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The best food ever invented has now finally arrived on the counters of Japanese food retailers. Please note the „cyclist only“ design. I knew it right from the start that this will enhance my performance.

Thousands of shopping bikes lined up on a huge street. A common sight in Japan at any given train station. However, I was not standing in front of a station but at the start of the Fuji Speedway Race Track where also Formula One races are held. On Sunday, the Shopping Bike Grand Prix Race was held there.

An interesting concept, bicycle races hold on the fastest circuit for the highest performing cars, with the lowest cost riding option available, a typical Japanese shopping bike or Mama-chari, which can be bought for approximately 10.000 – 20.000 JPY. The shopping bike is somehow the more expensive version of an umbrella in Japan. One tends to forget in front of a station but is perhaps not so much irritated about it and buys a new one immediately. It cost less than two Continental tires for my road racing bike.

So my team „INGENIUM„, entry number 746, has bought a brand new mama chari for the race. We never did this with Positivo before. For the technical-minded pro riders, here are the specifications :

• A must have is the shopping basket mounted over the front wheel. You need this for the optimal aerodynamic positioning.

• Ours had a three gear Shimano Nexus shifter. Others had none. It works differently than the shifters on road bikes. You need to turn the handle shifter at least 5 seconds before you actually want to shift and then pedal like hell. If you are lucky the shifter actually shifts when you need it. If you are not lucky, it doesn’t. Or does too late.

• Most shopping bikes have a backwards curved handle. In combination with the low seat position this reminds you not to do anything imprudent. Ours luckily had a straight handle.

• The tire size is limited to 26 inch.

• The saddle post height can be adjusted from BOP to BAOP („Bottoms on the pedals“ to „Bottoms almost on the paddle.

• All bike have compact cranks (inner only).
  

Sadly enough, I saw some bikes which had a 6 gears rear derailleur mounted and I can see the same tendency as in road biking: Upgrading the equipment as one is too lazy or simply cannot upgrade the performance of his own body. And that attendants are willing to spend a lot of money on high-grade shopping bikes. I am afraid that it will be only a matter of time when we will see aerodynamic optimized carbon shopping baskets, titan-made bicycle stands and Speedplay cleats for high heel shoes.

I left the house early in the morning, at 4:30 hr to be precise, with our car. Otherwise my team members would have picked me up at 2:30 hr. „We need to avoid traffic congestion“, was the logical argument. It took me about 90 minutes to arrive at Fuji Speedway, and the race started at 8:40 hr. So I guess my teammates had ample time between 4 and 8.30 hr to prepare themselves for the race. Japanese group organization – still not use how to cope with that after all these years here.

Not that preparation is a bad thing. But it definitely is not much fun if it is pitch dark, the landscape is covered in snow and it is freezing cold. Plus there is nothing to do but to wait for the start of the race.

I arrived at the parking lot of the Fuji Speedway and I thought that mistakenly I have driven my daughter to her figure skate training and parked in the middle of the ice rink. Because of the rain the night before, the road was frozen with water and it was almost impossible to walk. I could not even take my MTB up to the start: impossible to ride on it, impossible to go with it.

Everybody was already there and the atmosphere was about the same as the temperature. I thought that we had already a huge amount of grilling and other equipment at our ground, but I saw some more things at our teams which I have not seen so far at other bicycle races: For example a huge stone bowl for making 　sticky rice cakes (Omochi) on a massive wooden stand, at least 50 kg of weight. This was not part of a food stall, but belonged to a racing team.

Also I saw some items which one usually sees at bicycle races: for example rollers where riders on shopping bikes got warmed up. As I have never ever been on a roller, I asked if I could have a try and, yes, I could and so I had my first roller experience on a mama chari.

Actually the whole atmosphere is more like a Japanese Matsuri (festival), than a race.
Then the race started with Yatsuo being our first rider. He is addicted to MTB downhills so he has some cycling experience. We get the saddle out to the maximum and off he is for the start. The other attendants there can be classified in the following groups:

• Normal people, as seen on shopping bikes on the streets of Japan – 90%
• People dressed up as Darth Wader, Baikinman, Maids are other stupid characters – 5%
• People dressed up as cuddly toys – 3% [Toms nightmare]
  
• Professional road racers – 2%
  

My favourite group was one team where every member was disguised as egg plant and had Japanese flags attached to their bag with slogans written on them. I called then „The right wing eggplant field“ or 右翼なす畑. My favourite bike was the one which had mounted a small wooden Japanese house on the back with a board written „Grilled Potatoes“ (焼き芋）.

Yatsu gives everything, makes two laps and is back after 25 minutes. Some of the pro teams are fast, after the first lap the first rider crosses the line in under 9 minutes.

Then it is my turn. At least it is sunny now and the roads are not frozen any more. The way out of the pit is a disaster. As most people have no racing experience, they ride their bikes just like in normal traffic : Moving suddenly to the left or right, cutting corners, not looking behind – this is dangerous stuff here …. this is even more dangerous than a JCRC F class race. This is like P or Q class at best.

The first part of Fuji Speedway is rather nice, a fast downhill, some easy curves. I have never ridden on that bike before, but it feels OK, I try my best, at least aerodynamically. The second part is climbing. Much to my surprise I have to shift down into second gear for the climb. And then even in the first gear. No way to pedal hard, when one cannot extend ones legs. I almost came to a still stand.

I jump out of the saddle, but somehow the position is awkward, the handle height is OK if you sit on the low saddle, but with my height, when I jump up, my arms are too short, so I need to lean forward and my chin almost scraps over the front wheel. It feels like pedaling in one of these swanboats.

But I am still much better doing than a lot of other riders. I would guess that almost two thirds of all riders are walking up the slope. I come to the straight finish and accelerate as fast as I can, then put my hands at the basket and lean my body into the airstream.

One more lap like that and I am back in the pit after 21 minutes. So it took me 10.30 min for one lap in average. My best time at the endurance race with Alain last year here was 7:10 min.

We had four fast laps and we are in 23rd position – out of 962 teams. Not bad.

Then, unfortunately, the other eight members or our team are doing their laps. They share Winston Churchhill’s approach to sports and their performance is exactly like that. Our ranking goes down to above 100, then Yatsuo and me do are four laps, we go up and the down again. This continues until the end of the race, where we finish between 90th and 100th most likely.

Nevertheless I had a good time. Some days later back on the road bike I wonder why I am so high above the road and I am almost afraid to fall down – this is how a day on a mama chari can alter your point of view.

I am pretty sure that with a good bike (6 gears rear derailleur plus long saddlepost) and a strong team of riders from Positivo Espresso and/or TCC we could make a top finish a any Mama Chari race. But we need to act fast, before others find out.

[photos to follow – perhaps]

OK, this one will be hard to beat: I rode from my house to IKEA Kohoku store and back today in the afternoon. All in all 4.8 km. But it was cold today plus heavily raining, it definitely didn’t feel like fun. One more day out on the bike, somehow.

By the way, IKEA is now my favorite escape point of the season. During weekdays the cafe is wide, open, empty and light so I can take my PC there, have a very good meal, drink all day for free and access the web on the WLAN. Sometimes I work, sometimes I eat, sometimes I check out good looking mothers. The IKEA CEO was right, their competitors in Japan are not other furniture companies but Disneyland.

From my house to IKEA
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I don’t like getting out of my warm bed early in the morning on a cloudy winter day in Yokohama. Or any other city. If I had knew, that I would be in my bed again 13 hours later, would this have changed my mind? No, because out of this 13 hours, I would have been on the bike for 11.

Ludwig and me met at Tamagawahara bridge, our new meeting point at 8.30 AM and discussed where to go. Doshimichi to Yamanakako was one idea, Kazahari Rindo another. We were in the middle of a heated discussion [as usual] when I looked down my bike and noticed that I did not only forgot to bring my water bottle, but also my bike bag. So we had to come up with something that would bring us home on the bike or at least close. We decided then to go for Tsuru and Tawa as this was a new road for Ludwig and one I have not taken since summer [when I went there with Tom, Nishibe and Laurent on my failed approach to climb Odarumi].

We had some headwind at the Tamagwa and did not progress too fast. So it took some time until we reached Aurore bakery in front of Ome station where I had my traditional breakfast of Royal Milk Bread, delicious as always. Then we decided to make a turn over the bridge close to the house of Ryoko & Stephen and continued on the right side of the Tamagawa towards Okutama lake. Immediately we encountered a group of three bikers [brands of the bikes as well as crank types unknown] which were not exactly slow but no match for us. In order not to be overtaken by no means by these guys we speeded all the way to Okutama and then we made the climb to Okutama lake which went pretty well. We saw the first snow of the season on stretches of the road in the shadow.

A had my Assos Fugu jacket on which is that warm, that I was profoundly sweating inside and I carried more water up the hills in my jacket than I do normally in my water bottle.

A longer lunch break at a non-traditional restaurant was followed by a trip along Okutama lake where we passed by the david J memorial traffic light and continued to the village of Kosuge, the startpoint to four famous passes: Matsuhime, Tsuru, Imagawa and Daibosatsu Pass [大菩薩峠]. Has somebody been up there? We asked a guy at the local grocery store if it is possible to ride up there, but he said „No way!“[道がありません] which of course doesn’t mean anything to us. Something for a MTB?

TOM’s comment: Congratulations Michael & Ludwig…that is a long ride for the mid-winter season! As to Daibosatsutoge, I attempted this one last Summer and confirm you cannot cycle up there which is a pity as it would be a nice alternative to the sometimes boring Yanagisawa. As you can read in my blog, I did the South-side approach where you can go all the way up and cross a ridge called Kamihikawa-toge　上日川峠 and then descend down to Yamato/Sasago. Excellent little road! As you go up, you can see on your righthand side those viaduct bridges leading to Enzan.

Actually I pondered the idea of buying a MTB after the excursion to route 76. After thinking for a while it became more than clear to me that in fact I do own a MTB, my Cannondale Bad Boy and I just need to buy a new set of MTB wheels, as I have now small 23C road wheels mounted. So I can get a MTB for about 40 – 50k JPY and start to explore the trails of Okutama – great. A new set of wheels will also not raise any suspicions at home of overspending as a new bike will most certainly will.

We started the climb up from Kosuge and for a moment we were thinking of riding out to Matsuhime, but the thought of riding back from Otsuki on route 20 let me state a definite „No“. After we have reached already elevation 800, we lost about 100 meters and then the rather steep climb to Tsuru started. I have never gone up that way before, the road is partly like an Autobahn and partly very steep. The whole route is in a valley and it looks somehow desolate and dark with only scare vegetation.

It reminded me of a place in South Tyrol where I went skiing with my parents when I was a kid. We were mostly skiing in a village called Taisten [or Tesido in Italian], which was on the top of a hill and fairly sunny, but sometime we went to a village in a nearby valley called Santa Magdalena which was in the shadow of the nearby mountains, always freezing cold and people used to be poor and grumpy. I always thought: Why are these guys there not moving to the next valley, Spain or California when life is so miserable there that one has to revert to and name places after catholic saints, perhaps to find some consolidation after death. Well, I guess it is the same reluctance that prevents us from marrying at the age of 20, buying a compact crank at 45 or shopping for adult pampers at 75.

We made it to the top and the following ascent on Tawa is much shorter than I had in mind. Then we followed the road to Uenohara and continued on road 20 to Otarumi where Ludwig made his attack and left me far behind. However, at Takaoguchi around 4 PM, Ludwig took the train home while I continued my punishment, partly through the dark.

Below you can see the MapMyRide Map, resulting from Ludwigs Hollux GPS recordings, and below that you see my CICLO data. Clearly one can see the Otraumi peak to the very right of Ludwigs MapMyRide, whereas I continued after the said peak (at less than 3/4 of the distance) and added another 55 km to this ride. I reached the Tamagawa in the sunset and the starting point of Tamagawahara bridge in complete darkness. Finally, after another 20 km through urban Yokohama I was home after an eleven hour trip of 195 km distance. I have not done many longer trips, except for Itoigawa and Shimoda in the summer and for sure I have never done a ride of similar distance during the off-season (November to February). But somehow it was a good training for the upcoming race on Saturday.

In the evening I had fever, agne and was basically I complete useless human being which could not provide any service whatsoever for my family. But I guess that is OK if it is for the sake of a higher purpose. Whatever that may be. Perhaps waking up in the morning in Teneriffe and joining the Astana team for a 3.000 meter ride?

As suggested by Ludwig, a brief post about the shortest ride today. 24 km from my house to the Tokyo American Club, temporary residing in the area between Gotanda and Shinagawa. I played 45 minutes Squash with Carsten. He won 4 times, I did two. We recognized that we already became old men and we should not engage in this kind of activities. My body still hearts terribly, I can hardly move and life is only bearable with a bottle of red wine in reach.

After squash an hour back to Yokohama. Rode on my Cannondale Bad Boy.

Christmas season is hell for bicycle riders. All the good food on the table, the sweets send from home by well meaning relatives plus the relatively cold weather outside give ample reason to stay at home and do nothing. With Ludwig coming back from a cycling shopping spre in Germany, we decided to test his new stuff and break the vicious cycle yesterday.

We had some discussions where to go when we met at 8.30 AM at Tamagawahara bridge [the new meeting point for me coming from Yokohama] and in the end we settled for a Otarumi – Hinazuru, Suzugane – Matsuhime route, possibly going back by train from Otsuki.

Much to my dismay I found out that I lost my saddle bag filled with goodies (tools, CO2 cartridges, tube, jelly and, most important, the extremely expensive remains of DHC sunscreen from the 2006 Noto 400 ride) riding to the meeting point.

We then went in a fast draftline to Takao, aftertaking some Japanese riders. The road along the Asakawa was crowded and we almost crashed with a dog and some minutes later with an old man on a bike who suddenly steered out of line.

The traditional break at the 7-Eleven was followed by the discovery that I also lost my (non-riding) glasses on the way. This was really not becoming my day and I started to feel like Mr. Lehmann (if there is one) operating the bank and loosing everything. In case you wondered about the heading.

A medium-fast attack on Otarumi which we ended up to scale in 16 minutes, including fixing a lost chain on the way up. Route 20 was followed by route 76 until we took a right turn in direction Hinazuru. The Manju shop was closed, but out of tradition we were forced to do a break anyway. We then went up to the (new) Hinazuru tunnel and on the way down on the other side I proposed to take a look at the old Hinazuru tunnel, or, to boldly go where no other Positivo Espresso rider has gone before. The road was in pretty bad shape, but still better than route 76. Obviously Jerome has driven his car from Chichibu to Hinazuru and parked it close to the entrance of the Hinazuru tunnel. It seems to me that the left brake light is not working and I would recommend to check this.
I do not want to reveal well guarded secrets, but Ludwig also found a nice water heater which he intends to give free of charge to the guy who buys his band new Selle Italia saddle.

The tunnel is in good shape, however closed by a gate which should not cause any problems to be ignored. Of course we missed the entrance to Suzugane pass and we continued to road 139 which then lead us back to route 20 and Sarubashi eventually. After a nice bowl of Tempura soba and the Daikokuya restaurant (a very traditional place), we decided in view of the time to abandon our plans to ride up Matsuhime (another great tradition of us to abandon great plans) and continue instead along the old Koshu Kaido, now called route 30, to Uenohara and then cross over to Itsukaichi.

This was another Lehmann-like management mistake (connection to the heading!) as we first had a hard climb in front of us which took as almost to elevation 600 m again. Once on top, the road was quite nice and we continued smoothly to Uenohara, but again we lost a lot of time. So when we finally arrived at Uenohara we decided to jump on the train and head back home.

Clearly we made a lot of poor riding management judgements and in the course of this I lost everything (glasses, tools, …). This shall serve as a warning to all of you out there.

2008-12-30 Uenohara via Hinozuru Pass
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