http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8876115&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Who are you honking at? from Keri Caffrey on Vimeo.
Archiv des Autors: bikesnob28hb
"Can I help you sir?"
Eingeordnet unter Uncategorized
***** -THE OFFICIAL EURO CYCLIST CODE OF CONDUCT- *****
1. Image and style shall be the primary concerns of the Euro Cyclist. When suffering, one must focus first on maintaining a cool, even composure and second on performance. Winning races is an added talent, and only counts if said Euro Cyclist wins with appropriate style.
2. Training shall be based solely on feel, while racing shall be guided by sensations and instinct: that is to say, “soul.” The Euro Cyclist will never accept tried or tested scientific training methods.
3. The Euro Cyclist shall NEVER, under any circumstances, wear plain black spandex bibs (shorts, regardless of colour are BANNED) or ANY team kit
containing non-prominent logos. Shorts will extend approximately 2/3rds of the way down the upper leg and will contain a compression band at the bottom (distinct in colour). In NO CONDITION shall they extend any further!
4. Legs shall be SHAVED year-round. ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS. Certain hair removal creams are endorsed only on a case-by-case basis. One shall never show up to a race (be it large or small) with ANY amount of stubble visible on one’s legs.
5. A prominent line where one’s kit ends and where one’s deep tan begins is essential to one’s image. Artificial tanning is BANNED. The tan shall reflect the level of training commitment.
6. The socks of the Euro Cyclist shall extend to within two (2) cm. of the main bulge of the calf muscle, and shall never extend further than one (1) cm. past said primary calf muscle bulge. All socks SHALL BE WHITE in colour with prominent logo placement.
7. Cycling shoes shall contain at least 80% white!
The following exceptions apply:
i) Colour combinations such as world cup stripes or Olympic gold for which the title has been EARNED.
ii) Shoes which are custom-made for specific riders by companies endorsed by this group. These shoes shall be accessible to the particular cyclist only, and shall follow the preceding rules.
8. If white cycling shoes are not available where the Euro Cyclist resides, white booties (or “shoe covers”) with prominent logos shall ALWAYS be worn. When booties are worn, socks shall protrude approximately seven (7) cm. above the ankle, and shall always protrude at a minimum one (1) cm. from any booties worn.
9. One’s bike frame shall contain between two (2) and four (4) colours IN ADDITION TO WHITE. All colours are acceptable as long as they combine tastefully and elegantly. In addition, wheel selection must also match frame and fork.
10. One shall race only on Campagnolo Boras or Lightweights. Fulcrum Racing One, Corima Aero+ or Zipp (404 or 202) wheelsets are considered stylish enough to be used as training wheels ONLY. Irregardless, ceramic bearings shall be used at ALL TIMES on both training and race bikes.
11. ALL wheels shall be equipped with tubulars, regardless of one’s ability in gluing them.
12. Ridiculously stylish eyewear (see endorsed products list) is to be worn AT ALL TIMES without exception. Glasses are to be worn over helmet straps at all times.
13. Hair shall be kept neatly short, and matching helmet shall be worn (again with prominent logo placement). The helmet shall be predominantly white. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES shall a clashing helmet colour be worn with one’s euro kit. Helmets are not to be worn when venturing indoors AT ANY TIME. It is, however, acceptable to wear one’s helmet while outdoors on a patio (see rule 34).
14. In certain RARE cases, it shall be deemed acceptable to have long hair. In this event, hair shall be neatly slicked back in a severely euro style, and helmet SHALL NOT be worn. It is IMPERATIVE that rule 12 is followed in these special instances.
15. When riding, sans helmet (with short hair), a team issue cycling cap (white in colour), shall be worn. The bill shall remain in the downward position at all times. The cycling cap may be worn forwards or backwards to coincide with the specifics of one’s current hairstyle. During spring training, cycling toques shall be worn at all times in place of caps.
16. Kits must always be freshly washed, and one shall ALWAYS have applied a subtle quantity of eau de toilette (or “cologne”). It is, AT ALL TIMES FORBIDDEN to ride in an unwashed kit. This is severely detrimental to one’s image.
17. Saddles shall be white in colour ONLY and shall be manufactured in Italy or France. Exceptions may be made in the following cases:
i) Saddles containing World Cup Stripes or Olympic Gold when it is EARNED
ii) Italian flag colour combo when rider is ITALIAN (born in Italy)
18. Handlebar tape is required to be cork as well as WHITE IN COLOUR. Bar tape shall be kept in pristine white condition. This state shall be achieved either through daily cleansing or through frequent replacement. These jobs must NEVER be performed by the cyclist as one must maintain one’s image.
19. All stems must be a minimum of 120mm long and of a rise no higher than -10 degrees. Stems shall be positioned no more than 0.5cm above the top of the headtube. ALL stems shall ALWAYS be oversized, made out of ALUMINUM, and airbrushed in kit/frame colours. In certain cases (Mario Cipollini) it is advised that one airbrush a buxom young woman onto the top of one’s stem.
20. The Euro Cyclist shall ALWAYS have liniment applied to his legs before appearing in public.
21. Facial hair shall be restricted to (at a maximum) a goatee, and even this is discouraged. Moustaches, beards, and any combination thereof are EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED in all instances. Stubble is, however, advisable in virtually ALL euro-situations. It is important to note that this DOES NOT apply to the legs.
22. Campagnolo shall be THE ONLY acceptable component and it is hereby deemed superior to ANY Shimano product in ALL circumstances and situations. The Euro Cyclist is expected to have nothing less than an ENTIRE campy grouppo. Crank substitutions are NOT permitted. There is, however, a case by case exception for SRAM Red.
23. One shall NEVER, under any circumstances, acknowledge the presence of a cyclist riding a bike costing less than 2000€ in ANY public place. This may be severely detrimental to one’s image. If such a situation cannot be helped, it is CRITICAL that the Euro Cyclist regard his “acquaintance” with a patrician mixture of disdain and SEVERE condescension.
24. One shall NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, associate with triathletes. This cannot be overemphasized! It is FORBIDDEN to have any number inked onto one’s body before a race.
25. Any physical activity other than cycling is STRONGLY FROWNED UPON. This includes any form of running or swimming and their derivatives (this includes walking). The ONLY TWO other sports with a recognized degree of euro are: cross-country skiing and long track speed skating.
26. Mountain bike gloves are FORBIDDEN in all instances. Cycling gloves shall be slick, white (in accordance with kit), and have minimal padding. Padding will be beige or white in colour. Wearing NO GLOVES is entirely acceptable and encouraged. In the case of a Euro Cyclist wearing a leader’s jersey special gloves shall be made to match the colour of the jersey while simultaneously blending the colours of the team kit.
27. In a circumstance where any cyclist (or TRIATHLETE) ever displays aggression or disrespect towards a Euro Cyclist, he is required to ride up uncomfortably close to his foe and slap them in the face with his team issue gloves.
28. In the event a motorist disturbs one’s ride: one shall proceed to ride up beside the car, form a clenched fist and bang the boot of the car while doing one’s best to sound irritated in Italian. Wild arm and head gesticulations are strongly encouraged to help enhance the apparent rage. It is permitted to throw a bottle, if the perpetrator was a commissaire on a motorbike.
29. One shall NEVER rearrange one’s package while riding. Adjustments regarding seating/hanging comfort are to be done in private in order to preserve image.
30. ABSOLUTELY NO FORM of seatbag, frame pump, mud guard or mirror shall come within two (2) metres of one’s bike.
31. Gearing shall be restricted to a titanium Campy Record 11-23 cassette with a ABSOLUTE MINIMUM of 42-53 up front. One must never be seen pedaling at a cadence greater than 90 rpm in order not to detract from one’s calm/smooth factor, or “Suplesse.” The use of 25-toothed cog is acceptable for severely mountainous training situations.
32. ALL BIKES shall feature personalized nameplates next to one’s home country’s flag, located on the top-tube within ten (10) cm. of the seat-tube ON THE DRIVE SIDE ONLY.
33. Pedals MUST be either Look or Time. No other pedals are to be considered. As always, ANY form of Shimano product is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.
34. Espresso is a NECESSITY and as such it must be consumed normale or ristretto on a patio (preferably in Italy) in full kit; All other coffee shall be brewed strong and taken BLACK. The only milk permitted may appear frothed on top (if at all). The euro cyclist shall, if possible, develop a fondness for the triple ristretto. For extra Euro, consider ordering inconvenient multiples (e.g. a triple or more). The irony of increasing the number of shots pulled while simultaneously decreasing the volume per shot will enhance the experience for all parties involved. Sugar is FROWNED UPON, and in all cases SWEETENERS ARE BANNED.
35. All podium shots (“pictures”) shall be taken while wearing one’s team kit and appropriately matching casual euro shoes (such as Pumas). Socks shall remain within the guidelines above. One is expected to display an appropriate degree of bulge while receiving kisses/trophies. The bulge may vary according to the outlandishness/impracticality of the victory prize (e.g. livestock and/or enormous cheese wheels).
36. All pre- and post-race activity SHALL be conducted under a gazebo (this includes massages, interviews, seductions, and looking fantastic) leaving one in reasonable distance of the Euro-sun to top up one’s enviable tanlines and pose for photos.
37. Post-race, one shall be tied to one’s mobile phone, receiving endless calls from:
i. One’s attractive girlfriend, or
ii. Important ad executives concerning modeling contracts. This shall be done under the protection of the post race gazebo.
38. Team bikes will be built up so that they violate the UCI weight limit in order that weights might be attached to the frame to demonstrate its superiority and lightness.
39. Motivational music during training shall consist of late 90s trance or progressive house, hereby known as ‚euro beats.‘ NO EXCEPTIONS.
40. Water Bottles shall be referred to solely as „Bidons“ and shall have a volume NOT EXCEEDING 500ml. Bidons shall always match team/kit colours. It is NOT ACCEPTABLE in ANY CIRCUMSTANCE to leave one’s bidons on the bike for more than ten (10) minutes post-ride OR while transporting bikes via bike rack.
41. Naked black ALL CARBON water bottle cages (manufactured by ELITE CAGES) shall be used on ALL BIKES. Exceptions include:
i) Special edition 24k gold cages, acceptable in certain cases such as photo shoots, prologues or where colour coordination dictates (e.g. gold cage with Olympic gold/white team kit).
42. A gold pendant on a very long, thin chain bearing some form of religious icon is STRONGLY recommended for mountain races.
43. While soloing in for a victory, one shall ensure that one’s jersey is FULLY ZIPPED and ALIGNED so that all title sponsors are clearly visible. One shall then smile and flex one’s arms while pointing sky-wards. The projection of one’s fatigue is EXPLICITLY FORBIDDEN IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES.
44. When appearing in a photo spread for a sponsor’s products, the Euro Cyclist has the option of appearing fully nude, in team kit, or in a full Brioni three-piece suit (nothing else). Smiling is PROHIBITED in these instances.
45. When appearing in documentaries, one must be seen walking around the hotel in one’s kit at all times. It is also recommended that one constantly be eating something in front of the cameras.
46. When asked „how are you?“ while riding one must proceed with one of the following…
i. Complain about coming off a sickness
ii. Explain that one is peaking for bigger races later in the season
iii. Mention that this is a „recovery ride“
iv. Explain that one is at the tail end of one’s daily six (6) hour training ride
47. If one feels the urge to relieve oneself during a race, one shall gracefully meander to the back of the pack, seat oneself sideways on the saddle, and pee into the sunflowers. It is the DUTY of the Euro Cyclist to ensure that no camera crew catches the act, for it could be severely detrimental to one’s image. Under no circumstances shall one dismount from his bike in order to urinate.
48. When climbing anything with a gradient above twenty (20) percent OR lasting greater than four (4) kilometers, the Euro Cyclist shall fully unzip his jersey and let it flutter freely in the wind.
49. When dropping out of a race, one shall avoid the embarrassment of entering the official broomwagon and shall instead wait for the team vehicle. When asked the reason for dropping out, one shall cite mechanical problems or oncoming sickness in order to avoid any negative speculation in regards to one’s fitness.
50. If in doubt, the euro cyclist shall mention in an interview that his pollen allergies are acting up, and that he’s not sure that he’ll win the Giro this year. In this situation he must note that the sensations are otherwise good, and that he will eventually win a beautiful stage.
51. Team-building motivational camps shall be held annually in the off-season. These are to place team members in as ridiculous a setting as possible. Photos shall be widely reproduced to demonstrate team cohesion.
52. During the pre-race medical checks, star riders of each team are strongly advised to play doctor with each other while shirtless. Photos taken must strive to be as HOMO-EROTIC AS POSSIBLE.
53. In order to avoid the harsh European winter, one shall:
i. Flee to the warmer climates of Mallorca/South Africa/Canary Islands/etc.
ii. “Train the mind, body and soul” with Kreitler-brand rollers
54. In the event of a crash, regardless of the gravity of an injury the Euro Cyclist shall mummify himself in fishnet gauze. The act of gauzing oneself (in order to continue racing while injured) is looked upon with respect by other Euro Cyclists as a statement of commitment and of strength of character. One shall use white gauze to bandage injuries; however, world cup striped gauze and/or national colors may be used in addition to white in select circumstances.
55. No form of large or obtrusive tattoo shall be printed onto the skin anywhere on the body. Small, discreet tattoos of the Virgin Mary or Olympic rings (assuming one has participated in Olympic games) no larger than three (3) cm. by three cm. shall be considered tasteful if AND ONLY IF located out of sight while one wears regular kit.
56. If a rider’s sponsors do not make quality parts, then the rider shall buy better parts and superimpose his sponsor’s stickers over them (e.g. Quickstep’s past rebranding of Time products as Specialized).
57. No rider shall wear any shorts with any type of hole showing skin below unless said hole and or opening was from a recent crash DURING that training session and/or race. Wearing ripped shorts is allowed ONLY while one is struggling to the finish and/or to the correct place to wait for the team car to take one out of the race.
58. When cresting the summit of a climb the Euro Cyclist will sit up, zip his jersey, and reach into his pocket for a snack while simultaneously looking back to see who will be accompanying him on the descent. Note that while coasting to allow another rider to catch up (in order to work together on the way down) is allowed, coasting in order to rest is FORBIDDEN.
59. The Euro Cyclist shall own a sizeable parrot and will ensure that he is seen walking around photo shoots with it perched either upon his casually outstretched index finger or upon his shoulder. Hair should be slicked back for maximal effect. The parrot should either be white or it should contain three (3) or more colors found within the World cup stripes. One must always smile when pictured with the parrot. The parrot should speak fluent Italian. In certain cases it is deemed advisable that the Euro Cyclist possess, in place of a parrot, SEVERAL young pumas.
60. The Euro Cyclist shall never ride deep carbon wheels with aluminum braking surfaces, with the exceptions of Mavic wheels and the Ghibli disc. Aluminum braking surfaces detract from the seamless transition of black carbon to black tire that makes the Euro cyclist look so devilish upon his race wheels. Deep carbon wheels shall have prominent decals upon them UNLESS they originate from Carbonsports in Germany.
61. When the Euro Cyclist wins a race or a grand tour he shall stylishly uncork the bottle of champagne and spray it around the podium. If the rider is ravenous, slightly overweight and German he shall place the opening of the champagne bottle close to his mouth and drink (heavily) with puffed out cheeks and a smile. If the rider is truly Euro he will take the ENTIRE bottle of champagne in his arms and parade about the finish area with it. Champagne bottles must be COMICALLY OVERSIZED. One should spray the podium girls. Especially if they are dressed in white.
62. At the finish of a Grand Tour the Euro cyclist shall celebrate by cycling around the finish area decked out in team kit and proper Euro casual footwear. If married, the Euro cyclist shall have his child in his arms. The toddler may rest upon his handlebars, or in the event that the Euro cyclist achieves a podium spot, accompany the rider onto the podium. The child should have its own victory salute that will be used in conjunction with that of his/her father. In some cases the child is permitted to wear an entirely-too-large team jersey. This rule shall be upheld by ALL riders save for Mario Cipollini, who would be unable to comply due to the sheer number of offspring he has fathered courting supermodels over the past two decades.
63. It is highly recommended that the Euro cyclist utilize any opportunity to humorously don equipment that failed during the demonstration of superior physical strength. This serves the dual purpose of mocking one’s sponsor and, in addition, providing a public display of why said rider did not finish the race on the podium. Breaking equipment due to power output is generally the best way to finish a race outside of winning it. If no spectators are present, the Euro cyclist shall prominently wear the broken equipment during all post race interviews. If the Euro cyclist suffers more then two mechanical failures of similar nature in rapid succession, throwing a petulant tantrum is strongly suggested.
New Blogger
Just thought I would let you all know that I have started a new blog covering my riding here in Japan and the highs and lows of training and racing in the 2010 season.
I will also make updates of Tsukino’s progress as she has shown a strong desire to compete in the 2010 racing season as well and with Pro-Lite covering here during the course of the year we should have a pretty exciting 2010.
Please feel free to contect and post comments.
Eingeordnet unter Uncategorized
Exploring the frontier of snowland
It was only 1 degree when I left my house today at 6:30am, just before sunrise. The air was very crisp, and the views of Fuji stunning.
When the views are so great, and people out and about on a cold winter morning relatively few, it is actually fun cycling on the Tamasai.
If only the wind wasn’t blowing so strongly exactly against me!
I found it hard to push myself beyond a heart rate of 150, and not only because of the demotivating head wind. The cold air is taking its toll.
Ome Kaido was almost free of traffic, from the junction with Yoshino Kaido somewhat less so – dumb (dump) trucks were as busy as always. (I have stopped using Yoshino Kaido because of the trucks – Ome Kaido is much more pleasant and truck-free until that junction.) And road works every now and then, all along Ome Kaido. They never stop.
By the way, have others also noticed that these days traffic lights have become in almost complete disuse at road works – there are always two people managing the traffic, no matter how tiny the road.
From Okutama onwards, there was almost no traffic at all, and not a single motorbikes – what a difference to the other three seasons.
Okutamako looked pretty and peaceful. The surrounding mountains were snow covered on their northern slopes, free of snow on their south. The road was free of snow and ice thanks to all the sun it was getting, except for some icy patches on the side which the sun was unable to reach.
I was hoping that Imagawa Toge which connects Tabayama and Kosuge would be passable and headed towards it. Route 411 to Tabayama was passable, but as I got closer to Tabayama, some short icy parts appeared, now in the middle of the road.
The fields around Tabayama and parts of the village were covered by snow. The first steep ascent out of the village towards Imagawa Toge was covered in part with snow and ice, but I managed to cycle around the worst parts. Another kilometer later, the road started being completely covered by salted snow and ice. I was able to ride on it, but the bike quickly collected lots of snow and it was clear I could not continue like this another 250m upward.
This was the time when I wished I was riding a cyclocross. Well, one day!
I turned around and headed back to the Okutama Lake. It was clear climbing up to Kazahari would be equally impossible. But I wanted to see at least what the new traffic restrictions for motorbikes looked like. Would there be someone making sure motorbikes would not enter? Would there be a camera? Would it say that bicycles are not allowed either? I cycled the 3.5km from the entrance of the road to the point from which motorbikes are banned.
Nobody patrolling the road. One camera, but unclear whether this was good enough to actually catch number plates etc. – probably not, and just a camera that had been in place even earlier. A sign that shows that motorbikes are banned – but nothing about bicycles! We should be fine riding up – and what a pleasure this will be when all the motorbikes are gone!
I turned around and headed towards Kosuge, hoping that I could perhaps cross Tsuru Toge or the new Matsuhime tunnel. But Tsuru Toge is at 870m, even higher than the 750m at which I had turned around earlier. And the tunnel must be at least at 750m, and on the Otsuki side, there would be a long descent on a road that was most certainly not always blessed with sun.
Half way to Kosuge, I started hitting ice patches covering the full road whereever the sun was not able to reach to road. I chatted with two ladies working in front of their house after one of these patches, and after confirming the road would not get better, decided to turn around once more. No escaping from Okutama valley!
I returned as I had come, only to find that by now the wind had turned – and was once again blowing quite heavily against me! Cycling down towards Ome sometimes felt like cycling up another hill, so strong was the wind.
To build some variation in the ride, I decided to cross Umegaya Toge (aka Jerome’s Hill) which at 310m was entirely free of snow or ice.
The Tamasai was now much more crowded than in the morning, and there were lots of road racers who quite obviously had only gone out in the afternoon. I stuck to one of them, a tall foreigner riding what looked like a converted cyclocross, for a while. He was rather fast, and my back was once again in high pain, so I eventually gave up pursuing him and took a rest for my back.
I was home well before sunset (for a change!) and cleaned my bike, which was solidly covered by a thick crust of salt (so where my shoe covers – they were basically completely white!). I had a hard time getting the stuff off – it was literally baked to the bike and in no comparison to normal road dirt or mud.
210km with 1,400m of climbing
Eingeordnet unter 2010
Sun17th
The central Tokyo-ites depart Ebisu stn 7:30am tomorrow, 8am Futago Tamagawa, up the river(s) to Takao, looping back to Tokyo via Sagamihara and the Tank road, with the aim to be back by 12:30pm, which unfortunately may preclude any double mocha skinny frappuccino macchiato vente stops. Sad, but true.
Eingeordnet unter Uncategorized
Championship memoirs
As I was climbing up to Moto-Hakone at the Ekiden ride the other day, setting a new best time and not allowing even the fastest Odawara-Hakone runner ever (yes, that was this year) to narrow the gap to me, and still not going at full power, it occurred to me once more how far I had come within just a year of cycling. Last year, I lost my power in my legs and the last third of the climb was really quite painful. I barely made it before the runners to the finish.
My own racing career started similarly miserably. In my first ever race on the Gunma track in October 2008, I couldn’t keep up with the pack on the very first hill (which is ridiculously short and flat) and was left cycling on my own for six laps before being overtaken („lapped“) by the peleton in the seventh and thus being disqualified. Half a year later on the same track, I would come in at 4th place and qualify for D-class, another few months later I would win the sprint prize on the same track. And yes, ultimately, I would win a race and become both JCRC and Tour du Japon Champion 2009.
Here is how I got there.
When we were small, my brother and I dreamt of owning expensive racing bikes and studies catalogues and bike shops. But we never bought a decent bike and I settled for riding a normal touring bike over modest distances (100km max). I mostly rode to school on nice days, and in Oxford bought a (heavy!) touring bike to get around the city (and sometimes even London). The highlight of my cycling career were rides with a like-minded friend through the countryside outside Oxford. Once in Japan, I touched the bicycle brought from England hardly at all, not wanting to cycle in crowded Tokyo and believing the countryside was far too distant.
One day in Spring 2008, MOB told me to my greatest surprise and equal delight that he was cycling regularly and trying to become road-race champion of the season. I was fascinated and it awoke old childhood dreams. I begged to be allowed to join a ride, and indeed, a few months later (July 2008), MOB invited me to a ride organized by him and David L. for beginners (two of David’s colleagues and Juliane also joined). We cycled along the Tamagawa and Asakawa to Takao, crossed Otarumi and scaled up Yabitsu, all in gruelling summer heat and humidity. I was completely exhausted afterwards (my heart kept pounding until at night) and I was too ill to go to work the next day. But I had to try again… And now I knew there were other people I could join on rides.
So I bought a rather nice road-race bicycle (Canyon Ultimate CF 8.0) on a trip to Germany and brought it to Japan. Getting bored on short trips inside Tokyo, MOB finally made some time between his busy racing schedule in October and took me on a trip to Izu. It was a hard 100km from Mishima to Shimoda, but I managed to keep up without annoying MOB too much. We started doing more rides together in the mountains west of Tokyo.
Initially I thought „let’s make the most of it before the winter sets in and more cycling won’t be possible“. But then it became clear that winter was no barrier to cycling, and as I started seeing my performance and endurance improving, I wanted to stay on the trajectory. From January, I switched to riding twice a week, almost no matter what. I think I managed to keep this rhythm perfectly until the concurrent onset of the rainy season and tons of professional work, mostly in Osaka, made regular weekday rides impossible.
My first race had been a misery. MOB invited me to a second one, around Saiko, and I did much better. It was a strenuous race and I was not able to keep up well in the uphill section. But somehow I still made it into finish just seven seconds behind the winner (in the E-class). This gave me some confidence that if I improved my performance, I could keep up in races and repeat what MOB had done that year: win the championship by mere attendance of every race and avoiding to be disqualified. Little knew I then that the rules were to be changed for 2009 and that the bar was to rise significantly. Ignorance can be the mother of opportunities.
JCRC Race No. 1 and Tour du Japon Race No. 1 – Kawagoe (15 March)
This is a point race on a short and completely flat racing track in a park (i.e. points are awarded for being among the top three in every second lap, then additional points for the overall finish). It should be relatively easy to keep up with the peleton. Ideally I would somehow manage to do so well in the sprinting that I would be among the first six and be able to move up into D-class.
JCRC awards a fixed number of points for finishing a race, and additional points for winning one of the top spots. Participation points vary by class, winning points don’t. For finishing an X-class (entry) race, one gets no points. For finishing an F-class (lowest class) race, one gets 20. For E-class, 40, for D-class, 60, and so on up to S-class (the highest). For being first, one gets 30 extra points; 25 for second, 22 for third, 20 for forth, 19 for fifth, etc.
Until 2008, finishing meant literally finishing a race, i.e. not crashing and not being lapped. From 2009, the rules were tightened and not only should one not crash and not be lapped, but one must also finish no later than 10% behind the time the tenth rider of the race made into the finish. So even in short races where the chances of being lapped are low, losing the benefit of the peleton could lead one to finish a race without any points.
When moving to a higher class, one carries forward all points awarded to date. Because those already in the higher class have had a chance to collect higher participation points for longer, the later one moves up, the smaller the chance one can actually win the class. But it is also hard to make predictions, because the best riders tend to move up themselves and thus out of one’s class, and because most people do not participate in all races.
The Kawagoe race started badly before it had started. As I was watching an earlier race, two riders crashed just after sprinting through the finish right in front of me. I decided to wear my thicker, long-sleeved jersey instead of the PE jersey. As we assembled for the warm-up lap, someone in the still ongoing race had a tyre blow-out right in front of us.
My race was no better. People had difficulty keeping the line through the long left curve followed by an immediate right curve just after the start. It was scary. Then someone crashed on one of these nasty bumpy wire covers that run in places across the track. I narrowly avoided running into the heap of riders, by breaking sufficiently hard to slow down and then navigate around the
mess, yet not hard enough to have others crashing into me. But by that time I was very scared, and became so careful that I lost contact with the peleton. I managed to catch up again driving my heart rate to unknown peaks (170 at the time). Another crash, though not right in front of
me. No chance to even think of sprinting in the even laps, with so many riders in front of me, the course being so narrow and a tight curve just before the finish.
In the final lap, just before the last
curve, I saw the left side all wide open, so zoomed through it as fast as I could, taking the final curve as narrow as possible. I sprinted in vain trying to catch up with the leading riders, but still finished a respectable 10th, which translated into 15th on the point ranking. 39.49km/h over a flat 12km (total race time of 0:18:14).
I left the place to ride home, swearing I would never ride there again.
JCRC Race No. 2 – Shuzenji (21 March)
The opposite of Kawagoe – the steepest race track in the JCRC season (except for the Shiobara hill climb). With far fewer people participating, and probably those participating being far more talented at riding bikes, and the not so good ones falling behind quickly on the climbs, this should be a safer ride. If it wasn’t for the fact that someone had died on this very tra
ck, crashing into a tree. But this was, as I realized only later, when racing into the opposite direction which has many downhill curves (JCRC Race No. 7). Nonetheless, this is even a dangerous course in anti-clockwise direction, due to the high downhill speeds, as the arrival of a doctor helicopter during the race showed.
MOB and I had visited the track a few days earlier, and I had done a full lap in a decent time, despite being on my own and on a heavily equipped bike. I felt confident I could do well, maybe even still get into the first six.
The first lap worked out well. I kept up with the leaders even though the climbs were gruelling. But in the second, I couldn’t keep up any longer on the final long climb and came in 8th, 42 seconds after the winner. But this was good enough to be now leading the E-class in points. 31.33km/h over a mountainous 10km (0:19:09).
Going to races outside Tokyo is always a good opportunity to do some nice riding in a new area afterwards. Of course this only works if one travels to races by trains and bike (sometimes including overnight accommodation), avoiding carrying anything unnecessary.
After this race, I cycled from the Shuzenji race track to Hakone and then on to Odawara. Very nice views of the Izu mountains, the Hakone mountains and Fuji-san all along (if only the weather had been better), and quite some climbing to keep working on my performance (races themselves are too short to have much impact).
JCRC Race No. 3 – Gunma (18 April)
The course of my very first race, with quite some up and down, including a slightly longer climb. But having survived Shuzenji quite well, I felt I could keep up with the peleton in this race. My goal was to come in as 4th, the idea being that this way I would get maximum points without being forcefully put into the next higher class (D-class). Having missed the opportunity to make the D-class in the two previous races and therefore being behind in total points (the higher the class, the larger the number of participation points awarded), I thought I should focus on becoming E-class champion.
All worked well – and I became 4th! 35.24km/h over a hilly 24km (0:40:52).
What a great feeling to be in the award ceremony for the first time, get a certificate and even a prize: two inner tubes. Little knew I that the rules had changed and with the 4th place I was now automatically in D-class and no longer had a right to decline, and little knew I how valuable those tubes would prove to be. And of course little knew I that ending up in D-class was for the better!
Hardly seriously exhausted from four laps on the track, I ventured to discover the mountains of Gunma. The plan was to cycle to Minakami and then all the way up to Konroku Toge at 1,600m, then return via route 120 to Numata. The Tone River valley up towards Konroku Toge proved to be stunningly beautiful, especially the higher I got. But that was partly because the higher I got, the more snow there was! Having ignored an earlier barrier, I found myself on a road with increasingly high snow on each side, soon reaching over one meter. The road itself had been cleared. Eventually I reached a point where the road continued in 1.5 high snow, so I had to turn around.
On the way down I ran through lots of little creeks of melt water running over the road, and going through one of them I hit a sharp stone that caused me my first and so far only puncture of my road-race cycling career. How glad I was I had these extra tubes just won at the race – otherwise I would have had to fiddle with patches which would have been less pleasant as it was getting again cooler.
I vowed to return after the next Gunma race and make it up Konroku Toge.
With almost two months to go before the next race, there was plenty of opportunity to discovery new territory, all over Japan. When my parents visited around Golden Week, I had them man my support vehicle which allowed me to do some great rides in stunny scenery.
Misaka Toge up from Kawaguchiko, followed by a climb up from Shosenkyo above Kofu to Tokusa Toge (1,700m) which is part of the Crystal Line. Shiretoko Toge (700m) at the north-eastern tip of Hokkaido, still mostly in snow. Via Hacchou Toge and Jukkoku Toge all the way to Sakudarai, my longest ever ride at the time. Killer climb variations of Otoge and Matsuhime Toge, or Yanagisawa Toge, Kamihikawa Toge and the old Sasago tunnel. The Itoigawa race up to the Yatsugadake hills and Suwa.
JCRC Race No. 4 and Tour du Japon Race No. 2 – Miyakejima (14 June)
This race takes place on a small island 300 kilometers off Tokyo. The island is basically one big volcano, which exploded 20 years ago and led to the evacuation of the island. The islanders are now back, but there are still frequent gas scares – though nobody has ever been harmed, by the initial explosion or since.
Access to the island is by daily ferry from Tokyo. There are also daily flights by an ANA daughter, and I wanted to be clever and use my miles to go by plane instead of suffering on an overnight ferry arriving at 5am.
What ANA or Lufthansa didn’t tell me is, that at least half of the time, the plane never takes of from Haneda because the air at the other end is deemed to be potentially too poisonous. I ended up going in vein to Haneda and thus missing the first part of the race, a short hill climb. Lufthansa and ANA still dispute that they carry any responsibility for not telling me, equating this with the extremely rare cancellation of a plane due to bad weather.
I took the ferry to Miyakejima after all, just one day late. It was a 24-hour day-trip to the second part of the race: leave home at 20:00, ferry leaving 22:00, arriving 5:00, cycling to the village on the other side of the island where the race was to be held, race from 10:00, solo ride around the island thereafter (a bit over 30km with some up and down and heavy wind in places), back at the village at 12:00, on the ferry at 14:00, back in Tokyo around 19:00 and home by 20:00.
Only 120 or so riders make it to Miyakejima, which is about a tenth of some other races. The event feels more like a family party and it is easy to make friends with other riders.
My D-class race had 11 riders of which three gave up mid-race. The pace was gruelling, and with so few riders the benefit of drafting was low. The peleton fell apart after the 5th lap, and I managed to hang on to 2-3 other riders, eventually drafting one of them through the final lap and overtaking him and another rider ahead on the sprint up a steep slope into the finish. I was 5th, and with so few riders in the race had the option to decline going to C-class which I took advantage of. I was now leading the D-class – and would continue doing so until the end of the season.
33.29km/h over a hilly 20km (0:36:03).
JCRC Race No. 5 and Tour du Japon Race No. 3 – Hitachinaka (28 June)
Another flat race, this time on a long oval car-testing track. Another blood bath. Just fortunately not in my own race, just some scary scenes – lucky once more.
Apart from sheer crash-free survival, my goal was to end up with as many points as possible without getting among top six. This is hard to manage in a race where the final sprint decides everything and it is harder to control one’s own position just before the finish line. So I decided to make it my goal to win one of the so called JCRC prizes for being among the top three in the penultimate round. Another rider who seemed to have rather too much power left broke out from the field 500m before the finish line and having just waited for something like this to happen, I was swift to follow him and draft him at amazing speed to the finish line. We were both exhausted and let the field catch up with us for the final lap.
I wanted to do the same thing again in the final lap, just make sure I wouldn’t get in similarly well placed. The same guy broke out again and I followed, but then regretted as it was the wrong tactic. I let myself fall behind and caught up by the field, but was then too exhausted to keep up with them, ending up only 26th (but just three seconds behind the winner!). 41.39km/h over a flat 30km (0:43:29).
After the race, I rode south through rural Ibaraki to the large Kasumigaura Lake, intending to ride once around it (which by itself would be over 100km). Unfortunately, the weather worsened and I ended up in heavy rain, having to abort my trip half way around the lake and taking an endless train trip home.
JCRC Race No. 6 – Gunma (19 July)
Six laps around a by now very familiar course, but this time in D-class. Would that make a big difference? Indeed the pace was slightly faster, but I felt well equipped to keep up throughout, including the longer climb.
I went for the same goal as in the previous race: get the JCRC prize. This time I managed to be first and could call three pairs of JCRC socks my own, as well as a nice photo shot with the race winners.
But just like in Hitachinaka that sprint cost me energy which I needed for the final sprint. I came in 14th, seven seconds behind the winner. 36.32km/h over a hilly 36km (0:59:28).
After another race in Gunma, this was now the chance to finally assail Konroku Toge (1,600m) and then try to make it up Konsei Toge (1,800m, up from 700m) to reach the Nikko lakes and eventually Nikko. It was again a very nice ride up the Tonegawa valley, this time without any natural barriers. By the time I had reached Katashima village at the other end, the weather had worsened significantly, and I ended up climbing the 1,100m to Konsei Toge in heavy rain, at 16 degrees. I saved myself the rain cover for the long downhill to the lakes and into Nikko, when the rain had stopped, but being soaked, I didn’t feel exactly warm… Still it was worth the trip, and the lakes worth another visit a few months later, after the Shiobara hill climb race.
JCRC Race No. 7 – Shuzenji (23 August)
I imagined this to be the toughest race of the season: six laps on this tough mountain course, at the very hottest time of the year, and now in D-class. Earlier in the year, I had barely kept up in just two laps one class lower. Outlooks were made worse by unpredictably and often rainy weather throughout the summer, making it hard to train adequately.
I left for a week of boot camp at my parents‘ home in Germany. Earlier in the year, I had bought another Canyon for use in Germany and beyond, whenever/whereever I could visit. This was the first opportunity to take real possession of the bike after a friend had collected it from the manufacturer a few months earlier. This was the cheapest road racer Canyon has on offer: Roadlite 5.0 – aluminium frame with Shimano 105 components, Mavic Aksium wheels. I immediately felt very comfortable on it. In fact, the stiffness of the frame made me feel more comfortable going downhill at over 70km/h than I do on my carbon Canyon. The 105 brakes and gears work perfectly, the Aksium wheels run just as well as my more expensive ones in Japan. If only the bike was a bit lighter (8.7 vs 6.9kg) and the crankset (Shimano R600 – the only crime on the bike) not showing so much resistance (I have since ordered FSA MegaExo as replacement).
I did 650km in a week. On the 210km ride, the extra resistance and weight showed, and I felt more exhausted than I would in Japan. However, part of it may also be due to insufficient eating and drinking, as Germany lacks the network of convenience stores and drink machines which I so much benefit from in Japan.
The training paid off. I felt fine on the climbs and was able to keep up with the fastest riders. But it was tough – my average heart rate of the full race was 169, and 13% of the time I was between 175 and 180. I had never been able to keep anything as high as this for so long.
The field fell completely apart before long, not only because of the tough climbs, but also because of the dangerously curvy down hills which made me be careful – I didn’t want to be the second person ending up on a tree and dying there (or just crashing, as happened again plentiful to others that day). I came in 11th, 1:26 behind the winner. 30.72km/h over a mountainous 30km (0:48:50).
Being in Shuzenji offered another opportunity to explore yet inknown roads and passes on the Izu peninsula, including the famous Izu Skyline.
JCRC Race No. 8 – Shiobara (4 October)
This is a one-way race on public roads through the valley of Shiobara Onsen and then up a steep hill of 459m over 6.9km. I did not know what to expect. Surely I would be able to keep up with the peleton up to the start of the steep section. How well would I do on the climb?
Unfortunately, it started to rain lightly as I was cycling up from the hotel near the JR station to the start of the race. Not a good way of getting warm! The rain stopped again and the race started on yet wet roads. Only one lane was blocked for us, and we were facing traffic on the other – amazingly dangerous when racing in such a large field!
I kept up well with the field, but shorter climbs felt more strenuous than usual. Something was wrong. The hill climb was tough, and half of the field passed me pretty much immediately. I caught up with some later on, but felt not at the full height of my energy throughout, ending 20th, 2:24 behind the winner, but still comfortably within 10% of the 10th, below which no points are awarded (new rule from 2009). 23.86km over a rising 19.2km (0:48:16).
At that point, I did not understand what caused my slightly weak performance. I had trained well in the meantime, completing a ride from home to Karuizawa, and riding from Chino through the southern Alps to Hamamatsu. And I felt sufficiently strong to add a long ride after the race, which took me through the Kawamata area over Yamao Toge (1,700m) to the Nikko lakes and eventually close to Utsunomiya.
Two days later, I left for New York on a business trip, and started feeling ill as I was about the board the plane. It seemed I was getting a flu, developing a high fever. Eventually it turned out I had developed severe, acute prostatitis. This was exactly the kind of disease which I did not want to have – no more sitting on a saddle for a while! After more travel through Germany and Portugal, I ended up back in Japan the day before the next race – jet-lagged, tired, untrained and still pumped full with antibiotics, yet at least almost symptom-free.
I couldn’t just sit back and let the race pass, and my performance deteriorate further. I undid the cancellation of my minshuku reservation and went to Gunma on the same day I had arrived at Narita.
JCRC Race No. 9 – Gunma (18 October)
This is the toughest of the three races in Gunma, because it is the longest: 12 laps of a hilly 6km in D-class, 72km in total. My sole goal was to keep up with the peleton and make it into the finish to collect my points. In the worst case somehow keep cycling for as long as possible and get some training into my body.
I ended up in between. I was still too weak and struggled to keep up on the longer climbs, and after them didn’t get the power together to do some catching up on the down hills and flats. I lost the peleton in the 6th lap, with still more than half of the race to go. This was a tough situation to be in: without the benefit of the draft and the motivation to keep up maximum speed, I would continue to fall behind, and risk being lapped eventually. Knowing too well, I powered through on my own, and made it into the 12th lap, probably just half a minute ahead of the peleton getting into finish. Now I was safe from being lapped, but I still was in danger of not coming in within 10% of the 10th (who would have been in the peleton) and thus not gaining any points. As long as I kept my speed, I was safe – the 13th so to speak of 12 laps should be shorter than 10% of those 12 laps. I kept it up and finished ahead of the cut-off, as 37th, 10 minutes behind the winner. By far my worst performance, but I had secured another 60 points, and with them I was far enough ahead to win the championship even if I crashed in one out of the two remaining races. 33.09km/h over a hilly and mostly lonely 72km (2:10:33).
No ride after this race – 72km on the track was sufficient training and I was still not sure whether I had done my prostate a favour.
JCRC Race No. 10 and Tour du Japon Race No. 4 – Yokkaichi (25 October)
Another hilly street course, far away from Tokyo. I checked out the course after registration on the previous day and completed it at a relatively leisurely pace in a decent time. I was confident I was back in form and would be able to keep up with the peleton on the long climb soon after the start and do the same once more in the second lap. In any case, all I needed was to arrive before the cut-off – with the minimum points I would be unassailable JCRC Champion 2009, even without participating in the remaining last race.
Indeed, everything worked smoothly – except for someone slipping twice right in front of me, in the tight corner just before the finish sprint. I managed to avoid them each time, and entered the final sprint in a leading position (except for two riders who had broken out some time ago). But I did not want to end up among the first six! So I slowed down during the sprint and made sure a few riders would pass me. Being unable to time this perfectly, I ended up 9th, 17 seconds behind the winner. 37.00km/h over a hilly 18km (0:29:12).
I was JCRC Champion! A dream had become true.
I left for a celebration ride, intending to make the most out of my time in Yokkaichi by crossing into adjacent Shiga-ken and from there through another mountain pass further north back into Mie-ken. This turned out to be quite an adventure. Buhei Toge was shown as a national highway on maps, but when I had climbed it half way up through a side road, further access was blocked. I asked a cyclist coming down on the forbidden side. Yes, it was possible to ride up another 3km or so, but then there was a huge landslide, impossible to pass. Normally I don’t take this for a word and know that almost any landslide or construction can be circumvented, but this time somehow I sensed this was different. I cycled up with the firm intention of turning around and returning to Tokyo early.
The landslide was indeed massive. So massive that it was clearly impossible or at least extremely dangerous to attempt to walk over it. But then I noticed a hiking path that seemed to lead around it, and indeed, having carried my bike for five minutes up a steep hill (I know why I’m using SPD pedals!), I ended up back on the road, beyond the landslide. I had a well built-out kokudo all for myself, up to the tunnel pass, and then all the way down into Shiga-ken.
After a lunch break in the first village, I crossed over north along the lower slopes of the mountain ridge I had just crossed. Quite a bit of up and down, but very scenic, and very quiet. Eventually I reached the next kokudo that would lead over Ishigure Toge back into Mie-ken. According to the maps. Somehow I found it strange that there was relatively little traffic on this national highway, despite the one further south having been closed. Soon I reached a sign saying that the road was closed further ahead, due to landslides… Oh no! If this was really true (for a change), this meant real trouble, as going even further north to the next pass would take so much time that I would never make it back to Yokkaichi (where I had left my luggage) in day-light.
I asked a shop owner and she swore the road was really closed, but when pushed said that some hikers had managed to get through, but that it had been very tough. Hmm, that didn’t sound very reassuring. But I felt I had no choice as the alternative was not appealing.
As I cycled up, a police car overtook me. I was hoping they weren’t going to check whether I was going to enter the forbidden section. I passed repeated signs that the road was closed and it was not allowed to proceed, but no actual barriers, so I went on. No police car in sight. I was all by myself, climbing through a very long construction site. „So this is where the landslide was… As so often, already totally ready to be passed…“ Back on the old road, I approached a new tunnel being drilled through the mountain. I took the old road to climb up further, despite worrying signs warning of landslides and road closure. Indeed, I came across what looked like small landslides that had been tidied up recently. And then the police car approached me, from ahead! I nodded friendly, and they didn’t stop. It felt reassuring to see the police allowing me to go that far, and apparently even further.
After lots of curves , I finally reached the pass. Well, what used to be a pass. It was blocked by concrete blocks, making it impossible for anyone but pedestrians, or a bicycle, to pass.
I went down on the other side. The road was in horrible condition. And after the first bent a big landslide covering the full breadth of the road, having torn away parts of it.
I walked over it and rolled down further. The next landslide. The same spectacle would continue, countl
ess times. But there was a hiker going downhill on the same road… I was reassured tha
t if that person could get down, so could I, if need be on foot. An
d so I made it through landslide after landslide, none too scary not to pass over them.
Eventually, I got to the other side of the newly built tunnel, and from there it was a fast autobahn run down into the valley, and another 35km back to Yokkaichi.
JCRC Race No. 11 and Tour du Japon Race No. 5 – Saiko (8 November)
As I was already JCRC champion for 2009, I could have skipped this very last race of the season. However, it offered the chance to go for an outright race win, something I had to avoid before not to be upgraded into the C-class and possibly not have sufficient points any longer to become champion (though in retrospect it turned out I had more points than both the C-class and B-class champions). Also, there was still the Tour du Japon rating where I was only a distant second and with the last race offering double points, a very strong showing by myself and a mediocre one by the leading contender could still make me Tour du Japon Champion.
So the dream was to win the race and cash in not only a first prize for a race, but also two championships. But dreams become rarely true – in so many races I
had started thinking I could do well and ended up not quite where I wanted. In this race, it was all down to saving energy for the first 19km and then having the right tactic for the final sprint, on an uphill section. My tactic was simple: never go first, always draft behind others, and switch always behind the fastest riders pulling ahead. All of this on an uphill section where hopefully not all riders could keep up with the pace (or as it turned out would crash!) so the field would become thinner, making it easier to find space to switch places.
Somehow it worked out exactly as planned. All I had to do is to pull together all my energy without going into overdrive and running out of steam too early, and then sprinting away over the last 200m. I could not believe it! Another dream, and this time a really unexpected one, had become true! And how nice to hear my name being announced over the loudspeakers – „a foreigner had won, what a surprise!“ 41.19km/h over an almost flat 20km (0:29:08).
I was showered with medals, award certificates, winner jerseys and other presents for the bike in the subsequent ceremonies. What a nice feeling when one has never ever won anything in sports before. My results at school were always embarrassingly bad; I was never a star on the football or basketball pitch.
But now is the time to bow out of racing. Not only is it quite demanding to make sure one doesn’t miss attendance of these eleven races all over Japan, racing is also quite dangerous. I have seen many people crash, and at best nice bikes being ruined, at worst ambulances take away riders. Flat races in particular were orgies of blood, because they attract many riders who are too unskilled or inexperienced to ever be in a race. There are fewer of them in hilly races, and the remaining ones mostly fall behind the peleton and thus pose less of a risk to others. I was both sufficiently lucky and skilled to avoid any crashes (sometimes escaping sliding riders by a few centimeters), but I do not want to count on my luck for longer.
Instead I shall focus on riding purely for pleasure, and discovering new mountain passes and areas of Japan. It is becoming increasingly difficult to discover anything new in the vicinity of Tokyo, where I must by now know almost every mountain road up to 150-200km away from Tokyo. Most of my rides take me that far and thanks to the very efficient public transport system, I can easily return home by train, having packed up my bike in a small bag that I always carry with me (it’s like a parachut, letting me bail out whereever I want, as long as there is a train station).
In the 15 months since starting, I have ridden 14,000km in total – which compares to something like 16,000km which I have ridden in my previous 39 years (I’ve kept records!). I do want to fall back to the pace of my first 39 years, but I’m also unlikely to keep up this year’s pace. As long as I get sufficient exercise, discover new passes and have good company (not all necessarily always at the same time!), I shall be happy.
With my greatest thanks to MOB, without whom this would have never happened (starting it, buying the right gear, using it the right way, cycling the right roads, learning the right racing strategy, getting prepared for races, etc. etc.) and the larger PE and even TCC community,
Ludwig
Plenty of new discoveries on the way to Kofu
Work during the first week of the New Year kept me busier than hoped, including a three-day business trip to Singapore. At least I was able to travel in the new business class of Singapore Airlines, their new Airbus 380, which features real flat beds. If only the return trip over night had been a bit longer and less bumpy… Not sure how fit I would be after this exhausting week, I decided it was safer to venture out on my own yesterday.
The goal was to discover as many new roads as possible, starting from home. And I got plenty of that.
I continued on Setagaya Dori beyond where I usually get onto the Tamasai, continuing basically always straight towards Machida, eventually ending up in Aikawa, the first rural town, lying at the foot of Miyagase Lake. We always approach Miyagase Lake from the north, passing it on its western side to climb up to Yabitsu – or vice versa. This time, I wanted to see what it looked like from the east.
On the way up to the dam, I passed a nice farm.
There were nice views from the dam, including of the rest area where we normally stop on the western shore, and of the Tanzawa range behind it. The mountains were lighly covered with snow above 1,000 meters.
I left for Doshimichi, but instead of going up the new road that we always take, I cycled through the old road leading through the surprisingly large village of Aonehara, and ending just beyond the new Seven-Eleven, which became my first pit stop.
I continued on Doshimichi until Nohara, where I turned onto the Nohara Rindo leading up to Gando Toge, which Tom had mentioned recently on his blog. It was a nice climb in the warming sun from 450m to 800m, with great views of the Doshi valley below and Fuji-san.
At Gando Toge, I encountered a group of mountain bikers who had just reached the top from the other side and sounded completely exhausted. There was another, obviously much slower, group a few hundred altitude meters below. (These were the only cyclists I saw all day outside urban areas!) If I’m not mistaken, this was the same group of people I had seen earlier in the morning putting their MTBs into vans in front of the Bex Isoya bike shop on Setagaya Dori. If only they knew how I had got to the same spot!
The rindo down was as steep as it had been going up on the other end. No wonder the MTB riders had suffered – probably not the „little bit of up and down“ that their shop had promised to them…
I could have continued straight all the way down this valley until reaching the kendo running through Akiyama valley. Instead, I decided to explore another rindo branching off to the west, about two thirds down the descent. This Kanami Rindo led me another 150m up to a Kanami Tunnel at 620m, just below Kanami Toge. It offered nice views of the Akiyama valley.
I continued the same rindo for another few kilometers until it led to the kendo going up the Akiyama valley. From there I was again on familiar territory, going up to Hinazuru tunnel and down the other side.
Instead of continuing straight to route 139 (or going through Suzugane), I branched off to the south, up another hill of 100m or so to take a short-cut to route 139 running south. After my second pit-stop at a Seven-Eleven just before hitting route 139, I braved the strong wind blowing against me and the endless chain of cars passing me to battle my way up to Kawaguchiko. I passed by the lake on its western end and climbed up to Saiko, where I wanted to circumvent the lake against clock-wise direction, on its northern shore – i.e. against the direction of the races (and all training) there.
This turned out to be not such a wise desire as there was quite some snow left on all those stretches of the road which the winter sun did not easily reach. Being used to cycle on snow from my childhood days, I rode through all the snow and ice patches, but with such thin tyres without any kind of profile, it stopped being fun after doing this every few hundred meters for another few hundred meters, and basically continuously once in the forest and heading up to route 139.
Back on route 139, the road was clear and I reached Shojiko with its great views of Fuji-san quite quickly.
I then passed through the Shojiko Tunnel from where it was a fast downhill from 950m to 500m. Instead of continuing along the same kokudo straight to Kofu, I branched off into the Ashigawa valley, which basically runs parallel to the lakes I had just passed. It was completely free of traffic, and I had a large road all by myself leading up to the Torizaka Tunnel at 1,020m, just below a pass of the same name.
On the other side, I had stunning views of Kofu and the Yatsudake range behind it. From there, it was a very fast downhill into Kofu. At some point, I hit 70km/h, but could have gone even faster had it not been for a fear of hitting snowy and icy patches which existed here and there.
181km with 2,300m of climbing, and plenty of new discoveries, at freezing temperatures (mostly 2 to 7 degrees).
Eingeordnet unter 2010
TOMORROW’S RIDE PROPOSAL: MIURA HANTO LOOP…POSTPONED
Someone has got to break the weeklong silence, so let me take the initative and propose the following ride for tomorrow (or, alternatively on Monday):
Assembly: 7:00 @ Onekan „Mercedes Benz Showroom“ Intersection, or, 9:00 @ Enoshima Bridge
Highlight of the ride is a brief stopover and lunch at Maruyoshi Fisherman’s Canteen in Miyakawa Harbor…delicious (if you like fresh fish dishes). Total distance should be less than 200k but do bring along your rinko parachute if you have no great faith in your legs (reasonable „LSD-pace“ guaranteed…).
Who’s in ? Too early?? Too cold?? Shall we move up departure times with 30 minutes??
21:35…Tomorrow’s ride postponed : for various reasons (overseas trip, half-marathon race, unfamiliarity with RdV spot and distance, spouse opposition (!), etc.) nobody gave firm commitment. Will go SOLO! Hitting the sack now. Might do re-run on Monday.
Eingeordnet unter Tom
2 1/2 hours Freezing in Motegi
After the Ekiden ride on January 2nd, I enjoyed another another 100 km bicycle race at Motegi with some of the TCC guys two days later.
In preparation for this race I did two things: First, I rode up to Hakone on the Ekiden ride which made my legs feel like pudding and would gave me ample excuses for any bad performances on the track. Second, I spend the afternoon before the race at the house of my in-laws in Saitama which is extremely cold (it feels comparatively warm outside of the house) and which should prepare me for the winter hardships of the Japanese countryside.
As I have stayed there also in winter some years ago, I can assure that standing naked in the bathroom and waiting for hot water to come out of the tap can be the coldest experience you might ever have in your life time. The only thing that saved me then was the distraction provided by the set of false teeth of my mother in law in a glass of water (the teeth, not the mother) strategically placed on a cupboard at eye height.
I went straight to Omiya, then by Shinkansen to Oyama and the by Mito line to Shimodate within no time. From there I had to take the Mokaline to Motegi. Oh, you haven’t heard of the Moka Line （真岡鉄道) ? Well it a one-car train, powered by a diesel engine as the tracks are not electrified yet (and they will probably never will) which leave about once an hour from Shimodate station.
So I had to wait almost an hour at the station there (amusement provided by a big pachinko parlour in front of it), nothing much else. Oh right, I went shopping for 45 minutes at a 7-Eleven.
Before I could take the train which took another hour to Motegi. The last 15 minutes I was alone in the train, even all country pumpkins have left some stations before.
Phil and Clay picked me up at the station, train stop would be more appropriate and after a quick stop at another 7-Eleven we drove to Hotel Pomodoro where also the other TCC guys had already checked in.
I shared a room with Keith and while watching „Die Hard 4.0“ we all planned our race strategy., I didn’t listened too carefully as I was constantly amazed by all the wonderful things Bruce Willis can do and how is able to survive in a movie. Although I could help to notice that the shape of his head resembles very much the head of the water turtle we have some bought some months ago.
But I heard constantly the words „try to survive“ and „wheelsucking“ repeated all over again.
When I woke up the next morning at 6.00 AM it was cold. Outside it was even colder, definitely less than zero degrees. We rode up to Motegi and assembled our gear. And in no time we were lined up at the start line. Phil, Keith, Jessie and Yeap were all there and we took some photos of us shivering. Clay was already leading the race by this time.
Then the race started and I never felt cold again for the reminder of the day. We were not in the front line, but at last within the first 200 riders I guess. And the first two laps were behind a pacmaker and that was crazy as everybody was trying to get to the front and there were a lot of dangerous situations. For the first time I didn’t noticed exactly when the pace making car pulled away as the field was still packed and it took time to accelerate and get faster.
Opposed to the seven hour enduro race, one lap is only about 5 km long as the speed oval is not integrated (so no 180 degree hairpins luckily) and in addition the direction is the other way round. So one doesn’t have to ride up this steep hill (although the track is basically flat). In the opposite direction the climb is much longer and more gradual. It consists of a (relatively) steep first part, a flatter part in a S curve and a very gradual part until a wide 180 degree hairpin curve.
Now with the speed picking up I stayed within the first group of about 100+ riders for the next 4 laps. I also saw Phil again, first I overtook him, that he overtook me again on a downhill portion of the track. Then we were running up that hill and of course the thing happens that happens every time on hills, which is that a group of about 100 riders went ahead, a gap was created and I found myself in the second fastest group. And of course I felt miserable and I thought to myself, why I am doing this, getting up early in the morning, visiting my in-laws, freezing in the cold, exhausting myself for the rest of the week and and and. So in short, the typical thoughts that run to my head before more endomorhine kicks in, erase the pain, make logical thinking impossible.
So I was in a group with about 20 other riders and after some more laps I recognized the jerseys and we stayed together for the next 5-6 laps when we were overtaken on our lap 11 or 12 by the fast group. That group was still very big.
The speed of my group was not that fast, I could easily keep up and here I made the mistake not to jump on the fast group again. So perhaps I wouldn’t have been able to keep their speed but I should have tried at least.
So I continued with my 20 rider group, sometimes taking turns in the front. Amazingly I was faster up the hill then the other guys. I had more momentum on the bottom part, then I was slow at the S surve but had more power on the gradual climb up to the hair needle. So I always lost some places downhill but I made them up on the hill – quite extraordinary given the fact that I have to carry more than 100 kgs up the hill (heavy bike, lead frame with steel wheels) while the average Japanese competitor weights about half of that with his bike.
Then we were overtaken by another fast group which I thought in the beginning was the second fastest group (so we were only the third fastest) but this group couldn’t get away from us. So then I realized that they were actually the third fastest group and we were only too slow so that they have caught up with us.
And in this group we stayed until the end. I was feeling much better know and the last six laps I was taking it rather easy on the flat and downhills parts, going no risk while making places good on the hills. Also I saw Keith and Jessie again.
At the final hill I made up some places again, the went fast on the straight and down and sprinted up to the finishing straight. But I have somehow missed the info that the last part was divided into two lanes, the left one for the riders which were still continuing while the right one was for the finishers. So I ended up on the left lane and had to cross over to the right one. Later, when reading the results I realized that I have lost some time there and I came in about 30th in a group of 50 riders. At least I was able to catch the 2nd placed MTB rider shortly before the finish.
Well it could be expected that the competition would be hard as riding out in Motegi in the cold on January 4th is not exactly what people do if they are not really desperate for bike racing.
Interesting enough, Jessie, Yeap, Keith and me came in all more or less at 2:45 hr despite not staying together as group during the race. The complete race results are here.
It is interesting to note that there was a fast group with about 80 riders, all finishing in the 2:29 to 2:31 hr bracket (including Clay), followed by smaller groups of about 40 riders, all together and then another big group of 50 riders finishing at 2:45 very close to each other again.
As usual, you have to stay in a good group matching your speed, otherwise there will not be a good result.
I rode back to the pit where I saw Phil fully dressed, assuming that he had finished in the 2:30 hr group and now wanted to impress us with his fast change- clothing abilities. But in fast he had punctured and was forced to abandon the race which I guess is the maximum penalty life has to offer on a cold day in Motegi.
It was a nice race and I enjoyed the nice company on Keith and the others. Also I would ike to thank Phil for organizing everything and taking me back to a huge train station wher Clay and me rode the train home to Nippori and further.
I was pretty tired and very hungry as the contrast between the usual holiday meal and the scare food on the racing day was too much. So I visited a McD on the ay home – that shows how desperate I was.
Anyway, only four days in the year and already 250 km of riding done.
And good rides they were.
Eingeordnet unter 2010, Cervelo Soloist, Mob, tcc
Ekiden in Pictures
Rather than to add further writings about the Ekiden event, I post some of the pictures Ludwig and me took along the ride.
Ok, I can not restrain myself and will add some comments nevertheless. This also should serve as a reminder when I plan the event next year again.
It took me about 45 minutes from my house to the meeting point at Route 15 at the Tamagawa. The meeting point is easy to miss if you come from Tokyo as one has to leave the main road and ride down from the flyover.
James and Dominic came shortly thereafter and as the Tokyo group was not in sight we started at 8:25. The first part is not so pleasant, I found. There is still a lot of traffic, many police on the streets and many red traffic lights. One is probably as fast as the runners on this stretch.
We kept our group together, had some talks with the police here and there and then one of the spokes of my rear wheel decided to break. As I was organizing and perhaps a little bit more nervous than usual, one spoke missing made me even more nervous. The wheel was still true but I limited myself to about 40 km/hr on the downhills.
We were late for the meeting point in Fujisawa but Kori has hold out there, so I was happy that this went well, after we have missed the Tokyo group or vice versa.
After Fujisawa is there is a fast stretch on the coast road where we gained alot of time and where riding was fun with Fuji-san clearly visible right in front of us. Also Ludwig and David A caught up with us there.
Then we all had together a last break an a Combini in Odawara before the serious portion of the ride started. Now Ludwig was also pushing to start, so I could relax a little bit from my organizing role. It was clear that we wouldn’t stay together as a group on the climb from the beginning.
I don’t know why, but the road between Odawara and Moto-Hakone is not a very pleasant one. There is only a slightly incline, but it feels like 10%. And we almost got stopped by a policeman again, but Ludwig and me could ignore him and continue. We could also see another pair of pinchers from hell on the rights ide of the road, but they refrained from grabing us.
At the beginning of the official Togebaka climb at Asahikawa Bridge, Ludwig, James and me were together with me leading and the others were somewhere behind. We stayed together for about 6 or 7 minutes and then Ludwig and James went ahead. David A also overtook me some minutes later. But that was it, I overtook some more riders on the way up. The traffic was rather bad with a lot of buses and sometimes I had to squeeze my way up between a bus and a line of spectators. One time I even had to stop. And I was slowly running out of power. I particular dislike the slope after the Fujiya hotel which isn’t that steep again, but for some reasons hard.
Then I reached the huge Yunessun Onsen at about 600 m elevation and this is always the point on this climb where I think, OK I have almost made it and now it is only a few more meters. Some minutes later I was overtaking a struggling Japanese rider, I thought and shoute „Gambatte“ as encouragement, only to find out that it was Graham. I wanted to be up fast, so we didn’t talk too much and then I saw James taking a break at the roadside in front of me. Before he saw me, he started again and I could caught up with him. We then stayed together until the ENEOS gas station where he said „Oh, that was hard“, while I said „It is not over yet!“, as we still needed to go down one hill and do one more short climb. 55 minutes an something was not a shabby time for me, better than last year (always important) and much better than the 1:35 hr I needed some years ago. Ludwig was by now already at the goal.
So James and me ride together into the finish area, seeing all the cheerleaders, hearing all the bands (Playing „Popeye, the sailorman“) and watching the Supporters of Tokyo Nogyo Daigaku (Agricultural University) swinging big radishes in support for their team.
I opted for the Assos Fugu jacket, which was the right choice for the first 20 minutes in the morning but was afterwards simply much too warm. Too cold was never an issue on this day. Luckily the day was sunny so I laid it upside down in the sun so that the sweat could dry.
Dominic also made it in front of the runners, very well done. And Graham as well.
So after watching some of the runners, we rode up to the Michi no Eki restaurant where we had some Soba and Udon and told each other our stories. 
Ludwig and me wore our JCRC championship jerseys of 2008 and 2009 and we made some photos.
There was nobody elase coming so we made our way down to Atami. The traffic was bad up to Route 20, but from there onwards it was OK. The road was beautiful as usual, but I was very catious with me spokeless rear wheel so I didn’t enjoyed it as much as I do normally.
And in Atami we were greeted by an assortment of Geisha in the 60 – 96 years age bracket who congratulated Ludwig on his JCRC championship while all of us got there „Otoshidama“ from them.
Then back on the Shinkansen, very crowded but only 25 minutes to Shinyokohama for me with a beer in my hand.
A very nice start into the 2010 riding season. I felt a little bit sorry about the rider we have left behind or didn’t made it, so as some of the other have checked with Yair, I checked with Kori later. As we started also much more earlier the climb this year, than last year, there was also les stress that the runners would overto\ake our leading group. And of course we were faster but I would assume that the last runner of Toyo is stil faster on the stretch between Odawara and the finish than I was. Amazing.
Eingeordnet unter 2010, Cervelo Soloist, James, Mob
bikesnob28hb
fixiefanboyhb
sudi1662
there is no "I" in cyclyng 
