Archiv der Kategorie: Jerome

Crazy Frog – Franzose.

von | 24. März 2010 · 09:12

Friday Ride Announcement 26.03.2010

Meeting at 6:30hr at Tamagawahara bridge (Tokyo side),

we will ride along the Tamagawa to Ome and have a nice second breakfast at Aurore bakery in front of Ome station. We will then continue to climb up to Okutama lake and further to Yanagisawa pass, before descenting in direction Ensan. But not for too long. A left turn will lead us to Kamihikawa Toge and then finally to route 20 just in front of Sasago tunnel. Which is very long, so we will climb up to the haunted old Sasago tunnel, then find our way through backroads to road 35 and Hinazuru and Akiyama. The rest is easy: On to Tsukui lake and Onekan and we are almost home. Anybody interested to join? So far Jerome, James M. and me have signed up. Please let me know.

5 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2010, Jerome, Mob

von | 19. März 2010 · 14:46

Mitake Attack

I had a lot of correspondence to finish in the morning, so when I finally left the house for a ride It as already 14.30hr and naturally I chose another stupid target for the day: Mitake-San. With Bad Boy.

Originally I had much bigger plans for the day but the bed was so cosy and the wind blowing strongly from the wrong direction.

Mitake-san, for those who don’t know, is the mountain on the left side of the Yoshino Kaido just after the entry to Umenoki-Toge in the vicinity of Ikusabata. There is a road leading from Yoshino Kaido through a bright red gate up to the cable car station, about 1.5 km away. From there onwards is a very small and extremely steep road leading up to the small village on top of Mitake-san. Mini-cars can drive up and down but normal cars are impossible, although the whole road is asphalted.I was blessed with a nice tailwind, so I could ride out fast from Yokohama to the Tamagawa and then along the river. At Wachi’s bicycle store I crossed over to the other side of the river and rode along Yoshino Kaido. When I finally arrived at the road leading to the cable car station it was already 10 past 5, so I didn’t wasted much time to start the TT (see Togebaka #20).

This climb is only 1.5 km long and Jerome had ridden it in less than 11 minutes this week. „Ha“, you might want to say, „I can walk 1.5 km in 11 minutes!“. Well this might be true, but on this type of road there is hardly a difference between walking and riding.

The first 400 meters are rather easy and flat, but after that the road becomes steep and the surface shows the famous „donut“ pattern which seems to be a must for concrete roads with a slope of more than 10%. And after that it is getting steeper. And steeper. And steeper. There seems to be no end to the increase in steepness. Unlike many other roads there is no place where you can rest and you just pray that the cable car finally appears around the corner.

Which it does at one point an than there is the final and steepest piece to climb waiting. I was so glad that I was on my Bad Boy with a triple gear in front, otherwise I must have zigzagged up on a normal road bike. It will be interesting to see Ludwig doing this one with his SRAM 28 cassette mounted.So my original plan was to ride up also the road up to Mitake-San, but it was already too late and honestly, my fighting spirit was very much broken by this 1.5 km.

So I rode back to Ikusabata and checked the house of Ryoko and Stephen which I haven’t seen since last summer. The house looked … lonely. Just like nobody has been there for … months. So I gave Ryoko a call but couldn’t reach her.

I then made my way back to Ome on the other side of the river and took the train home. A completely pointless ride.

The earnest Positivo Espresso blog reader might have noted, that the climb to Mitake is actually the mother of all pointless rides and was first attacked by James, Dominic, Graham, Michael and me last summer when we were on the way to Kazahari. Still to this day it remains, completely … pointless …….

.

Ein Kommentar

Eingeordnet unter 2010, Jerome, Mob

von | 18. März 2010 · 10:48

Tunnels, Ice and Snow

A little bit late perhaps, but I don’t like to miss the chance to report about the ride of the splinter group on Saturday after saying Sayonara at the Doshi-Michi / Yabitsu Entry. Ice and snow will play an important role so as fallen trees.Well, while Jerome, James and Dominic were happily chatting and riding in direction Yabitsu, our social ride came to a sudden end when Ludwig, Fumiki and me continued on Doshi-Michi in direction Yamanakako. As usual Ludwig picked up the pace and Fumiki could easily follow him, while I was taking a more „legere“ approach. Sometimes Ludwig stopped along the roadside to stretch his back or do the opposite with his bladder and so I could close up again.All around us was snow and there was a lot of water on the road, sometimes flowing downwards on the slopes which we were riding up, giving us the impression that we were very fast if compared to the asphalt surface.But soon we had climbed up to Yamabushi Toge, the last pass before Yamanako lake and then descended on the other side. Meanwhile the accumulated water on the road and the additional spray we have received from passing trucks and cars had completely soaked our socks, legs and behind with water. That felt pretty miserable but as hardcore cyclists our codex didn’t allow us to show our feelings completely, so we continued in direction Kawaguchi Lake and Saiko.Saiko was very silent unlike the JCRC racing day in November when I usually go there. As this might have been the last time to see the lake, I went to our favourite hang-out at Cafe M and said good-bye to the owner. We then continued to the next smaller Fuji lake (I forgot the name) and then took road 706 to the North in direction Kofu. This leads to a long tunnel first and the approach to that was looking like the swamps of Louisiana. And then we had a classic Ludwig comment which I would like to preserve for the blog readers:

Ludwig : „These are the worse road conditions here“
Me (assuming that Ludwig knows the roads ahead) : „It will not get worse up there?“
Ludwig: „No idea, these are the worse road conditions SO FAR.“

I can imagine the spin-off of these words for future club-rides. Imagine riding over Otarumi to Kobu Tunnel, Kazahari, Matsuhime, Dozaka and Yamabushi to Yamanakako while stating on the top of Otarumi:

Experienced PE rider: „This is the worse climb.“
Newcomer (thinking): „Oh great, the worse is over.“
Experienced PE rider: „Well,so far“
Newcomer (thinking): „..sigh…“

Of course it wasn’t by far the worse to come, but before we come to that we experienced a beautiful downhill ride from the tunnel at elevation 900 to elevation 400: Wide, curvy roads, nice slopes, not too much traffic allowed us to ride in the most enjoyable 40 – 60 km/hr bracket.

Then we stopped and discussed whether it would make sense to continue on road 358 through the long tunnel to Kofu or climb up on old road 113 (in use before the construction of the tunnel) to 右左口峠 (Right-left-entry pass). Of course I opted for the Right-left-entry-pass as I was eager to add more passes to my list and I desperately wanted to paste some Positivo Espresso stickers on the top.

So we rode back the road a little bit, then entered road 113 and were immediately greeted by a barrier to discourage normal human beings. Behind the barrier were some fallen trees on the road. Again, this might be discouraging to normal riders but for me it is like that there is the ghost of the road standing next to the barrier with a megaphone in his hand shouting „Ride me, ride me“. Or „Roads shouting: ride me ride me“ (RSRMRM) in reference to a long forgotten Japanese punk rock group : Seagulls shouting: kiss her, kiss her“ (SSKHKH).

I could convince Ludwig and Fumiki that these trees had not fallen down there by chance, but that they have been intentionally placed there by the locals to discourage powerful cyclist such us as. So I crossed over and was greeted by another barrier of trees (perhaps not intentionally placed) and then by another and finally the asphalt surface ended and then a small gravel path was all that was left.I was some 20 meters ahead as I was scouting for the way when Ludwig and Fumiki tried to convince me to give up. But I didn’t budged so they rode back to the tunnel while I moved along. Meanwhile I still had 190 meter elevation to climb and the surface was now made of snow and ice and landslides. So I couldn’t ride up but needed to walk most of the time. A terrible thought stroke me: „What, if this isn’t the road up to right-left-entry-pass?“ Because I had fully relied on Ludwigs guidance, we haven’t seen any signboards at all. And while I was sneaking up through the snow, already with a pretty empty stomach I wondered if this was really a good idea.

In the end I made it up to the top (naturally, who else would write this stupid post?) and there was the signboard indicating that this would be right-left-entry-pass indeed. I made some photos and then I realized that I had just climbed up from the village 上九一色、the famous hideout of the Aum-Shinrikyo sect who launched the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. In this place they established their secret gas-factory which, if I remember correctly, was called DAI-7-SATIAN (Meditation place number 7). When working for Schindler, we used to call our headoffice DAI-8-SATIAN all the time in reference. Well, that was close and despite standing freezing with wet socks and trousers plus empty stomach on top of a lonely hill in the middle of nowhere I was glad to have escaped such sinister place.

Now going down, would be a breeze I thought. Well, it is not easy to ride through the snow. In particular if you are going down and the snow and dirt clogs the brakes so even if you pull the levers fully to the handle the braking effect is virtually none. Well, I know know there is a reason for v-brakes on MTBs.
I ignored that however most of the time and before long I had a flat tire and when I checked more closely I also had lost a spoke somewhere (no idea where).
So in view of the road conditions I decided not to repair the tube as I had only one exchange tube, but walk down until I meet a decent road and then exchange the tube. This was again an endless walk through ice and snow. Sometimes footprints were on the trail, but as bears do not wear sneakers, I assume that they were made by human beings.

Finally I found the road, repaired the tube and rode for about a kilometer before finding a 7-Eleven and filling up with food and drinks. Ludwig and Fumiki have long arrived at the station in Kofu and were on their way home. They were so kind to call me from the station. After a seemingly long and boring ride free of obstacles through Kofu (I was by now so used to fallen trees and gravel road that a ride on a straight and flat four lane semi-highway seeming extremely boring) I finally arrived 2 hours later than them and took the express train home as well.

It was a very adventurous trip and I am happy to report that I have survived. Please don’t tell my family about it and my apologies to Ludwig and Fumiki for my stupid insistence to go up that road.

Of course on the following Wednesday I made something similar stupid, but this will be the subject of another post.

2 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2010, James, Jerome

von | 22. Februar 2010 · 07:49

THE BARA BARA RIDE

from right to left : Deej, Clay, Yair, Jules, two unrelated riders, Setsuko (perhaps)
No Davids in sight. Also no slot machines.

When we planned to organize a classic ride on Sunday, we didn’t know that this would draw the biggest group in team history. And for some reason it comprised of only one David, actually the original one, now with beard. And, of course it became an undisciplined, unorganized „recovery“ ride in the typical fashion of our team.

I woke up early in the morning still with very heavy knees as a result of the 200 km trip the day before with Ludwig where we circumferenced the Hakone mountains. Already on the way to the meeting point at the Tamagawa I noticed that I could barely ride 30 km/hr in the flat, neither force my heart rate to go over 155 BPM. But not to worry, as this was an official Positivo Espresso „recovery ride“. So I expected some fast pace along the Tamagawa until everybody burned out and then a leisurely ride up to Otarumi and Tsukui.
Well I arrived on time at Tamagawahara bridge and already a large crowd has gathered, not only the usual Positivo suspects such as David, Jerome, Dominic (David), Bryon, Yair, James (David) and Michael on his Cervelo with new Shimano Di-3 (this is an upgrade from Di-2 which includes a small electrical assistance motor, invisble to the human eyes), but also Fumiki and his friends „Ko“ and „Sho“ (together they ride under the name 故障) and Deej and Jules from the TCC. I was tempted to collect participation fees and ride home (150 Yen for PE members, 15 million Yen for first timers) as a free and rich man.

And while I was talking with Fumiki as he casually mentioned „Everybody’s riding already“ and I turned my head just to see our group taking the first bend at the horizon. So we had to hurry up and chase behind the peloton. It was impossible to catch up as everybody in the front group pedalled as fast as they could and there was a strong headwind that we had to overcome. Finally at the bridge after Sekidobashi we caught up but at this point we have lost already Bryon and either Ko or Sho, not sure. The tempo was just murderous for me and I was looking forward to the point where everybody would relax; this was supposed to be a „recovery“ ride.

We then rode the usual road along the Asagawa where we encountered a dispatchment of stormtroopers or perhaps baseball kids and where we left a mildly negative impression on the local population. Little girls were graping there teddy bears tightly and small boys looked up to there mothers, saying „Mama, when I am big I want to become a foreign bicycle rider.“ „Rather I will set fire to the house and kill the whole family.“

We somehow made it to the Takao 7-Eleven where we re-grouped and linked up with Tom, Hiroshi, Nishibe and Clay from TCC. To the neutral outside observer we must have looked like a very fast group thanks to the strong additions from other teams.

I spoke with Jules and he asked me „Are you the guy with scars all over your leg?“ How did he know? Where my lovely deadhead-diapers lurking out from the bib trousers? But I agree, scars on the legs are even cooler than shaved legs. And they hurt more. But the part of my body that hurts the most was my behind, as I did more than 400 km of cycle riding the last five days. I will refrain from posting pictures here.

Then we started the Otarumi TT and even before the official starting point Tom, James, Deej, Clay, Hiroshi, Fumiki and Jules went off like rockets while I stayed with Nishibe, Yair and David in a second group, followed by Dominic, Ko, Michael, Jerome.

On the top of Otarumi we took a group shot to document this historic event (more riders then average blogviews per day in 2008).

From there on we continued downhill and then took the classic turn to Tsukui lake. All of this still at very high speeds. Things became a little chaotic. I guess all of us took the left turn at the Circle K that leads to the Tsukui North road, but then not all of us went along the North side and definitely many lost track when we rode into Hashimoto. David proposed to ride his favourite backroad shortcut and I was hanging on for dear life, as I had no idea where I was and in case I got lost, it would have taken me days to find the way back to Onekan.

Somehow we managed to re-group at the Starbucks 7-Eleven at Onekan, but in the process we had lost Tom, Michael and Dominic who rode home on their own.

Deej, Clay and Jules started first on the Onekan, followed by Jerome, me and the rest of the pack. Just a few hundred meters behind the tunnel we saw Deej who was screwed. No, I don’t mean that he was bonking, I mean, to be precise, that his tire got screwed by a app. 20 mm wooden screw, NiCr plated, judging from the look, probably made in China. After making sure that he was OK and had everything he needs for repair we continued along the Onekan and at one point I met David and Fumiki again while finally continuing leisurely with James along the Tsurumigawa home. Fumiki said that he enjoyed the ride-out but that he would now ride into the mountains to do some more serious things.

At least the last 20 km or so I had the feeling of a „recovery“ ride.
So I guess it is time to propose two or three things here to „avoid confusion in the market place“ (the most favourite quote by Japanese business executives when a company/competitor starts to do things differently than before):

RENAME THE POSITIVO ESPRESSO TEAM INTO POSITIVO ESPRESSO TEST TEAM

Well, the Cervelo Test Team is called so because in addition to racing, it also fulfils the role of testing the Cervelo bikes under severe conditions. We do not belong to a bicycler maker (well, Prolite, perhaps), and therefore we are not testing any bikes. But we constantly test the well being, patience, nerves and physical composure of all team members and therefore we rightfully deserve the name „test team“.

DEFINE „RECOVERY RIDE“

Recovery Ride – As opposed to the common understanding of a recovery ride in standard cycling, a Positivo Espresso recovery ride is defined by the fact that most of the riders attending, will be recovered sooner or later from the roads by firefighters, ambulances or archaeologists eventually („Hm, high BMI index and DuraAce 7800 group set – probably an investment banker from the early 21st century I would guess.“). The average speed will be ridiculous high and climbs can be long and painful. However, regardless of distance and elevation, a recovery ride must include a statement in the official announcement that it will be finished in the early hours of the afternoon.

RIDE ORGANISATION

Again, if it comes to organisation of rides and freedom of individual members to do what they please, Positivo Espresso is second only to Bakunin. I understand that some of us are not happy with this and I can understand their point of view. On the other hand, the quest to get our unorganized, undisciplined team changed, i.e. to ride organized, perhaps even in a paceline (!) and stay together has been undertaken by many brave souls and not led to any success so far. I also feel that I am lacking the divine powers to change this. So perhaps it is more important to change expectations. An organized rides, in Positivo Espresso fashions means, that we meet in a somewhat organized fashion.

Ein Kommentar

Eingeordnet unter 2010, David, Hiroshi, James, Jerome, Mob, Nishibe, tcc, Tom

von | 21. Februar 2010 · 08:53

PE Half-day Otarumi Classic a.k.a. BARABARA JITENSHA JIKEN !!

Thanks everyone for joining this morning’s ride & thanks MOB for having organized/coordinated this !

Screwed up the self-timer…apologies!! MOB, hope yours turned out OK….
(„Framed version“ of this pic here)

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Eingeordnet unter David, Hiroshi, James, Jerome, Mob, Nishibe, tcc, Tom

von | 23. Dezember 2009 · 15:17

Three guys under blue skies

Jerome, Ludwig and me decided on short notice to do another ride before Christmas, O-Shogatsu, family dinners and business trips will take their toll on our bodies and ultimately on our performances.

I left the house almost in the dark on my newly outfitted Cervelo bike. Nagai-San upgraded everything except for the crank set and bottom bracket at the beginning of the week after my forced conversion to single speed on the weekend before. I could convince him that I do not need a new crank set as I do not want this ugly piece called „Hollow-tec“ on my bike which looks like the DuraAce crank set. I could not convince him that I can also live with my old Ultegra brakes so there were replaced as well with the more bulky looking 6700er brakes. When everything is new everything shifts fine, so I guess the good performance is more to the newness of the groupset rather that to the improved design. The front derailleur works perfectly now. The rear works fine when shifting into lower gears, but shifting into higher gears is a little bit tricky and one needs to get accustom to the levers.

Whatever, design-wise the bike is hugely improved and this is much more important then vulgar activities such as „shifting gears“ or „braking“, the later normally resulting in less speed.

Jerome an me met shortly after seven in Shin-yokohama, mounted Shinkansen Kodama 633 to Odawara which was way to short a trip. We met Ludwig at Odawara station and before eight we were on the way to Hakone. I showed Ludwig and Jerome the old Tokaido road which was pleasantly quiet and we made it up through the hair needle curves at a steady pace. It was quite cold and there were some icy patches on the road in the shadows. After waiting for Jerome some minutes on the top, we continued along Ashinoko road 75 when suddenly Jerome got pestered by official telephone calls: A Japanese customer has found a bolt in a package of cheese he bought from Jerome’s company (I cannot tell the real nameof his company, but let’s call it „El Shacho“ here). He opened another package just to check and found another bolt in this package as well. Of course he was furious and demaned an explanation from El Shacho why the nuts were missing.Meanwhile we continued to route 138, but instead of going this boring road down to Gotemba, we continued to climb up to Nagao tunnel where the pinchers of hell were waiting for us as usual. This is a very gradual climb with almost no traffic and a dilapidated restaurant close to the tunnel where I would love to eat some day.We then went down on the other side, slowly as parts of the road seemed to be icy. Then we made our way through this urban mess and sprawl of Gotemba and Oyama until we came to Fuji Speedway and to the starting point of the Mikuni pass climb.

Urban sprawl and chaotic city planning brings up another topic: As we have already December 23rd and I do not plan any bike trips until the rest of the year in the route 20 area, I can now finally write that 2009 is the first year in serious cycling where I didn’t crashed in the (ugly) city of Uenohara. This fine tradition (since 2007) is finally disrupted and perhaps I should stay away from the city for the complete year of 2010.

After taking a short break at the foot of Mikuni we started finally the climb. The break is not required for anything useful in preparation, I guess we just do it because we are afraid to start anyway. Mikuni is pretty hard. It is about two times the distance and more than two times the elevation difference that the Wada challenge (Takao side) has to offer. It doesn’t offer much resting places along its first 4 km and even stretches with 8 or 9% slope are considered nice recovery places. I was also pretty tired after the Hakone climb and felt the beginning of a bonk (as opposed to bonking) so I barely made it up to the top. To be honest, I was zigzaging on some of the steeper parts.

Just looking at the „Hall of Fame“ website of TCC, it amazes me that Clay can ride up there in less than 33 minutes.After that we made a short break at the approved Yamanakako 7-Eleven where we met another older Japanese rider who was much engaged in brevet activities. He told us that one need to attend at least 3.500km of Japan Audax sponsored brevet events before you are even considered to be registered for Paris – Brest – Paris and that Japan has the largest population of brevet riders worldwide. We spoke about the Itoigawa fast run and David’s heroic attempt of the 400 km brevet this year. He said „Oh yes, I was up on Yanagizawa and I saw a colored (黒人) rider coming up during the brevet.“ We said, that was probably not David. But thinking it over now, perhaps one may look colored after 400 km of riding and it was David indeed.
And off we were on Doshimichi in direction home. Ludwig and me were in front and crossed over Yamabushi pass, then went almost to the Michisaka pass road where we waited for Jerome at a Daily Yamazaki combini.

We waited quite a while but then Jerome rode past and we went in pursuit of him. There was a nice tailwind, Ludwig and me worked together and in addition the weather was still sunny and the road was in good and fast shape. But nevertheless we were not able to catch Jerome. Ludwig finally caught up with him after 18 km, close to Aone, but it took me another 7 km or so before finally the three of us were together again.

The rest was more or less boring riding on the South side or Tsukui lake and through Hashimoto. But we were incredibly fast: We did the 52 km between Yamanakako and Hashimoto station in 2 hours and this included some climbing plus riding through urban congestion.

There we split. Jerome and Ludwig took the Onekan to the Tamagawa, while I took the train home form Hashimoto. For me 130 km or riding, about 2.300 meters up under blue skies in fabulous Japanese winter weather. It is hard to get out of the bed in the morning, but once on the bike there are no regrets.
Tomorrow is Christmas (I promised my family not to do any bicycle riding) and after that I Will be in Okinawa between 25th and 28th (with son and bike). Perhaps I will do another trip before the end of the year, but that’s it before the new season starts traditionally with the Ekiden ride on January 2nd.

6 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, Cervelo Soloist, Jerome, Mob

von | 16. Dezember 2009 · 15:26

Call to ride : Saturday, December 19th

Start :
FUTAGOTAMAGAWA STATION 06:25hr (Jerome and Eric)
later meeting points possible

Route :
from Futago along the Tamagawa to Tamagawahara and then along One-Kan and Tank Road to Hashimoto Station (Second meeting point at 8 AM)

Tsukui North road to Doshi Michi at the Yabitsu entry and up to Yabitsu Pass.

Down on the other side to Hadano, on a Rindo branching off from the main road at the observation parking space (not ridden yet).

First escape point :
Hadano station, return with bike bag by Odakyu Line

Through Hadano and the like to road #1 in direction Odawawa and Hakone. Up to Hakone on the old Tokkaido.

Second escape point :
From Hakone over Jukoku pass to Atami, back with bike bag and Shinkansen

Along Ashinoko lake to Gotemba and up on Mikuni pass to Yamanako.

Goal :
Kawaguchi or Fuji-Yoshino Station
[for those who will make it]

So far in :
Jerome, Eric, James, mob

Type :
long stretches of ups and downs followed by a 400m climb up to Yabitsu (moderately steep), nice and fast downhill follows

Flat thru the wastelands

Followed by a 700m climb up to Hakone

To Atami: the most beautiful downhill road in Japan
To Yamanakako : most gruesome climb up to Mikuni pass, extremely steep & demanding

Speed :
As most of us are out of shape : competitive.

Weather :
Should be dry, but cold, in the 0 – 5 degree region.

Everybody is welcomed to join us (Positivieure, Cattenis, TCCler, NFCCeuse, anybody.
Drop a comment.

5 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, James, Jerome, Mob

von | 24. November 2009 · 06:24

Pinchers from Hell

The last weekend ride has been already covered very well on the blog, however I would like to add some photos and comments in addition nevertheless.First stop on top of Otarumi Toge. Tom making photos of the landscape, Ludwig of me. Thierry probably resting on his bike in the back and David and Jerome still to come.Ludwig in shiny neon claded, still alive at the shores of Yamanaka lake with stars in his eyes and basking in the glory of double championships.
I practiced the characteristic „David Millar movements“ with my bike at Yamanaka Lake in front of mount Fuji. In case I ever want to get rid of my bike, I will make sure to do it at this spot.Ludwig pulled underground by the pinchers of hell, disguised as monument to traffic safety. Tom is trying everything in his power to hold him back, but the weight of his sins (too many red lights crossed) is too heavy. Last time we saw him. If you meet somebody resembling Ludwig now, it will probably be Manfred.Then it got me. Could barely escape at the last moment to come home and tell my children about the terrible experience we made. As in case for the invisible octopuses living in the vault of the Sasago tunnel, they remained largely unimpressed by my stories of blood and gore.Oden heaven at the PE-approved Seven Eleven in Moto–Hakone. Oden to the people.

PLEASE DO IT AT HOME

Here we can see improper eating behavior of two foreigners in front of a (PE approved) Seven Eleven in a semi-urban environment.And here we see proper behavior in comparison. Please note that Manfred is eating again a bowl of Oden which is neither proper nor improper. Both foreigners have moved away from the (PE approved) Seven Eleven in a less than semi-urban environment. The elevation of the eating place is significantly higher than the mighty Van Hai Pass (but irrelevant).

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Eingeordnet unter 2009, Jerome, Mob, Tom

von | 21. November 2009 · 14:19

Bonking in Hakone…

Thanks David (the role of domestique carrying 2-liter bottles in his back pocket fits you perfect!), thanks Ludwig for the humorous write-ups. It was another beautiful day, weather-wise and comrade-wise. I enjoyed talking with Thierry on top of Otarumi-toge (hope you’ll join us more often Thierry), with Jerome at the foot of Dozaka-toge, with Ludwig at the foot of Nagao-toge while (endlessly) waiting for Michael and finally with MOB himself aboard the Shinkansen between Atami and Shin-Yokohama.

The riding itself was fantastic and even the “sanrenkyu” heavy traffic jams did not bother me at all; it was thrilling and fun. The Mikuni downhill was super fast and Rd. 20 taking us further down to Atami was awesome! Michael is right; this has got to be one of the top 10 downhills in Japan in terms of length, smoothness and beauty of the scenery.

Yes, as one can read in Ludwig’s comments below, Michael seems to have suddenly gotten “the bonk” (this is a condition more commonly referred in Japan as a ハンガーノック or a hunger knock), a serious bout of hypoglycemia without any advance indication of the major collapse which would strike him and leave his companions completely mystified. When Michael finally did show up with a big grin on his face saying: “sorry guys…I had been bonking,” he was instantly forgiven! What a relief! I don’t know about Ludwig but I was starting to have hallucinations of MOB lying by the side of the road with blood streaming from both ears…


As soon as we rode all three together through the Nagao-toge tunnel, the fangs of traffic violation ogres almost pulled Michael into another inferno. Luckily I could get hold of Michael’s leg while Ludwig was holding onto mine (we enacted several versions – including one with Ludwig about to be squeezed – pictures of this fearsome ordeal to follow soon!). We somehow managed to escape and it was circling around lake Ashinoko that Michael completely recovered….gone were the symptoms of depletion and this time around it was Michael who imposed the tempo till the end!


My dessert of the day was a sweet ride in the darkness from Hashimoto over Onekan to my place.

4 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter David, Jerome, Mob, Tom

von | 12. November 2009 · 09:13

An unconvenient truth


I have been contacted by a good friend of the team and myself after he has seen the recent post on the Positivo Espresso blog about the ride that Jerome, Ludwig and myself did in the Odawara/Yamanakako area last week. One of the pictures in the report shows Jerome and Ludwig eating in front of a (properly approved) 7-Eleven close to the Yamanako lake.

I have been advised that eating in front of convenience stores is not regarded as good manners in Japan at all.

I have to confess that for the last seven to eleven years in Japan I haven’t known that such rule exists and I must confess that I have broken this particular rule ignorantly many times. So I would like to make my teammates aware of this fact in case they didn’t know yet: Shingo Mushi may be acceptable from time to time, but conbini mae shoku mushi (コンビニ前食無視) is not.

I am not exactly sure where the things purchased during a ride should be consumed. Details can be find here.

4 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, Hiroshi, Jerome, Mob