Monatsarchiv: Mai 2008

von | 7. Mai 2008 · 10:31

Golden Week Izu Ride

Juliane, David, david and me left Shinagawa early in the morning and went to Atami. The journey was eventless, would it not have been for a impatient older Japanese guy who kept disturbing our and global harmony when he insisted to pass through our lines at the Shinkansen exit. We then took the obligatory BEFORE photo and started to ride along the rather congested coast road down to Ito. There are a lot of ups and downs and when we finally reached Ito we were properly warmed up for the climbs to come [Obvious the better option than to jump out from the Shinkansen and immediately tackle Atami Toge]. We turned left to route 12 which led as to two climbs over Hiekawa (360 m) and Kokuto [? 国土峠] m (510 m) followed by two fast descents through the beautiful landscape. More or less without break we came to Yushima, where we had been some weeks before as well. This is a nice Onsen town but it is in a rapid state of decay. It must have been glorious times there once, when there have been less than 1000 telephones in the village which you can still see at the old signboard of the Ohki Shoten store (since 2008 – not).

From Yushima we made the long climb to Hayakaze and Nishina Toge at elevation 900m. Although our rotation exercises for the Itoigawa Fast Run were a little bit, ahem, uncontrolled, we were almost all at the same level and we stayed together almost all of the time. In no time we were up and greeted by a strong and cold wind, so we took the „road of the five cartridges“ down to Matsuzaki where we had a break and the usual Chinese restaurant. It was quite some distance and some climbing and we all were hungry and ate big portions of Yaki–Soba, Ramen and Gyosa.

We then went for the forth Toge of the day which was Jaishi Tage at elevation 360 m. Now here is an important piece of information for cyclist who would like to strive for the best climbing performance possible. Please read this carefully and remember this advice, it will help you to become a better hill climber: In case you want to battle it out against gravity on a long stretched hill, do not attempt to let your stomach battle it out at the same time against a overwhelming quantity of low-viscosity ramen liquids.

This are the types of battles you can not possibly win. Subsequently all of us were rather done when we finally reached Jaishi Toge. But after taking a short, refreshing break, we started the descent towards Shimoda where we could go really, really fast and enjoyed it again very much. We tried to reach James who said he would be at his besso in Shimoda, but we couldn’t reach him. So we just had a good coffee break with Crepe Suzette [actually that used to be the name of Patsy Kensit in the movie „Absolute Beginners„].
and then a very good dinner with the famous Curry Teppanyaki Pasta plate at the Gaijin House [aka Sunnyside].

Whileas we were eating on the deck of the Gaijin house I noticed that the Cervelos of David and me fall in love below the pine trees, as we can see in the attached picture. A Trek and a De Rosa bike had already disappeared for closer interactions behind the trunk of the tree.

We rode only about 125 km of distance, but that involved more than 2.000 meter of climbing over four Toge, powerful, long descents and the spectacular Izu landscape.

So it was time to take the train back home. Somehow we managed to get a place on the last Superview Odoriko until Atami, where we made an important discovery of a very rare keitai. We then even managed to get seats on the Shinkansen from Atami to Shinagawa. The trip was followed by a nice dinner invitation the following day at davids home where we enjoyed an excellent coq du vin and a vivid recapitulation of the events.

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Eingeordnet unter 2008, David, Juliane, Mob

von | 6. Mai 2008 · 11:58

VENTURING INTO SAITAMA TERRITORY

A comment from the mob

What Toms describes below as a „short but powerful ride“, was in fact a 180 km trip into hillclimb nirvana for me. Please take a look at the Ciclo data chart below:I met David by chance at Futago Tamagawa and together we rode to the Sekido Bashi meeting point. We then proceeded towards Ome station, and immediately one of the differences between Positivo Espresso team rides and NFCC ones became apparent: The Positivo team is starting full speed at the Tamagawa and we are very fast. Very rarely we are overtaken by other riders at the Tamagawa and we grind our way through all obstacles of human and other nature on the cycle path. Once we reach the mountains we are generally exhausted and climb at a leisurely pace. I contrast to this NFCC proceeds along the Tamagawa at a very low pace – it took me 2:17 hrs from my house to Ome station! On the way back with Tom after all that climbing and with a strong side- and headwind it took me only 1:53 to return. However, once in the mountains, the picture changes completely.

Also I believe Positivo Espresso would never consider to ride upstream along the left side of the Tamagawa for say 15 km, then cross a bridge and go downstream for 10 km just to turn to the left into Chichibu. No, we would ride ride on the right side for 5 km and then turn to the right. We have no time for such extravaganza, we would like to reach our goal immediately, no matter how fine the landscape or roads might be. Of course if the idea is crazy enough, we would just do it (like taking Wada as an intermezzo for Otarumi).

It was the first time I entered into the Chichibu area. It was also the first time for my to ride with a bunch of NFCC guys I hardly ever met. One has to be careful, it is just like going out for drinking I guess: It is acceptable to go drinking with a bunch of Russian sailors in your favourite joint in the Ginza; it is also OK to drink with your buddies in a small pub at the Odessa harbour. But don’t go drinking with a group of Russian sailors in their favourite pub in Odessa harbour. You may end up to pay the bill. And more.

Once in the mountains the NFCC guys are very fast. I could not keep up with them but when I later checked the data I was also doing better than usual. Normally I am doing 600 – 700 m of climbing per hour regardless of the distance, on Tuesday I was more in the 800 m range.

We made a stop at Shomaru Toge where Tom promised that I would see Shinjuku on this very clear day. One could see Tokyo, but interesting enough not the tall buildings you usually see such as Tokyo Tower, Roppongi Hills or the Positivo Empire Building. But instead one could clearly see the huge white roof of the Tokyo Dome.

We then returned and when descending from Yamabushi Toge I could barely escape crashing head on into a car coming up on the wrong side of the road in a blind corner. I managed to escape by changing suddenly direction to the leftmost side of the road towards the guard rail – and the steep slope downwards. Unfortunately (or furtunately) there was a gap between the road and the guardrail in which I slipped with my bike and then I managed somehow to fall on the road rather than on the guardrail. All impact was taken by my head which crashed on the road sidewards and then slided over the surface for some distance. I looked like William Defoe in Platoon.

Jacques was so kind to help me to get set and my bike was OK so I continued to ride carefully in direction Hanno and Ome. After having this fantastic Royal White pastry, Tom and me continued to ride home at high speed. I was tired, but I could maintain the speed until right to my home. I like this long straight stretches of high speed in the flats.

An interesting an challeging trip. Everybody at NFCC was very kind and waited patiently for me at the top of the hills. It is good to venture out of the usually tracks and surely Chichibu has some nice roads to offer.

Original from Tom

Michael and I decided to join Team NFCC for a short but powerful ride into Saitama Prefecture. At Sekidobashi we parted from David who was on his short „morning-only“ ride. The „approach ride“ along the Tamagawa CR direction Ome was at a very leisurely pace – much too slow for Positivo Espresso riders like David, I’m sure. From Ome we rode direction Okutama and halfway, we crossed Tamagawa for a short U-turn to ride into Saitama Prefecture. The weather was simply perfect and the roads were not too crowded – no dump trucks for a change. Just when my bottle was getting empty, we reached Arai-Fudo-no-Meisui for a fill-up of delicious spring water! There were many cyclists on the road besides us; looks like the Saitama area is more popular than Yamanashi. We tried to get a good picture of Kabukicho from the top of Shomaru-toge but the whole Shinjuku area looked quite hazy. The team doubled-back for a downhill towards Ome and Michael managed to barely escape death in a blind corner where he evaded an uncoming vehicle by getting in the roadside where he slipped. Cervelo and Campagnolo wheels were intact but Michael’s neck looked a bit bruised… Back in Ome, Michael took me to that famous Aurore bakery (bakery chain concentrated along Keio/Odakyu railroad stations). I must admit the favorite roll tasted great! Michael and I parted from the rest and we rode back in real Positive Espresso fashion…reigning the roads at full speed!

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Eingeordnet unter 2008, Mob, Tom

von | 2. Mai 2008 · 12:30

TTT

Yes, yesterday was the TTT (Thursday’s three Toge) ride, an annual event initiated by Positivo Espresso with a long tradition dating back to 2008. I like this Japanese tradition of having none and showing off with it. How many times have we read slogans painted on cars on signboards such as „We have good nature and we want you to know. Since 2007.“?
In any case, just after work I rode along Tamagawa and Asakawa looking for some distractions. Boy’s day is close by and carp streamers (koinobori) are everywhere to be found. I saw a very nice example along the Asakawa close to Hachioji. There was an even better one at Kosuge [Matsuhime] some weeks ago, but I didn’t took a photo.

There were lots of children let loose from school or Kindergarten and playing in the river. The teachers were constantly chasing after them and tried to get them back behind closed walls. Once captured, the kids were forced to stand to attention at the drill yard.
So it was a typical beautiful day in May in the country of Japan. After some time I arrived at the Takao 7-Eleven but instead of making a break I decided to give Wada Toge a try instead. I have been there only once in 2006 with Tom, Juliane, David, Jerome and Laurent so I didn’t know the way, but I found the small road leading to Wada. Before that I crossed the Tokyo cemetery at Hachioji where there is a long and straight decent and it is easy possible to speed up to 70 km/hr – just the right dosis of speed before it is getting very slow towards the top of Wada. There were a lot of gales and strong winds this day, so sometimes I couldn’t go too fast.

I was surprised how long one need to ride until the last bus stop before the Wada Toge ascent, I took a short break there and then I attacked Wada. Wada is hell for me. Wada is about 350 meters up at a distance of 3.7 km, so the average slope is already 10%, but in some places it seems more like 20%. With a standard 53/39 crank and a 12/27 cassette AND my body weight it is somewhat difficult to stay in motion at all. My speed was partly dropping to 7 or 8 km/hrs and I wouldn’t have been surprised if some hikers would have overtaken me. It is virtually impossible to demount from the bike, because once you do, you can never gain the momentum to mount again and clip the shoes in. You simply fall down.

So I had a very hard time, but I didn’t gave up. In the end I was saved by two Japanese guys who turned up with their car behind me. Two men, sitting in a mini car branded „Bistro“ with small stuffed animals all over the seats and dashboard and God knows where and shouting with high-pitched voices „Gambare!“. Please draw your own conclusions, but my one is : Real men don’t buy cars which are named BISTRO. So having the choice to be sodomized or speeding up I decided for the later.

This brought me to the witchhouse on top of Wada Toge in 23:07 min. Not bad an improvement, if I consider that it took me 41 min the first time I went up. OK, mostly I walked up in 2006. But please take a look here.
This is the official blog of the crazy Wada tribe and obviously some of them do it in less than 15 minutes. OK, they are also less than 2/3 of my weight. So there is still way to go.

At the top of Wada I stayed away from the witch who as usually had some older male companion and was bitching around („..good that no children are here…“). The last time a group of us went up there, they were all bewitched for one hour as we can see in this evidence photo. Juliane is in front with obviously Jerome. If there was ever any question about.

I then rode down the road I have came up to Wada because I was not sure about the roads on the other side and anyway I refuse to ride through Uenohara these days. I then took a well deserved break at the Takao 7-Eleven and then started to attack Otarumi, the second Toge of the day. I was pretty lame on the first flat part of the road. Then I experienced the first LSD trip of my life: I was coming closer to the top of Otarumi, but the road didn’t got steeper at all. It was like to whole world has been flattened out indefinitely – the distance was still there, however there was no elevation at all. I had been dragged into a two dimensional world, where the word „hill climb“ was not invented yet.

That was the experience – in fact of course it was the after effect of climbing Wada. After the 20% slope of Wada everything seemed to be so …. flat. I wasn’t too fast but also not too slow, it was just very, very easy to climb up; it was the best LSD trip I never had.

Sorry to emphasize this LSD thing all the time, but the inventor of LSD, Dr. Albert Hofmann died just this week at the age of 102 and there is a very good post at BSNYC about him and his connection to cycling. I think it is a very amazing story, in particular the part that he [probably intentionally] took some LSD to check out for himself when there was no particular effect observed when administered on animals in the lab. Nobody would do this today, just imagined if somebody from the lab had tried an overdoses Viagra in the Tokyo subway during rush hours on his way home from the lab. These things are dangerous today!

And that he chooses to do that a second time just before he went home on his bicycle. I would like to propose him for a honorary membership in the Positivo Espresso team.

OK, so after the trip ended, I descended on the other side and went in one stretch along road 412, 413 and 64 to Miyagase lake where I made a small break at the entrance to Yabitsu Toge. Then I started the attack on Yabitsu Toge. Wada Toge is hell – but Yabitsu is really one of my favourite Toges in the Tokyo area. The ascent is so gradual the first kilometers and the landscape and the river is so nice. Constantly concrete slopes are added on the sides of the road unfortunately but looking at the state deficit this will not continue forever.

I went up the first time in 05 or 06 with Juliane. It was a typical Juliane trip. It looked like it will start to rain but Juliane convinced me that this was just an illusion and that surely it will stay try until we reached Hadano station. She stated this was her usual confidence, just like she used to say „Sure, I have three cartridges with me.“ So once we started to climb heavy rain started and didn’t stop. It became more and more unbearable. At some point a huge wooden ship was floating next to us and a guy with a long beard looked from the ship at us and said: „Now that I see you guys, it comes to my mind that I forgot to take two cyclists on board. How about, join the other animals?“ But Juliane declined with confidence that it will stop raining soon anyway. Oh, it did eventually. The next day when I came back from work.

I took me a little bit more than one hour until I reached Yabitsu Toge, the third T of the day. It was a little bit colder up there and I started to descent without a break. Also for the first time I passed five cars on my way down who were just driving to slow. A big truck didn’t want me to overtake him so I had to play it a little risky.

I arrived at Hadano station, having done 150 km and about 2.000 meters of climbing. There is this huge bento shop at the station with more than 600 cheap bentos on display – but I didn’t felt like eating at all. Anyway, Hadano is the bento capital of the world.

Then I took the train to Noborito and rode home the last few kilometers. I liked one of the labels that TOM attached to one of his posts so much that I added a slightly improved version.
Updated some Toge Bakas at home.

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Eingeordnet unter 2008, Cervelo Soloist, Mob