Archiv der Kategorie: David

von | 24. Juli 2009 · 06:52

Saturday Ride July 25 – Nagano Shinkansen Touring

As I said on Friday, „I’m thinking of getting up early again and trying something a bit different — maybe hop the Nagano Shinkansen to Karuizawa (or better yet, one stop beyond to Sakudaira and from there a local train to Koumi), and then ride back over the intervening hills into Chichibu — Manfred country — or head west toward Utsukushigahara/the Marchen Line, the Venus Line, etc. …“

It worked, mostly! Nagano Shinkansen is a great option. It is easier and faster for me to get to Tokyo Station than to Hachioji, and a very fast trip from there–just over an hour to Karuizawa, a few more minutes to Saku, or if you prefer, on to Ueda and Nagano–much faster than getting to Enzan. A great way to extend our riding area to another climate zone in the summer, when needed. The cost is 5250 yen from Karuizawa back to Tokyo, but well worth it.

I was on the 6:24 train from Tokyo Station, at Karuizawa by 7:30. I continued to Sakudaira, and by local train up the valley (Koumi-sen to Koumi), assembled and was on the bicycle by 8:45. The major climb of the day was from Koumi (Elev 850) up through Matsubara-ko kogen, past Koumi Re-Ex Ski Resort, and eventually meeting Rte 299 (the „Marchen Line“) up and over Mugikusa-Touge (Elev 2130 meters). The climb gets easier (flatter) higher up and there was almost no traffic, so it was quite relaxed taken at a leisurely pace. After a few nice vistas on the climb, there was no view to speak of from the top as the morning clouds blocked most of Yatsu-gatake and everything to the West (where the South Alps should have been).

A photo of the sign marking the pass, which is fairly broad and flat, as seen in June edition of Cyclesports:

Over the top and starting down the other side, I rode into the clouds and some wind and drops of rain.

For the first time in quite awhile, I was riding on the Fulcrum Racing 1 wheels with tubeless tires (rear rim replaced by Nagai-san). I had forgotten how plush and fast the ride is … extremely comfortable, and I looked down at the speedometer and was surprised to see that I was going over 50 kph on the first slight downhill, though it felt more like 30.

The road descends to the Tateshina area on the West side–a huge wooded vacation area many miles across, homes hidden away on what looked like reasonably generous lots. I headed North on the „Venus Line,“ going up and down between 1350 and 1700 meters.

After a quick early lunch stop at a ski area’s ramen/soba shop (NOT Positivo approved–they make a fairly poor excuse for a bowl of ramen), the weather became increasingly sunny, but the area is high enough to be blissfully cool.

… Somewhere I got off the Venus Line. I missed the road to Utsugushigahara and ended up going straight north and starting a descent. I was on a great road, and there were fields, horse farms, lakes, and more vacation homes (almost all shuttered or otherwise looking deserted).

I headed down a valley toward Mochizuki, eventually reaching the point where the last thing I wanted to do was climb back toward Utsukushigahara — its mountains not even visible. A nice descent, very gradual descent down the lower valley–what could be any one of a hundred similar landscapes in the Japanese mountain countryside:
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5764742&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Rte 152 from Tateshina toward Mochizuki, Nagano from David Litt on Vimeo.

I reached Rte 142 (The Naka Sendo) and took it east toward Saku, completing the loop to where I had left the shinkansen in the morning. … but my ride was far too short because of the wrong turn, and not enough climbing, so I decided to keep going East and took a route through southern Saku and up a small valley to (Nagano Prefectural Rte 44, though not marked.

I was off the map that I had brought with me, but remembered that there was a connecting road toward Karuizawa. The road had no traffic and climbed from 700 back to 1300 meters. It was hot and sunny, lots of blue sky. I finally got to the marked turn-off for the „super forest road??“ toward Karuizawa. The road started through a ghostly area of unsold vacation home plots (I can imagine the ads „secluded paradise … only 20 km to the nearest supermarket, conveniently located only 1 hour to the nearest expressway entrance; road not plowed in winter“).


From the ghost town, only 20 km winding through the forest to Karuizawa, with ups and downs, twists and turns, but mostly downhill the last 10 km. In the middle of the forest, equally far from either end of the road, there was a toll gate — an old guy sitting in a trailer in the middle of the forest who came out and opened the gate for me (bicycles free!). He must need to get up and open the gate at least once or twice an hour.

Then down through a vacation home area on a hillside south of Karuizawa, and another 5-7 km left for a victory ride down a main road and through town to the station. I felt as if I was finishing a big solo breakaway, put down the hammer, full gasAs I got into the more crowded streets I sat up, back straight, and tried to make it look really easy without losing speed. In the end, just under 130 km and 2800 meters of climbing, mostly at a leisurely pace and in somewhat favorable conditions. No one pushing me to ride fast or far–much, much less intense than Michael and Tom’s ride with TCC. No particular training goal for once. Just an opportunity to see someplace different and spend a sunny day outside covering some nice territory. And home for dinner.

Next time … maybe another try at Utsukushigahara? Or 2000+ meter Kuruma-zaka Touge (North from Sakudaira, instead of South)? Or maybe a longer ride out from Tokyo, take the „Crystal Line“ NW of Enzan 1/2 way up Odarumi Pass, but don’t go down to Kofu. Instead head North over Shinshu Touge and down the valley to Sakudaira, then hop the train home? Maybe all three options?
Copy Of Nagano ride
Find more Bike Rides in Nagano, Japan

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Eingeordnet unter David

von | 21. Juli 2009 · 05:04

The Horrors of Sasago

The legendary Sasago Tunnel – entry point to untold horrors


Tom, David and me were on the way back from Odarumi on route 20, Tom in front and me some 100 meters behind and David some 300 meters behind perhaps when we came to the road that leads to Sasago Pass and the old Sasago Tunnel.

We waited some 50 meters of the road at a Jidohanbaiki for David to arrive, when I saw him passing by. I shouted „David!“ but he just continued so I had no choice but to ride back to route 20 and follow him up on the slope, trying to catch him.

Actually, this is a very interesting probably non-linear mathematical optimization equation, or problem along the following lines:

You are following 300 meters behind a bicycle rider which rides at constant 20 km/hr towards an abyss (Sasago Main Tunnel) without knowing this. You are following this rider at 25 km/hr speed and you want to warn him, however you do not know from which distance between the two of you he can hear you.

Every time you are shouting a warning, your speed drops to 15 km/hr for a period of 10 seconds as you are running out of breath. Assuming that there is a logarithmic relation between the probability of your warning being heard and the distance between you and the bicycle rider with 0% chance at 300 meters and 100% chance at 0 meters, how would you time your warning shouts and at which distance from the start point would the rider stop ?

Not sure about the correct answer, but the maximum distance would be 1.500 meters (5 km/hr speed difference to cover 300 meter distance difference at 25 km/hr).

Anyway, David was tired and decided to ride home by train so we bid good bye and I followed Tom up the slopes to Sasago Pass. The climb is very nice, very gradual, but also more than 400 meters up. It is hard to imagine that this was the main road to Kofu until 1958 when the main road tunnel of route 20 was completed. And even the old tunnel was only completed in 1938, before that there was a pass even at a higher point above the tunnel.

Tom was fast as usual and despite all his lamenting on the blog that he has becoming an old man, not able to withstand the cycling challenges of middle-aged salaryman from Hyogo prefecture, I don’t see this decay actually happen on the road when riding with him.

Since years I am telling my kids about the horrors awaiting oversuspicious cyclists in the Sasago Tunnel. I try to fine tune my stories along the lines of old stories by H.P. Lovecraft that I read as a kid. I was also inspired by a blog entry of Tom some time ago, where he felt that something slimy was touching his legs while riding through the tunnel, having lost all sense of room and time and falling into an eternal vertigo.Wiki, now the source of all knowledge to mankind defines the work of H.P.
Lovecraft as following:

Lovecraft’s major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror, the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds and that the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. […..] His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Christian humanism.Lovecraft’s protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.

„… momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality …“, I guess that has a lot to do with „defying gravity by speed of ascent up some semi-vertical hillock“.

So I told my son (12) and daughter (7) who were listening with horror in disbelief, that in their are giant, invisible octopus living in holes arranged at the ceiling of Sasago tunnel. Every now and then, when a stupid cyclists rides alone into the tunnel, they let down their tentacles, try to grasp him and move him up so they have splendid dinner to chew on for some days. Tom was barely able to escape and I named him as the eyewitness to this horrors.

OF course my kids didn’t believe a single word, so I had to prepare better evidence. Tom was so kind to take some photos of myself while fighting with the octopus in the tunnel. As I said, they are invisible so it is a little bit difficult to see them in the photo, but I presume that the expression of horror in my face speaks for itself.Just when he handed back the camera to me, Tom was also attached by these godless creatures.
Luckily I could take a picture of this heinous assault.

After surviving Sasago Tunnel we rode down to this famous cedar (sugi) tree the older bike rider has told me about at Tomin no Mori some days ago. It is supposingly 1.000 years old and inside completely hollow to the top. It seems to have come out directly from a Miyasaki movie.

We then road a high speed to Otsuki. Although the compact crank is nice for the climbs, it is true that on the downhill a 52/11 gear ratio adds more speed, I was not able at all to cope with Tom here.

At Otsuki station I was lucky to get an express train back to Hachioji and then hop on the Yokohama line back to Shin Yokohama from where I wanted to ride the last 8 km or so back home.

But what did I had to notice when I just unpacked my bike at the station? Another flat rear tire. So far for the existence of the Japanese Tube Gods. I thought, OK, this is only small puncture and the air is coming out slowly, so if I inflate the tire again, I might be able to ride home. I had my small hand pump with me and I pumped as hard as I could and started tor ride as fast as I could. Which brought me exactly to the Nissan Stadium before I was out of air again. So I pumped again. Which brought me to Nippa station. So I pumped again, but his time the air would simply not stay in the tire.

I didn’t want to pack and unpack the bike for only one station of a train ride and I was also very angry so I rode home on the rim.

Where I told my kids the story of the Sasgo Tunnel and showed them the photos. They didn’t believed a single word.

2 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, Mob, Tom

von | 21. Juli 2009 · 04:39

Some more Odarumi Stories

Another report on the Odarumi ride is here (in Flemish).

Some of the views from the road were quite nice, but due to the thick cloud cover there was not very much to be seen most of the time.
David was going strong, as usual I had a hard time to follow him at the start of the climb but I was becoming faster closer to the summit. I became further motivated by riding in the starting rain, I thought if I could climb fast enough I may escape over the clouds.
Arriving at the top was somewhat of an anti-climax. The road stops. Well not exactly but it becomes a gravel road, not suitable for road racing bikes. There is no tea house, mountain witch, nothing. But there were cars parked on the side of the road for the last 500 meters and it was surprisingly crowded for such a desolate place.

On the way down I had again a rear tear puncture. I was taking a curve a higher speed when I suddenly got this wobbly feeling. I thought, well perhaps a wind gust, but the next curve the same thing happened. I stopped and the rear tire was almost flat.

Now, 2009 is the year of the flat (rear) tires; I am now almost up to 10 since May. This brought memories back of the time when Juliane and me were still riding with a „traditional“ Japanese cycling club, today called Tamagawa Cyclists.
They were very, very strict concerning the rules how punctured tires have to be disposed off. And perhaps, I thought, it is because I was not following these rules that I was cursed by the Japanese Tube Gods with a series of punctures.

So once I finished the tire exchange and had the bike ready again, I lay down on the side of the road with the old tire in front of me and thanked him for all the hard work he had done on many kilometers inside the hot and tight Continental GP4000 tube (orange, of course):

„お疲れ様、タイヤー様。これからも宜しくお願い致します。“


Then I buried the tire along the road where he has a good view on approaching cyclists on their climbs. I hoped that this will help. It did not, as can be read in the post about Sasago Tunnel.

Many thanks to David, Tom and Hiroshi, the incredible „bunny hopper“ for this nice trip.

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Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, Hiroshi, Mob, Tom

von | 17. Juli 2009 · 05:50

Odarumi attack Sunday — Success!

Partial Ride Report [by David L.]:
Michael and I made our early morning train connections as planned and attached Odarumi after filling our water bottles and stocking up on some provisions a 7/11 (approved) near Enzan Station.

As it was 8AM and cloudy, the humidity and heat were still contained somewhat, and we reached the bottom of the climb without difficulty. I urged that we take the „direct“ climb rather than going over Yakiyama Touge („Burnt Mountain Pass“) since Jerome and I had already climbed via Yakiyama last month.

Just after we started up, Michael got a call … from Hiroshi, who had decided to join us and driven from Tokyo, but did not tell anyone until his arrival (delayed somewhat by traffic). Michael spoke with him as we continued to climb. We know that Hiroshi is faster uphill than we are, and it sounded from Michael’s description as if he was already near the entry to the climb, so we kept going, expecting to see him reach and pass us somewhere along the climb.

Hiroshi’s (Japanese language) report and a few photos are available here.

The climb was MUCH easier than when I did it with Jerome last month. While I would like to believe this is because I succeeded in reaching a „new level“ as a climber by participating in the Transalp, I am afraid the much more obvious causes are (1) not having started the day by riding 100km plus from home, over Yanagisawa, and (2) weather that was probably 5-7 degrees (C) cooler than the climb with Jerome and without harsh direct sunlight.

As usual, Michael climbed a bit faster than I did. We stayed together, trading front positions until around 1600 meters, then Michael pulled ahead. I could still see him around some of the bends in the road as we went through the flat-ish 5km section between 1700-1750 meters elevation, but from there to the top I kept up my plodding pace, while he accelerated, taking advantage of a slightly reduced grade of the climb, and the confidence that he could make it up without difficulty.

I was glad to make the entire 35 km from the 7/11 in Enzan to the top of Odarumi, over 2000 meters of climbing, without stopping. The only time my foot touched down was when I stood to climb out of the saddle and my cleat slipped out of the pedal (time to replace that cleat!).

The clouds darkened dramatically and the wind gusted on top. We put on our windbreakers and had just started the descent … when we saw Hiroshi coming up. After waiting for him to summit and start back down (and, in fact, going back up to the top to make sure that he was, in fact, planning to spend not too long up top), we started the descent. Hiroshi and I ended up ahead with Michael nowhere to be seen. We pulled over to wait and, after 5 minutes, had decided to head back up to see what was keeping him (tire puncture? crash? other????) when Tom can zooming up, having ridden all the way from home. These photos are mostly from Tom, and his full trip report can be found here.

The 3 of us went up until we met Michael, who had changed a flat tire tube. We descended together, turned off the main route halfway down, climbed over Yakiyama Touge and descended through the adjacent valley. We rode through light rain, but just enough to cool us down, not enough to make the road damp or slick.

After farewell to Hiroshi, and a ramen stop, Tom led Michael and me through the Enzan/Katsunuma area and toward the west entrance off Rte 20 to Sasago Pass.

While Tom was right that going through Enzan/Katsunuma saved us from the hilly Fruit Line, the air was oppressive — way too much humidity, mixed with some auto exhaust and a blend of diesel particulate. I had not gotten nearly enough sleep the night before, and was suffering from a combination of modest stomach issues and pain in my feet (really need to experiment with other cleat locations). In the end, I hopped the train home from Kai Yamato, while Michael and Tom headed up Sasago.

Michael will need to report on what happened thereafter … and add any photos of note.

David L.
(added a few photos, Tom)
________________________________
David and I are finally going to climb Odarumi Toge [2.360 m] on Sunday (19). Previous attempts were unsuccessful for various reasons, including a too ambitious climbing program in 2008 on the previous day’s approach which killed 3 our of 5 riders.

Now this time we would like to do it properly and therefore we are going by train:

06:35 Hachioji – 07:50 Enzan (Chuo Line to Matsumoto)

It will take about three hours of climbing up and one hour down, so we should be back in Enzan by one. Whereas we will reassess our strength and go for some more leisurely riding in the vicinity (Yanagizawa, Kamihikawa, Sasago) or take the train home again.

Would anybody like to join (who has not refused so far) ?

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Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, Hiroshi, Mob, Tom

von | 13. Juli 2009 · 01:22

Positivo Espresso C Squad Report

The C squad, consisting of David, Jerome and me reassembled at the shores of lake Okutama and decided in view of the time to cancel all plans to climb Yanagisawa or even Odarumi. Instead we opted for the Tsuru + Tawa road back to route 20. I did not recall that the climb from this side as so steep, but all of us were creeping up at less than 10 km/hr despite hard training in the alps of Europe and Japan.

The descent that follows is very rewarding, a nice road indeed. And also fast, maximum speed of 72 km/hr is something I don’t reach too often.
We were taking a break between Tsuru und Tawa when two things happened: First a group of foreign cyclists rode up the Tsuru hill with the first rider leaned over the handle and going at a fast pace but essentially riding free handed (either this or he had no hands). I thought that they would be from the TCC but David called and they didn’t respond.

Secondly a Japanese car driver stopped as he thought that the small hut at the rest place would contain a toilet. He was going around the hut and looked for the door when Jerome noticed him and pointed at a point in the woods and said „there it is“. Well there was no toilet there, but all the authority in Jerome’s voice strongly suggested, that this precisely is the designated toilet point … until David took pity on him and pointed out that the small building nearby was, in fact, a restroom.

We skipped the golf course hills and had a long lunch at Uenohara’s famous Narita Shokudo, a place where even the emperor drove by as witnessed by a photo inside. It took years until we got finally our food but it was good to catch up with all Transalp news.
David and Jerome then rode home along route 20 while I had some more time left and took road 76 over to Doshi Michi, then rode to Miyagase lake and as I still had time and power mounted an attack on Yabitsu.

This was the first time since the accident that I felt I had sufficient power in my legs to make faster climbs. All the previous tours I was climbing at the edge but yesterday I felt that I had some reserved and could go faster if required. And I was fast, despite the 1.500 meters of climbing I had already in my legs.

But I am still lacking the stamina to go fast for a longer period. I was running out of gas on the last part of the climb between the teahouse and the top and was 18 seconds slower than my best time.

A fast descent brought me to Hadano station where I took the train home and made it to our doors one minute before the deadline imposed by my wife.

Total 120 km only in 11 hours (including 3 hours of train rides), but 2.000 meters up and again no wasted distance on unpleasant roads.

It was a bit difficult to combine the speeds of all riders and go as a group. In order to compensate, I convinced James, michael and Graham to ride up to the Mitake cable car station as some kind of preparation for the Kazahari climb. That seems to have been very much appreciated and will be referred to as „the spike“ in future posts.

[Some minor additional edits by David L.]

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Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, James, Jerome, Mob

von | 5. Juli 2009 · 01:07

Transalp – The Finish


We are done! A great last stage on the 4th of July. Crossing the finish line:

… we actually had a relaxed evening strolling the shores of Lago di Garda, eating ice cream (for protein), attending the award ceremony (where jerome enjoyed much time with champions Roux and Mestre) and we got our coveted 2009 finisher jerseys. We even got to meet Siegfried and Brunhilda (whose mother’s name, as it would happen, is Brunhilda) – photos to come with the full report.

Links:
Before the Start
More before the Start
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
Stage 6

The press release:

PM_Lueckentext Positivo Espressohttp://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=17557131&access_key=key-22ql6gju7578ier3yp7q&page=1&version=1&viewMode=

The final photos:

Celebration by the Lake:

The traditional Positivo Espresso ice cream shop/cafe in Riva di Garda (do not dare stop anywhere else):


Jerome’s version of the road racing cyclist’s gaunt cheeks:

The Closing Ceremony/Presentation/Dinner (PLEASE click on this photo to see a larger image — much more impressive):

Jerome explains his „turtle“ climbing style to the Masters champion Messr. Roux and the French Connection team:

David, via Juliane, gets to meet Siegfried (aka Jorg Ludewig) and Brunhilda (aka Claudia Frank). … who took second place in the Mixed category.

… and a second photo as they share an intimate moment …

The French champions rest their caps on top of the Masters trophies:

… and we pose for the adoring fans after collecting our coveted „Finisher“ jerseys:

3 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, Jerome, Transalp

von | 27. Juni 2009 · 06:30

BREAKING NEWS FROM TRANSALP

DAY -1



In Transit
We arrived on time at CDG in Paris 415AM and are using the lounge — showers, a place to charge electronic devices, and last but not least breakfast, including a wide array of Lactalis diary products such as this delicious (delicieux?) serving of President brand Tomme Noire fromage.

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Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, Jerome, Juliane, Transalp

von | 21. Juni 2009 · 05:27

A Charming Tradition Since Before Positivo Espresso

Before P.E. — A tradition since 2005. That is how long founding members of Positivo Espresso have been stopping at the charming little reservoir-side cafeteria at the far end of Okutama-ko. (Well, at least I was there in 2005 with Jerome and Juliane; it is mentioned with a photograph of the exterior in a post from one of several earlier 2009 visits; Tom refers to a visit from April 2008 as stopping at „Juliane’s favorite okutamako cafeteria„. Archeologists report visits by foreign road cyclists dating back to the last millenium, as well as entire busloads of Japanese tourists stopping there in the decades after it was first built).

Actually, the off-white (beige? grey?) stucco exterior of the restaurant is not so charming, and not nearly as nice as the much newer, but quaint-by-design, Japanese-style wood building down the street. In fact, from the exterior, to the uninitiated–such as the typical gang of motorcycle riders, ready to gorge on some food before heading up Kazahari who joined Jerome and me mid-meal on Saturday–OUR restaurant is virtually indistinguishable from the one next door.

(Note to Michael H. and Manfred — PLEASE be careful not to step into the wrong restaurant. This would be even worse than going to the wrong convenience store, as the restaurant proprietress is far more likely to take offense than the convenience store clerk if you should excuse yourself to go next door. And if you should happen to make a mistake and stop at the wrong shop, just be sure not to record the error in a blog post!)

In any event, Jerome and I stopped at The Restaurant on Saturday for some well-deserved nutrition. We noted to the proprietress („Mrs. Watanabe“) that we would be in Europe next week at a famous bicycle race, attempting a nearly impossible crossing of snow-capped mountains together with the tall German woman who used to frequent her establishment. After some urging, Mrs. Watanabe agreed to come out of the kitchen for a photo so that we could send her best wishes to the „bijin“, as Juliane is known at The Restaurant. (The word „bijin“ was used more times than I could count.)

In this atmosphere of being among old friends, international fellowship and goodwill, Mrs. Watanabe comp’ed us some extra cucumber salad with special mayonnaise sauce, and a large Aquarius sports drink each. And her friend and helper („Mrs. Tanaka“) even joined one of the photos as they let Jerome put his arms around their shoulders, even as the sweat glistened.

Anyway, I’ve gone straight to the highlights, but let me offer a brief trip report.

Jerome, chastened by last week’s humor regarding his insistence upon, and failure to show up at, the ridiculously early start time, made me promise to call him at 4:45AM to make sure he was up and ready for a 5AM start. Before I could do so at 4:44, he called me and the start was confirmed. We made it to Takao in decent time, stopped at the traditional 7-11, with time for a photo of my new Assos gear — I’m told that the white bib shorts are really FAST, passing like a flash of light, and I wanted a photo since they will never be quite as white again as on this maiden ride.

We went over Otarumi and along Route 20 to Uenohara. Uneventful so far, but I was not enjoying the Route 20 traffic or the increasing heat, and I was still convinced that this should be a relatively easy, „warm down“ ride before our departure for Europe. Jerome still wanted to go over Matsuhime Pass from the long southern approach. So we parted ways at Uenohara, Jerome headed for Sarubashi then Matsuhime, and I headed to the Northwest up Routes 33/18 along the beautiful, deserted „Uenohara-Tabayama-sen“ through a valley and up and over Tawa Pass and Tsuru Pass.

I just cannot get enough of this road, and leapt at the chance to ride it on my „warm down“ day, somehow forgetting that Tawa and Tsuru can be pretty miserable in the sticky heat.
I made it over them (no rest except at the traditional covered rest area table/water faucet/toilet between lower and upper Tsuru, around 700 meters elevation), and then down to the base of Matsuhime. I stopped to wait for Jerome, pondering the near future when we (and the occasional motorist) will have a choice between the beautiful climb over Matsuhime (right fork), and a multi-hundred-million dollar series of tunnels and bridges (left fork).

I took the right fork and had climbed about half of the remainder to the top of Matsuhime, when Jerome came heading down at me. I turned around so we could both descend to The Restaurant and then head home.

… After several hours of suffering in the heat riding into a stiff head wind, a 185 km+ ride (more than 200 km for Jerome) with „only“ 2000 meters or so of climbing, and a brand new tubular tire going flat on Yoshino Kaido, replaced by Mr. Wachi himself of the Wachi Cycling Team, we finished our warm-down ride.

4 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, Jerome

von | 25. Mai 2009 · 14:26

Impressive

Can somebody remember a more cycle-intense Positivo Espresso weekend, than the one which has just passed? I must say that I am mighty impresses by the achievements of Sunday.

James is hanging out in Kyushu with the guys from WSA I know only to well. It seems that they are covering kilometer after kilometer will reducing the wildlife in wild dinner courses.

David, Jerome and Ludwig made some pretty impressive rides with many kilometers and elevation meters, supporting Tom to achieve eternal stardom in the Itoigawa race. He came in sixth overall according to his blog, which is very, very, very impressive. I am also happy that he survived the madness in the tunnels between Hakuba and Itoigawa.

Tom [left] taking a sharp turn down from Otarumi.


In the meantime I finished on Sunday morning in forth place of the 2A race in the Tour of Japan Tokyo stage. Well actually not me, but my alter ego Thomas Flindt who raced instead of me and even told the organizers that he is not me. But they didn’t change the name anyway. I am lucky that this race does not promote me to C class ranking.

And in the afternoon I finished even better with the TCC Team of Phil, Alan and Naomi: 10th place overall and 2nd place in the mixed category at the Bike Navi Hitachi Naka 7 hour endurance race. Wow – cool guys. At least I was the investing hand behind the team’s success.

Hm, I should really do more rides on the hometrainer to fulfill future expectations. But it is just too boring. I am totally envious of what you have done, guys.

Thanks also to Ryoko and Stephen who faced a sport challenge of a different kind; attending my marketing lecture at the ICU for hours. You were too kind.

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Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, James, Jerome, Mob, Stephen, tcc, Tom

von | 24. Mai 2009 · 12:39

Madness on Route 20

Complementing David’s earlier post, here is my own story about yesterday. I too started from home at 4:15am but that was five minutes later than planned and as a result I was not on time at the appointed place on Tamagawa. Checking voice messages lost me a few more minutes. The headwind was such that I could never catch up two riders drafting each other without exhausting myself, which I was keen to avoid. I was amazed how many people were already out and about at 4:30am!

I must have caught up almost with David and Jerome as I reached Tom at the starting line at something like 5:54 – without any stop at the Seven-Eleven and taking the short-cut through Hachioji.

So off I went with Tom at 6:00. Tom had declared he would attack Otarumi at a brisk pace to break away from the crowd (of 20 starting a time). So he did, and very soon it was only Tom, two Japanese riders and myself heading up Otarumi. Thanks to drafting Tom I had no difficulty keeping up, but I was worried Tom was exhausting himself a little too much as my pulse was getting slightly over 160 and I was wondering what his was like.

As we got close to the top and everybody seemed to get slower I broke away to go under the bridge a few seconds before the rest. 13:17 – not my best time (13:00), but quite close, even though I felt far less stretched than usual – the power of drafting I guess.

Now the real madness started. Tom was obviously keen to win at any price, including his own life. We had caught up with two trucks that had passed us on the way up, and while they were not particularly slow (which trucks are in Japan?), they weren’t fast enough for Tom. So he decided to overtake one of them in a relatively sharp left-turn curve, getting onto the opposite lane even though he could not see whether there was any traffic coming up, nor could he have returned to the downhill lane as the two were separated by these killer blocks on the centre line. Complete madness!! The remaining three of us refrained from such or similar manoeuvers and as Tom isn’t the fastest downhill racer caught up with him soon, and at the traffic lights in front of the Sagamiko station the four of us were again one group.

From there on, Tom and a young guy from the Fuji Heavy Industries racing team kept taking turns in leading the group. I would have loved to take my turn, but even drafting my pulse varied between 150 and the low 160s and I deemed it unwise to exhaust myself beyond that. The fourth rider must have thought the same as he stayed stubbornly on my back wheel.

We went on like this at fast speed to Otsuki, on the way passing Jerome and David. Just before Otsuki, the Fuji Heavy rider had his front wheel punctured. He managed to keep riding (must have had a special kind of wheel) but complained about the high friction. After a few kilometers he gave up to fix the wheel.

So it was only Tom, the other guy and me left. I started taking my turns in leading the group, and eventually also the third guy did. Tom was getting exhausted and the other guy showed no such signs. My back started to hurt increasingly, but as we started to do steeper climbs I had the chance of getting out of the saddle to relax my back which kept things under control.

On the final ascent to Sasago Tunnel, the third guy broke away from Tom when I was last. I followed in measured pace, and by the time I realised he was trying to make a best time to Sasago he was too far ahead for me to catch him without getting my pulse into anaerobic territory. I was still second and I think Tom wasn’t that far behind. I did not stop and kept going right into the tunnel, and never saw Tom again. Because he must have passed me as I went into the Seven-Eleven down in Kaiyamato.

The time we took from Takaosanguchi to Sasago was 1:50 (and maybe a few seconds). Only the winner of the entire Itoigawa race last year was faster than that! Wow – what a pace. I had averaged 29.6km/h from home to Takaosanguchi (excluding the stops for checking my phone messages) – not bad considering the headwind. At Sasago the average was  slightly above 30km/h, despite all the climbing!

As I hadn’t had a drop of water and nothing to eat since leaving home and had gone 105km at record speed, it was time to get reasonable and take a break. So relaxed a bit in front of the convenience store and let some of the slower riders pass. We had overtaken almost the entire group of 20 that started 15 minutes ahead of us by the time we reached Sasago.

I rode down down towards Kofu, overtaking again a few even though I wasn’t killing myself to go fast. As I was taking a short toilet break, the Fuji Heavy guy caught up with me. What a pleasant surprise. We decided to ride together. I pulled him through all of central Kofu, claiming I knew a short cut. Well, looking at the GPS trail (see below) I realised later that I had taken one turn too many (mislead by a sign that indicated the way to route 20) and thus it wasn’t really a short cut (though at least didn’t make the route longer either).

Outside Kofu, we took turns as we seemed to run out of steam in turns. That allowed us to keep a steady pace, and at the next check-point my cycling computer still showed the same average of slightly above 30. I took a longer break at the nearby convenience store than he wanted and so he took off without me.

By that time, we had encountered countless situations where trucks overtook us without leaving more than a few centimeters between them and us. At a traffic light, I shouted at one of them, though he had been one of the lesser evils – the trucks with long trailers were the worst as they seemed to forget that they had a trailer. Truck traffic was getting increasingly dense, and legs, arms and even trickot became quite black! It became clear to me that all these cyclists on the road were annoying the truckers so much that they decided not to care much any more.

I dreaded the thought of another 75km of nightmare with potential fatal consequences to Matsumoto, and potentially more of it beyond. Besides the scenery wasn’t even that great and I was asking myself what I was trying to achieve. So in a town called Hakushucho I decided to abandon the idea of making it to Itoigawa and to instead head for the mountains.

Nearby was the beautiful Yatsugadake range (literally eight peaks), with all the nice kougens on the foot of it. I climbed up into these kougens and travelled through them in the same direction as route 20. Quite some up and down at an altitude of 1,200 to 1,400m. Eventually, the road was closed for repairs and I had to head down for Chino. By that time the headwind had developed increasing strength, and it wasn’t particularly pleasant fighting my way towards Lake Suwa, the last sight I wanted to see for the day. Still, better than fighting the same wind all the way to Itoigawa, as the forecast had said.

Suwako with the Yatsudake range in the background,
seen from Shimo-Suwa towards Kami-Suwa/Chino
I cycled once around the pretty large lake, then was lucky that I went into Kami-Suwa station just as a Super-Asuza back to Shinjuku was about to pull in. But „super“ is all relative – despite stopping only at Chino, Kofu, Hachioji and Tachikawa, it still takes 2.5 hours to Shinjuku! I had come a long way.

I decided to get off at Tachikawa to drop by Y’s Road in Fuchu to get my chain exchanged. After 7,200km, it was very worn and shifting gears had become quite fickle. Lucky move, for when I got onto the bike outside Tachikawa station I noticed that the derailer had been badly bent and I was hardly able to ride. On the train, the trolley lady had pushed her heavy trolley with full force into the backside of my bike sticking out from behind the last row of seats in the car.

By the time I got back home, I had covered 260km in all, and with the first 150km ridden at racing speed – a new record.

All that remains to hope is that everybody made it savely to Itoigawa and that Tom broke his own records and came in first!

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Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, Jerome, Tom