Gran Fondo Firenze 2nd marzo 2013

Gran Fondo Firenze 2nd marzo 2013

Saturday 2nd marzo was the Gran Fondo Firenze - a 130 km (80 mile) ride through the Chianti countryside south of Florence, and also on the roads on which the world championships will ride in September 2013. The end of the ride, which the world champs will do several circuits of is brutal - a steady long climb, a descent followed by a short very sharp climb, above 19% - I even saw someone walking on it! This will make the world champs very interesting indeed.

Gran fondos are the equivalent of a sportive in the UK - a supposedly non-competitive cycle route, normally with shorter and longer routes (this had an 80 km and a 130 km), geared at mass participation. It was amazing to be with so many people and to ride straight through the centre of Florence, past the Duomo and all the major sites. The Italians are cycle lovers, it is in the lifeblood of the nation, and at every intersection throughout the entire course there were police monitoring and halting traffic - chapeau! Coming out of Florence there is a major intersection where the motorways meet - even this was blocked off - the drivers must have been fuming!! But, it was well supported, held with a tremendouos attitude, great food and drinks stations, and really was a very well run event, and a pleasure to be involved. Grazie Firenze.

The cobbles were interesting - at the beginning everyone was spending the whole time avoiding bottles that were pinging out of bottle cages everywhere - the call of "borraccia" was loud. There is a nice near miss on the video, close to where a guy near me shouted out "bella donna" to a girl, with a strange guttural italian accent! Also in those first few miles we must have seen more than 30 mechanicals - tubes blown and chains off mainly - did people over inflate or under inflate? but also we saw many people who had spilled, very early on (and much later on). Coming out of Florence, we climbed up to Piazza San Michelangelo and then started descending towards the south of town to get out into Chianti. Down the first big descent and a guy ahead and to the left of me on a nice carbon Bianchi stumbled - I don't know if he hit a bump, or what happened but I saw his left hand come off the handlebars and then he hit the ground hard, at a good speed, but looked ok. His bike however had not stopped - remember it was a descent so the bike slid down at a good speed and started coming my way. It turns out that carbon Bianchis on smooth Tuscan roads slide very well. It came and it came and it came. I slowed down, I speeded up, but it was coming inexorably towards me. I didn't want to brake hard as at this point (and not for much longer!) we were surrounded by riders and I would get taken out from behind. So the bike came towards me, and I moved towards the pavement, and somehow I sneaked in between the curb and the bike. I don't know how and I was very tentative (and I always am very tentative, especially downhill) for the next 30 minutes, as this could have made my day very very different - but thankfully no mechanicals or spills for us on that day.

I also took use of my GoPro video camera and made a cheeky little video - check it out below.

http://youtu.be/ppMucv62zi8

http://vimeo.com/61489687

Here are my Strava data - it was a long day at the office 5 h 12 min but we were riding socially so I found it comfortable. All excellent training for the Giro di Sardegna we will do in a couple of months and really I just wanted time in the saddle, to check that I can handle my new saddle and set up for extended periods of time. For that reason I am very happy with the day.

http://app.strava.com/activities/42825602

The roads are some of the best in the world. Beautifully smooth, rolling hills and stunning views. Over 2000 people took part in the event, which also included a bike festival with new, super new and super retro bikes, including the famous L'Eroica bikes - will share pictures from that in a separate post.

We had an early start, and parked at a nearby area - we spotted a porcupine snuffling in the bushes so I jumped out and pulled out a couple of shots!

Before and after shots. It was cold in the morning, very cold. On the higher parts of the ride there was still snow left over from the previous weekend.

Here are some shots of the same roads of the previous weekend - amazing amounts of snow hit the area near Greve and Radda when Siena a few miles down the road missed the whole lot.

Somebody bought themselves a little speed - not me sadly. An S-Works Roubaix, lovely steed. Full carbon wheels, and the crazy "zerts" or inserts to dampen the carbon shock. Really nice looking steed.