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Größtenteils harmlos.
von | 13. November 2007 · 07:32

Jan-Ulrich’s disastrous comeback


dpa / After being inactive for over a year in Germany, Jan-Ulrich decided to attend the E-class race at this year’s Saiko event of the Tour de Japon. When the race started, the sky was a full blue and the road surface had almost completely dried up, perfect conditions for fast two laps at this 10 km round course around the lake of Saiko. Against strong contenders from Japan as well as from the French NFCC team, Jan-Ulrich controlled the peloton from behind and managed to stay with the field until the sharp corner at the 15 km mark. When he start to accelerate hard out of the saddle after the curve, his rear wheel blocked and he flew right over his bike on the road. Three other riders were also caught in the crash, but all of them managed to continue the race after a short break.

It later turned out that the rear wheel has not been fixed securely in place as the tension device of the TUNE spanner has dropped over time. The rear wheel then jumped against the seatstay and blocked. Accelerating Jan-Ulrich virtually catapulted over his bike when he couldn’t stop his feet movements.

He then proceed to the next first aid station, where he got some band aid and bandages – his orange jersey has been ripped to pieces. „I was lucky not to broke my two wrists when I tried to dampen the impact to fall on the road.“ he said later. Also he was lucky that none other rider rode over him.

He then completed the race, stopped on the way to chat with some supporters from Ireland and finished last in dismayal 44 minutes.

Three days later he seems to be on the road to recovery, although every move still hurts. „First I didn’t felt any pain as I was still under shock and I could even enjoy the Milky Way Race. But driving home was already very painful and I still can’t move properly. I guess my comeback is over.“

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Eingeordnet unter 2007, Mob

von | 8. November 2007 · 06:07

Giro de Hotaka

Last weekend, I met Michael & his family, Marek, Stephen & Ryoko at Hotaka. I was there with my “French team” to participate in the Day Two “Giro de Hotaka,” a 121km ride around Mount Hotaka in Gunma Pref. The size of this event (max. 300 riders), gorgeous surroundings and variety of the parcourse (more downhill than uphill) makes this event a very attractive & recommendable one to all Positivo Espresso riders!

One drawback as David pointed out correctly is the dangerous „touristy ride-cum-race“ mixed format and this is what our friend Marek found out much to his frustration. Some guy touched Marek’s back wheel at the first downhill section at 40-50km/h, started to whobble and crashed! Marek, his wheel damaged beyond repair, was forced to sit out the rest of the race in the “broom wagon” trailing behind the last rider (which Marek told me was a pain to look at).

For some people including me, the event did not fully live up to its expectations. A lack of race marshals on major turns and intersections caused too much confusion. At the “Junction of Doom,” I led a pack of about 15 riders on the wrong road losing more than half an hour! Otherwise the organization was good…o-miyage maitake mushrooms, bananas & VAAMs at two aid stations, mushroom soup, a piece of apple & lunch box at the end of the race…

“Giro de Hotaka” + the short Hotaka Hillclimb on Day 1 is a two-day event I definitely want to participate in again next year. Hopefully there will be many of the Positivo Espresso riders going as well.

Here is map / elevation chart of this marvelous „Giro“: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/bicycle/race/htkgiro/route.htm

mob: and here are the results : http://www.ne.jp/asahi/bicycle/race/result.htm

And I have some more pictures I wanted to add :

One showing Marek still optimistic before the start of the race. If only his speedmeter would have worked properly.

My family was also completely at the race and Anna our Aupair also joined. I hope that I can convert her during her 10 months stay in Japan into a cycling addict.

Should present her with the TREK bike from Tom.

TOM: If it’s for Anna I’ll fix you a special price!!

MOB : Did you see that Anna? Tom and me are getting serious here. I think you can do it, I mean you can still watch our kids, learn Japanese, go to HipHop dacing classes, enjoy nights out in Roppongi, Skype all your friends in Germany, get your friends to come to Japan, maintain your blog

ANNA: Ok, here is the deal: I’m looking for the kids, going to my Hip Hop classes, keep on stalking my family and friends in Germany (and get them to visit Japan), BUT: I’m quitting my Japanese class. Because I don’t think that I need any Japanese skills during cycling… 🙂

Then there is a photo of Ryoko, actually taken when I wanted to take a photo of Stephen as he was assembling his bike before the race. But as he was bended over and showed bis back to me it turned out not to be a good photo at all. But just by chance Ryoko was also somehow on the photo and she looks here very mysterious like Bernard Albrecht from NEW ORDER on the famous cover of FACE magazine, designed by Neville Brody in the Eighties. Stephen and Ryoko are really nice people and as a couple very harmonious. I should be full of praise.

Ein Kommentar

Eingeordnet unter Mob, Stephen, Tom

von | 21. Oktober 2007 · 14:26

The day we rode up to Yabitsu

David, david, Juliane and me met 8 AM at David’s house and we planned to meet Tom at Sekidobashi and ride up to Yabitsu, the perhaps back along the coast to Kamakura.



The rugby worlcup final match England against South Africa has started just at 4 AM the same day, so david was without any sleep and promptly he rode over a red traffic light on our way to Futago Tamagawa. So when I heard the sound of a car braking and then flesh on metal I naturally thought that david was still sleeping or just became awake, but in fact in was David who has hit a brandnew black Audi A6. Some scratches on the motor hood. David basically ok, stating that this has not heard as much as the crash with the Taxi some weeks ago. we needed to call the police and make proper filing, then we had a chance to visit the Segafredo at Futago while David was returning home to exchange his broken front wheel. I asked him if he told his wife about the accident. No, he didn’t, he downed two pain killers, told his wife that he had a mechanical problem and off he was to join us for a cup of coffee.


Finally at ten we left. Tom decided in the meantime to do his own training. We made leisurely speed up to Miyagase Lake, where we had a longer break. Total beautiful autumn weather. Kosmos and Kibana Kosmos blooking everywhere. Had a good meal and then we made the approach up to Yabitsu. Really one of my favourite rides, it is like going down two times because going up is mostly so gradual and even some flat stretches, you hardly realize that you are going up.


Midway I accelerated and went up on my own. Then we took some pictures on the top and went down the other side to Hadano where we hoped the train and went to Noborito (David and me) and Yoyogi Uehara (Juliane and david) respectively. Most beautiful day, I felt so happy on the road. Probably radiated happiness.

2 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2007, David, Juliane, Mob, Tom

von | 17. Oktober 2007 · 12:02

THE POSITIVO ESPRESSO BLOG STARTS

Since some time I have a blog on my own where I post photos and stories. However I found that I have two completely different group of people reading my blog [if it is read at all]. One group consists of my family, my relatives and my friends and they are mainly interested in the stories about my family and in particular about our kids. The other group are bike riders from the area, as I write a lot about the rides I do on the weekends and the races I attend.

After all I came to the conclusion that it might be better to divide this blogs into two. And give the other riders also the possibility to add blogs, posts photos etc. on this blog.

So this is the start.

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