myself (surprisingly) passing some of my colleagues, one by one.

By the time I crested the top of the pass, I found myself halfway through the group and with a long descent ahead of us, I decided to open things up a little and to take a few calculated risks, in order to see if I could latch myself back onto the A Team or at last near the front of the pack. By the time we had reached the bottom, I was out front. It's surprising what happens when you throw caution to the wind.

This then left me with the decision as to whether to sit up and follow or lead a few people in to the 40KM coffee stop or whether to keep going and I ended deciding on the latter, purely because the legs were feeling good and I figured I may as well keep going, rather than trying to ride at somebody else's pace. I rode through the next little village and despite supposedly going through the centre of town did not see a single coffee shop. As a result I continued to ride on, vowing that I would stop for a cappicino at the first opportunity that presented itself. Little was I to know that this was to be halfway up our big climb for the day, nor that by the time I'd get there it was to be a cold bottle of coke as opposed to a latte

Ah well, one drinks caffine in whatever form it comes in, so as to provide that little bit of an energy boost for whatever lays ahead, though I knew that it would be a few more kilometres of climbing through a wonderfully lush forest. No idea as to the nature of the trees (You should all know by now that I am not a green thumb) but it was pretty nice nonetheless and provided a bit of much needed shade.

Whilst there was a resturant at the top of the mountain and I could have stopped for a coffee as I believe some people were to do I decided to keep on rolling. Lunch was a mere ten kilometres away and the majority of that was to be down hill. Yeah!

As a result, on I peddled, with only one or two riders ahead of me. Not quite to sure how I managed to get up the hill without being passed by the hordes behind, other than to assume that the rest of the peleton found somewhere for a coffee, that I had not spotted. At any rate lunch time was fast approaching.

The lunch van, which I must confess I nearly rode straight past, given that I was so enjoying the scenery, the descent, the whole box & dice.

The lunch spot!

A couple of the lads Michael (Black Top) and Kenny G (Pink Top) discussing team tactics for the afternoon's ride.....

After lunch the first five to ten KM's were predominately downhill (which I loved and took every advantage of) and went through a couple of valleys, which had rivers running through them, as above. Wonderful scenery, it's just a pity I didn't have my helmet camera with me.....

I nearly popped in here to ask for a bit of divine intervention, so as to give me the ability to climb my way over the final mountain top for the day, before then heading along a twenty kilometre and predominately "flat" stretch of road to the hotel. Didn't however, as it would have meant dismounting from my bike and then having to find the ability & courage to continue riding. 

Managed to roll into Castel San Pietro without too much undue stress and was the second person in and to hit the showers, before heading out into the hotel courtyard for a much needed beer or two. Refer to today's route profile. Firenze to Castel San Pietro