Archiv der Kategorie: Freunde

Positivo Espresso, Bremen und Sonstwo. Alle die mitmachen.

von | 6. Oktober 2009 · 12:33

The Ducks of Endurance

Dear Mob of 2010,

This is the Mob of 2009 writing a letter to you on the evening of the Yokohama endurance race. I just would like to remind you that before you coax yourself and your friends into riding in the 2010 Yokohama endurance race you read this one. I am sorry for the shortness of the letter, this is due that every single of my bones seems brittle, my major muscle groups are still shivering in cramps and my tendons are squeaking and aching every time I try to get them moving. Yes, mob of 2009, I would like to remind you that this was not an easy race. Perhaps you forgot your experience from 2008 when you applied in 2009, but make sure to think about it when you consider of riding it again in 2010.

Yours sincerely

mob of 2009

If I would have known (or remembered) how hard this race is, I wouldn’t have registered in the first place. James has kindly written about all the racing aspects and our share of suffering and there is little to add but some personal observations:

When we registered, we met Fujikawa-San and his friend from Catteni Positivo; this being the other team supported by Nagai San’s Positivo shop. I met Fujikawa-San also last year at the race and we talked about the experience. These are nice guys and they also have their own blog where it seems that they are focusing more on brevet style rides.

Without wanting to appear to arrogantly I shall nevertheless remark that during the race we made it abundantly clear which is the Positivo A- and which the Positivo B-Team.

The next thing I remember was that James and me were standing in the starting field when the cheerleader performance began. I am not sure why, but endurance races in Japan do always field cheerleaders (Tsukuba, Yokohama) or at least Weider girls (Motegi) although the connection is not so clear for me.

„How was your last endurance race?“

„Great – we had a fantastic cheerleader performance“

Would probably be a perfectly normal conversation in Japan. Actually the ones which were performing in Yokohama were so bad, that even the rain stopped for a while. They also held posters with the words „Care“, „Fun“, „Joy“ and some others up (Not sure, I think the other ones were „lung cancer“ and „non-linear depreciation“) to inspire us.

The the race started. I tried to get into the first or second fast group, but had to give up after the third lap and from then onwards James and me stayed with the third fastest group. The first hour is always the hardest for me and when it started to rain really, really hard I was considering to throw the towel. I couldn’t see very much through my sun glasses as in the cavity between the sunglasses and the optical glasses inserts humidity was gathering, slowly obscuring any vision left. Luckily James rode in front of me and I could see his bright orange Positivo jersey, but some of the black clad („anti-globalization dress“, as David said) riders where hardly contrasting with the road surface at this point. I was very lucky that the rain stopped and I could regain some vision.

Next thing was, that I was leading the group and riding down the tight flyover from the stadium to the park. The rims were still wet and I braked too late and too hard: so suddenly my rear wheel blocked and I was fast going in direction of the barriers. But luckily I got the bike under control and could avoid a crash, but at the cost of stopping and getting out of the cleats.

„Daijobu ?“ I heard from someone of the Japanese riders in our group…. „Matte!“ I shouted in despair, clipped in and went in pursuit of our group. Luckily I could manage to hang on.

There were quite a few crashes, but not as manya and as hard as in Shuzenji in August. The amount of human suffering one sees at the ramp leading steeply (I guess 15%) up from the park to the stadium level is just amazing. Many riders were so exhausted that they pushed up their bikes; others took the initial swing to capitulate them up about a third and then they just stopped there and couldn’t go further on their own power.

My strategy was to stay in the outer front and shift down to my 27 teeth cog on the rear. That worked pretty well and I wasn’t so bad in sprinting up the ramp. But once I was up it was hard to accelerate from 20 km/hr again and than there is this ugly right curve leading into the stadium which takes the momentum out of the ride again.

This is not an easy course, unlike Hitachi Naka where you stay in the peloton all the time and go virtually straight for about 160 km. Yokohama requires constant acceleration and braking – add some attacks from the group – that takes it’s toll on the body.

One of my of legs after my semi-crash was cramping and I had a hard time to ignore that. Later on I was not able to let my leg rest in the highest pedal position when manouvering a corner. Cramps only stopped when I was pedaling.

So in the end I had no reserves and although we managed to decimate our group to only four or five riders over time, I couldn’t follow James when he sprinted away at the very end.

Nevertheless I was very pleased with our performance and I was sure that we had a good finish even before the results were released.

At the start to the two hour race in the afternoon I was so tired, I could have slept on my bike. I was also incredibly dirty but luckily I brought some equipment for exchange. And at least the weather was getting better and the rain stopped.

The two hour race was not as good as the morning one. In fact I was even a little bit slower than last year. All the fresh new riders were overtaking me to the left and to the right and I couldn’t found a good group to draft with after I have lost contact with James.

I was so tired and so slow. I was cursing that I shouldn’t do this kind of stupid races any longer. Really, I was so exhausted. Nevertheless I made it to the finish and in the end we had a splendid result.

As the Prince Figure Skate Center – the location in town where my daughter and my wife spend more time than at home – was just around a corner and I knew that there was also a 7-Eleven, we went there and had some food and drinks. Looking at the girls coming from the figure skate center and comparing them to what we have seen in the Yokohama stadium, we were wondering if we shouldn’t‘ put a different focus in our sport activities. OK, at this poin tim time we weren’t looking exactly attractive. I would say the only thing that looked more dirty that us were our bikes.

James asked if we should lock them. I thought that he made a joke, nobody at the figure skate center knows want I bike is and what it is good for.

By the way, we were noticed. My wife told me some days later that at least one ugly-duck-becomes-olympic-hero-educating-mother has noticed us and described as later as „dirty, foreign perverts handing around at the entrance to the centre“. My wife wisely decided not to disclose her relationship.

„Dirty, foreign pervert“


So after getting back to the stadium and checking the final results (Complete surprise that TCCs Naomi and Alan and their teammate were also riding in the event, I haven’t seen them at all) we rode home.
I asked one a the reception if James would be eligible for a price with his 6th place finish, but I was told that only the 1st place will get something in the King of endurance category. Naturally, there can be only one king. So we have to be conten with the title of dukes, or, as Laurent remarked, ducks of endurance.

Riding home after the event was a 5 km monster brevet-like trip along long roads and high mountains. So it seemed. Which completely exhausted me. And after having a business meeting and entertaining my family with heroic stories at the local Yakitori restaurant I felt asleep, dreaming and cramping until the early morning light.

The next day I went hiking with a group of German friends. We started at Mitake station on the Ome-Ouktama line an walked up the road to the cable station. This road is well known as „The mother of all pointless rides“ by James, Graham and Michael. From Mitake we took a hiking trail to Hinode mountain and then further on to Tsuru tsuru Onsen (on the road from Itsukaichi to Umenoki pass leading to Ikusabata at the Tamagawa West of Ome). Quite nice and very painful. Perhaps a new trail to be explored by Tom and his new bike?

Anyway, after a good soak in the water and some good food and beers later at the Ishikawa brewery (= Tama Jiman, Positivo approved) I was ready for my bed and didn’t woke up until late on Monday morning.

My muscles are still hurting and I am not completely unthankful that the rain is stopping all biking activities for the time being. I wanted to tell our heroic deeds to the students at university but decided later that history of the Japanese zaibatsu would be equally interesting for them.

3 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, Cervelo Soloist, James, Mob

von | 27. September 2009 · 15:16

Silver Rides

The extened „Silver Week“ is now finally over and a lot of riding has taken place. It started exactly one week ago.

On Sunday Ludwig and me met in Ome, had breakfast with „Aurore“ the French mistress of the equally French bakery which is beloved by everybody and headed out in direction Chichibu. We tried to find Tom’s new road but had initially some problems. Not sure, neither Ludwig nor me are efficient explorers of new frontiers and we use google maps for the way to the toilet in our house.The matter was complicated by the fact that a Japanese rider tried to draft with us. When we let him do some work in the front he drifted against the curb in a right curve and almost fell just in front of me. That was enough: we increased the speed and almost had him completely exhausted when we noted that we had lost the way.But then we found the road and it was beautiful indeed. No traffic, lot’s of up and downs and a beautiful view into the main Chichibu valley leading to Yamabushi pass. After lunch a TT up to Yamabushi and a lunch at Shomaru we went down on the other side and up to Karibazaka. Many riders were out there and we continued along the green line to Sadamine pass, then took a turn North and went up the backroad over Kayunita pass to Nihongi. Boldly we decided to go further and discovered some new passes, such as Samugami, before we finally arrived at Nagatoro, the famous gorge which is mentioned in every sightseeing pamphlet about Saitama (although there aren’t many).

From there onwards we rode further North and rode over Mase pass, a somewhat harder than expected climb before we finally arrived at this Shinkansen Station which is supposed to actually have a meaning. Somewhat. I am talking about Waseda-Honjo.

A nice ride and something more of Chichibu discovered.

The next day I rode to Shibuya to register for the Cycle Messenger World Championship. An event which is tailor made for me. I realized this when I came to the registration bar: I was the only guy with a road bike and also the only one who demounted by moving the right leg over the rear wheel. Everybody else swings the right leg in front, get somehow ride of the hands and the handle and turns the leg over the handle bar. Still much to learn. I checked for the jerseys but they were sold out already – only S size left. Also the XL t-shirts were gone. At least I got a free snicker bar. The registration was chaotic. David also wanted to register, but despite the fact that he went there two times he couldn’t in the end.

My ID card was still in the made but I had to leave as I wanted to visit Positivo with my son and choose his new bike. We made a very reasonable choice (I hope). I would have loved to make the less reasonable choice.

On Wednesday Graham, Michael and me met at precisely the same spot in Ome and rode out in direction Chichibu again. WE took the fast run route this time. I „pushed“ Michael over Yamabushi, staying behind him and applying psycho-terror tactics in order to make him fast over the hill. That worked pretty well and he made it in about 20 minutes up.

After a fast run on route 299 and the Laurent/Dominic/mob 7-Eleven on road 140, we continued until the intersection with road 37 and made a turn to the North. From there onwards we found the perfect point to follow our main tradition „the pointless ride„.

You see, every time Michael, Graham and me are riding out, perhaps also in a group with other riders, we are obliged to do at least one stretch to an obscure location which involves heavy climbing and does not serve any other purpose than to arrive at this point for the sake of arriving at this point. We started this tradition this year, when I volunteered to show James, Michael and Graham the entrance to the incredible steep climb up on Mitake mountain, completely forgetting that the road to the entrance is already longer and steeper than anything we normally climb anyway. All of them were very favorably impressed and our bold undertaking and my leadership skills were the topic of many conversations made when the rest of the tour led the group up to Kazahari Toge in great pains.

So this time we decided to make a pointless climb up to Tsuchizaka Toge, a nice 700 m high pass connecting West Saitama with the Eastern Democratic Republic of Gunma-ny, famous for strong winds and tough women (Angela Merkel, and some 100 kg female hammer throwers, shot putter and discuss virgins). As the border was tightly controlled by tough women that hide so well that they were not seen AND this was our pointless ride anyway, we went back where we came from and rode further North to enjoy a fast lunch at a „michi no eki“.

Michael and me took a new Keirin „0,00%“ beer and when we tasted it we found out that was something missing. It was not only the alcohol but also any hint of taste similar to beer. I found also out that Graham is the other person in Japan who has read Julian Barnes. He is also the only person in Japan who has read „Peeling the onion“ by Guenter „Waffen SS“ Grass in a simplified English version.

And when we continued to ride and I wanted to shoot a photo, I was stil so dizzy by 0.00% of alcohol, that I forgot to un-cleat the leg I wanted to stand on and felt flatly on the road, much to the amusement of Michael who continued to tease me about the lack of alcohol resistance for the rest of the ride.

And then we made it to Nagatoro again. Beautiful and serene it is indeed. Actually it is so quiet, that almost all tourists who come there fall asleep immediately as we can see in the photos below. Also Michael, Graham and me took a nap and we woke up when we were kissed by a beautiful prince. But this is a different story. Again, a fast ride over Mase pass, one of my new favorites and then further on to Waseda-Honjo where we took the Shinkansen home, had a real beer in the train and made it home well in time for everybody’s mongen.

The following two days were stuffed with commuting 41 km to the university and doing a training ride for the track race event of the CMWC at the Tsurumi river close to my home.

And then on Saturday I rode to the Keio Kaku and wanted to take part in the CMWC race there. The usual bunch of gaijins and Japanese messengers was already there: more tattoos could be seen than on the bodies of the Kansai chapter of the Yamaguchi-gumi, piercings enough to supply raw material for the great leap forward in China and haircuts like I would have had if I would been 20 today. Fine.

Then they didn’t let me register because I was on a road bike. You can read the whole ordeal here on their blog site where I vented my complete frustration which these guys who are as flexible as the Hamamatsu police officials when I asked for my driving permit in 1998. OK, they are dressed differently, but the concrete in the head unfortunately remains the same.

Luckily David was there so I didn’t felt so alone and after we have watched the TT event we decided to ride out on Onekan, have a coffee and talk about our favorite subjects: International Law and Jerome.

I was still so angry that I decided to ride to Takao and try to achieve a good time at Otarumi, which I did – first time below 14 minutes despite the wind plus with a heavy rucksack on the back.

And as I was still angry I thought that I could also add Yabitsu on top of this, so I continued. I started the climb at precisely 5 PM and when I made it to the top it was already pitch dark. Strange noises in the Forrest, wild animals and „warumono“ cracking through the underwood … alone almost as scary as Sasago tunnel.Then down on the other side – very slowly in the dark and right into a big matsuri at Hadano. Luckily the famous bento capitol of the world was still open and I had an excellent Oknomiyaki for 240 Yen.

In the end it was a beautiful day. Or a beautiful night.
So what’s next : Yokohama endurance race on Saturday !

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Eingeordnet unter 2009, Cervelo Soloist, David, Mob

von | 21. September 2009 · 07:40

Brevet – a hard day’s night

Well, I made it through the 400 km „brevet“ sponsored by Audax Kanagawa. Approximately 35 of us assembled at 8:15AM for the pre-ride briefing by the side of the Sagami river in Zama city. (Apparently the 600km ride scheduled to start on Sunday had more like 45-50 registrations, the longer distances being popular late in the season among true randonneurs; here, there was a special effort to schedule the 400 and 600 km rides sequentially, in case anyone wanted to do both).

The route started with the usual caution of a Japanese ride — what seemed like endless red lights and a group waiting patiently in line for right turns — but after a few minutes things opened up as we crossed the bridge over the river. I stayed with the two riders ahead of me … to look back and see all the rest of a group of 10-15 at least 100 meters back, patiently in line behind one slower rider and not able to pass safely in traffic on the bridge. Once we got onto Rte 65 and started to get longer distances between traffic lights, that was the last I saw of most of the riders.

By the time we got to Itsukaichi (via Rtes 65, 510, 48 (Machida Kaido) and 61 (Akigawa Kaido)), there were a few riders ahead. Two more of the later-starting but faster-paced riders pulled ahead of me on the climb toward Sakamoto. One of them started to turn left one traffic light early, and I was able to yell out „mada desu, Sakamoto wa tsugi no kosaten!“ Only later did I realize that this kindness (returned many times to me by others during the route) had been extended to Jun Aoyama, shown in the pre-start briefing photo in the long sleeved Discovery jersey 3rd from the left, who finished first, at something like 4:53AM. … If only he would have wandered up that dead-end and spent another 2 hours searching for the entrance to Umegaya-Toge/Jerome Hill, I might have been in the group contending for first place when we came in after 6:40AM.

A few minutes later after clearing Jerome Hill, Tom S. passed me headed East DOWN Yoshino-Kaido as I headed UP river and gave me my first fan support of the day. Thanks, Tom.

Learning from the Transalp experience, I very quickly refueled at the 7-11 at Kori (end of Yoshino Kaid0), first checkpoint of the day (receipts from convenience stores showing the store name, address and time/date served as checkpoint „stamps“) and was on the bike shortly after the first two — Aoyama-san and one more — and ahead of all the others who had gotten to the first checkpoint.

A couple of riders passed me on the climb to Yanagisawa … but fewer than I would have expected. I was slogging already, the extra stress of this event and the early hills preceding the climb having sapped my energy. My „togebaka“ time up Yanagisawa was over 2:35, 15 minutes slower than a few months ago, … then I was down the other side, with one rider (on a snazzy Pinarello FP3 with clean, white jersey and shorts) fearlessly passing me and various cars on the descent to Enzan. I stopped for water at a 7-11 near Enzan station and was just re-emerging to continue alone when … two TCC members (please tell me your names so I’ll remember next time we meet, assuming I’m in something like a normal mental state) rolled up. All I could say was „I’m doing the Brevet, got to ride“ and remounted, another nearly 40 km still left to the „official“ second checkpoint.

After another 10 km, I caught Mr. Pinarello/white jersey, emerging from his own convenience store stop and just rolling out ahead, and we rode together until almost at the next stop, taking only 1 wrong turn that cost us an extra 2.7 km. Maybe it was this turn, or maybe it was general unease with our route, but he started fumbling with his map as we were within a few kilometers of the next stop, and I think pulled off to check. I kept going, found the correct turn without a problem (a LEFT turn … that looped up and over the road so that one ended up going 270 degrees and toward the RIGHT) … and never saw him again. At stop #2, an anonymous Lawson in the SW corner of the valley that includes Kofu/Enzan/Minami Alps City, I arrived before either Mogi-san or Hashimoto-san left, and Sugimoto-san pulled in a few minutes later on his straight handlebar’ed hybrid, looking like „death warmed over.“

…. Okay, I could go on and on with this description of the ride for ever, since it was a REALLY LONG ride, but suffice it to say that after riding the next 40km+ alone into a stiff HEADWIND and gradually UPHILL and then in the DARK to another anonymous Lawson near Kobuchizawa/Yatsugatake, I rode the last 200 km with one of these three individuals — Mogi-san (the next 40+ km on a different route DOWN the hill with TAILWIND to the same SW corner of the valley), Hashimoto-san (the entire last 150+ km) and/or Sugimoto-san (who arrived at the last checkpoint/rest stop before Hashimoto-san and I left, and caught us again after we lost a few more km on a cue sheet-inspired wrong turn in Hadano area and directed us the last 10 km … until I pulled out and sprinted a few hundred meters at the end just to show who was boss, then waited for them so we could finish together).

We were rewarded with a spectacular sunset over the Minami Alps as we climbed toward Yatsugatake, past Anayama station. The weather was perfect (other than the headwind), and I will always remember riding on this country road in the fading light, then the quiet of the darkness. Very nice countryside.

Here is Mogi-san, who finished 16 minutes ahead of us, after pushing on ahead alone at the ~250 km mark.

The downhill stretches in the dark that I rode with him … were actually incredible fun, with smooth road surfaces, little traffic (on Local Rte 12–parallel to Rte 20/Koshu Kaido) and good headlights. And it is really nice to go 40kph+ toward one’s goal while essentially resting on the bicycle. To get any good at this kind of ultra-long event, one would need to learn to focus on conserving energy.

Mogi-san works in IT/systems at an AIG affiliate insurance company. (He is no relation to the „Mogi“ family that founded Kikkoman — it is a rare Japanese name, so I asked that question, and he says the employers always asked it as well he was in college looking for a first job.)

Hashimoto-san and I rode up the climb to the NW side of Mt. Fuji, panicked a bit after we realized we had climbed the wrong valley (Rte 404 instead of Rte 300) but realized that luckily there was a connecting road at the top of the climb — so we added only a little climbing and probably no extra distance by the error. After some very, very slow climbing on a dark mountain road to 980 meters elevation, we zoomed down the Fuji Panorama Line (Rte 139), competing only with some even faster trucks at 1AM on a Sunday morning. After climbing again back up to 880 meters near the famed Fuji Safari Park, we enjoyed a long, mostly gradual descent again on Rte 469, competing only with the occasional 3:30AM Sunday newspaper delivery bikes as we passed through Gotemba environs.

Hashimoto-san works at Microsoft Japan — just in case it was not apparent from his jersey.

Sugimoto-san … I did not get to speak with much, as we were not riding together until the very last few kilometers. But as you can see, by morning the color had returned to his face. He was looking much more healthy than 250 km earlier in the event.

The three of us, Hashimoto, Sugimoto and Litt, were tied for 3rd place arriving at around 6:45AM, behind only Aoyama-san and Mogi-san. I saw one other finisher arrive, slogging in about 30~40 minutes later as I headed for the train after resting and eating some cup ramen and chips. Presumably the rest of the group made it later, before the Noon cutoff.

Here I am complete with reflective gear … one of the Audax requirements. … If I do one of these again, I will get much simpler reflective strap and leave the Assos at home, as the vest constricted me, and the velcro fasteners rubbed against my Assos bib shorts/top and I fear significantly shortened the life of the material.

Here is a link to a map of the ride … tracked until my Garmin 705’s battery hit empty after around 360 km and over 18 hours of service.

View Interactive Map on MapMyRide.com

Or you can TRY HERE to see someone else’s GPS map of the course (without the various side detours — 4 that I can recall — that added about 10km total for me).

The Garmin says 4800 meters of climbing, while Map My Ride suggests 4000 meters — either one based upon 360 out of 410 kilometers (not to mention the various wrong turns). In any event, it was a monster ride, and I slept most of Sunday morning, afternoon, and night.

P.S. One comment for consideration by the Positivo Espresso team — Lawson now has 2 liter private label water bottles for 105 yen, a significant discount to the new 128 yen private label water available at 7-11, or the 178 yen Suntory water still sold at Family Mart. This competitive situation bears watching as we „approve“ convenience stores going forward.

11 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, David

von | 8. September 2009 · 23:42

Brevet anyone?

I signed up for this 400 km ride sponsored by Audax Kanagawa, a „Brevet“ of the type used to qualify for Paris-Brest-Paris (next scheduled for 2011). The sign up (via Sports Entry) is easy, but requires Japanese language skills or assistance.

Start is 9AM on Saturday Sept 19, at Zama in Kanagawa Prefecture, with an 8:15AM pre-ride briefing. Finish is … no later than Noon the next day, but hopefully much earlier! The route includes some territory we know well (Yanagisawa Pass), but also some new territory for me, going around the West/South side of Mt. Fuji. It looks like there may be some special gear requirements (reflective vest, lights) given that one will be riding well into the night so I’ll need to read the Audax rules carefully … Deadline for sign up is Sept 12 — this week. 2500 yen for non-members (for that price, I expect only minimal support — mostly just checkpoints).

Michael tells me that TCC bulletin board is discussing a similar Brevet in Chiba for October. Follow-up Note: The TCC discussion of autumn Brevets in Chiba is here — and includes helpful information about carrying food, some of the more unusual rules (double tail-light requirement, headlamp on helmet requirement — for 400km+ Brevet and useful to read a map at night), need for accurate odometer to follow cue sheet, etc.

4 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter David

von | 2. September 2009 · 10:41

True Love

Guys,

Just thought I would let you know that I recently received my Minorua Workman Pro Truing kit. I have some experience building and repairing wheels. so I thought I would let you know that if you need any of your wheels redishing or truing let me know.

Previous arrangements is that I work for beer… although from experience I have learnt it’s best to give me it once I have completed the wheel and not before.

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Eingeordnet unter 2009, James

von | 29. August 2009 · 16:08

Valley of the Beautiful Women

… a few weeks ago, Michael and I took the forest road (rindo) that goes North from Rte 20 just after finishing the descent from Otarumi, west of Takao toward Sagamiko, and I wanted to post a few photos — see below. This was a weekday very early morning ride during O-bon. A jet-lagged Jerome came along as far as Otarumi.

The road leaves Rte 20 and goes under the Chuo Expressway and up a valley, past bi-jyo-tani onsen (the „valley of the beautiful women“ hot spring resort), and climbs up to around 600 meters elevation. Unfortunately, we did not see any beautiful women — no women at all in fact once we got into the valley.

There are lots of hiking trails through the area.

The road is passable by road bicycle, but there are stretches where it is getting overgrown, with no traffic, cars blocked by gates at either end.
Michael’s Kanji reading skills failed him, as he was completely stumped by the sign at one end of the closed road:

Michael and I headed back over Ura-Wada. I stopped for a conference call from a 7-11 on Jimba Kaido and hopped the train from Hachioji to my office for a late-morning arrival.

TOM: It is a nice alternative climbing route, moreover it is so „close to town“…some more related reading here. Thanks Hiroshi for introducing this one!

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Eingeordnet unter David, Hiroshi, Mob

von | 23. August 2009 · 15:10

Seven Eleven and a Twenty Two Eleven

Big racing day at Shuzenji today. James in X class (3 laps), Ludwig in D (5 laps) and me in Z class (2 hour endurance) plus James daughter Tsukino in the kids race and some other riders we know (Greg, Sky Blue and Goro) racing as well. Good and bad news.
James, his daughter and me started Saturday afternoon, we had a big rented van and we sat all in the front row while behind us our bikes were suspended from the ceiling. Some congestion in Mishima led to a late arrival at the CSC Shuzenji but we could somehow convince the shopkeepers to let as do a trial ride on the race track.

After that we retired at the ryokan, the wonderful NANSANSO, with the staircase
 just right out of a Miyasaki animation movie and rooms as large as gymnasiums.
And the best thing is that you can stay there for about 6.000 Yen per person outside of the holiday season. We had a Sashimi dinner at a local restaurant which was accompanied by some Origami show from the old ladies serving us there.Next morning the big day. We left for the race track early but arrived just in time to do some warm up laps. I was first to start in the Z class two hour endurance race, followed by Ludwig in the D class 4 minutes later.
Of course the pace was fast at the start and I hardly managed to stay in the field on the first climb (clockwise racing direction) and hang on on the downhill. Then the long climb starts and I was left behind with some other weak riders. The first lap is of course the hardest and I was wondering how I would survive this day. But I had a very good lap time of 10:15 min, probably the best I ever did at Shuzenji.

In the second lap I was in a group of three riders and we rode together for most of the time. Somehow I had found my rhythm now and I from there on I had quite steady lap times between 11 and 12 minutes. I was starting to battle it out with a guy from the Fast Lane club. On the third long climb I was overtaken by Ludwigs D class field. And after 33:40 min I completed the third lap. Much better than last year, where it took me more than 38 min in the D class race, but this was also at the start of the season and the race was hold in the opposite direction which I do not prefer.

So I continue my battle with the Fast Lane guy and after completion of 5 laps I clocked 57:05 min, also faster than my last year result in the D class of 58:38 min. But, to put all this good results in perspective, with the 3 laps time I would have made second last place in this years D class race and with the 5 laps time I would have ended up second last as well in the D class race yesterday, in both cases not making the 10% time cut. There is still a long way to go.
If I want to go this way at all.

After the first five laps the Fast Lane guy gave up the battle with me and I moved ahead of him and being almost alone on the track I started to slow down a little bit. While the first 5 lap average was 11:25 min, the next 5 laps took 12:33 min in average. This is the price one has to pay there.

Also I started to lap some of the other Z class competitors. There is one guy I see quite often at races, long colored hairs, looks like the killer in Silence of the Lambs (not Anthony Hopkins), lapped him as well.

Lapped some of the women rider for the second time.

On the 9th lap I overtook the last rider from the O class field, which meant that I could do another lap as the race was supposed to be stopped when the last O class rider crosses the finish line. Also the Z class field was hot on my heels, and I was afraid to be lapped a second time by them. But they didn’t, so I entered the tenth lap, now completely on my own and then I did the last climb up to the finish line. There was one rider 50 meters in front and I gave everything to catch him before the line – which I did, I was just 0.061 seconds in front of him. Later I found out that I have lapped him already one time.

Overall 22nd place out of 35, not bad for a field full of S and A class riders.
Ludwig had finished by now his D class race and I also made a very good 11th place. As well as James who run in the X class field and made an eleventh place as well in his first race in Japan.
After our races we sat down in the grass and watched some of the other races. Goro san was putting up a good show in the A class, leading the field and then he was suddenly gone. One rider approached me and asked if I am a teammate of him, he has crashed on the downhill and was in the emergency room. I went there and there he was with some flesh wounds here and there but looking quite OK. If compared to the other guy who crashed with him and had bandages all over his body. Nevertheless, Goro San broke his collarbone as I could read later on his blog. Hope he will recover soon.

As usual there were quite some crashes also this year and I saw some riders with graze wounds and torn jerseys and shorts hanging around at the track.
At noon Tsukino made her debut in the kids race and James and me were getting very excited. She started from the bottom of the field but then made her way up. On the last lap she almost crashed with another boy she wanted to overtake and then was a little bit afraid to ride fast, but she could hold her place and finished in seventh position. James was all the very proud father.We packed up our things in drove home in the rented super big racing van, all of us sitting in the front row enjoying snacks (bought at the 7-Eleven if you want to know). A good day at the races.

7 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, James, Mob

von | 20. August 2009 · 14:17

S C A R Y T W O

Last night I dreamt that my father was checking my body temperature. I had a high fever and so I called Tom, who had taken a day off from work, to cancel the planned North side Ootoge ride. That was how I scared I was.

Of course I had no excuse not to come and to undertake a renewed approach on this monster of a climb in the middle of nowhere, with hornets big as A380s, bears on amphetamine and silent strangeling monkeys.

So I dressed up in complete Positivo Espresso wear, kissed my sleeping wife and children, put the files with the life insurance policies on my desk so that my wife would find them easily, deleted the history of my web browser and left for the station.

As usual Tom was riding out on his bike while I took the train and we met at Saruhashi Station. Then we proceeded quickly up the slopes in direction of Matsuhime Toge until we reached the picnic place and tunnel at elevation 650m that is the entry to Ootoge. Riding up as a pair is much less scarier than riding up alone. Although Tom was as usual in good form and went to ride in front which I thought was OK because then the bears wouldn’t be so hungry when they met me and might be content with an arm or (worse) a leg.

Luckily we went up on a weekday, when the road is not that crowded by monkeys, snakes, deers and foxes driving with their families to the river in the valley. Also the trucks driven by bears, transporting food for the hibernation period up on themountains can be a real hassle.

And so Tom and me were completely alone.
We climbed up the first 600 meters until we reached the gate and we started to discuss how to proceed, left or right. Tom was in favor of going left, I was also in favor of going left because going right is definitely very scary; but the map mounted at the side of the road clearly indicated right. Then suddenly we heard a noise: No, not bears raping Japanese hiking groups or a swarm of hornet in low flying attack formation, but the sound of a car. A Tokyo Power (Tepco) 4WD was moving down the road in our direction and stopped at the gate. So we asked one of the guys where to go and they said that going right was impossible and that we should turn left. This used to be the right information at precisely the right moment, almost like a miracle. Thank you TEPCO. I will take care from now on to pay my electricity bills in time.

Then the rest of the climb was a piece of cake, only some 250 meter up with a splendid view on the mountains in less than 30 degree temperature before we reached the gate at the top of Ootoge. We had made it. By the way, there are no „semi“ (cicada) up there so the noise environment is completely different than on the normal lower climbs.
We went down on the South side where the road is in much better shape and also much wider, also like a race track. But definitely is the North approach the more beautiful one.

After a lunch of cold Soba in a nice traditional restaurant close to Otsuki station (The type of restaurant where they have photos of the emperor in his car .. driving by) we continued on Route 20 and then climbed up Suzugane Toge and Hinazuru Toge following road 35 and 517 all the way to Hashimoto. As I said, Tom is really in good shape and he had to wait all the time for me, but it wasn’t that long that he had grown a beard or so. I mean, this is the pleasure of riding out with friends one knows now for so long, such as Tom, David, Jerome and Ludwig.
As a final piece de la resistance we added a North Tsukui lake ride before coming to Hashimoto where I took the train home and Tom made a final run on the One Kan.

More than 200 km for Tom and slightly more than 100 km for me, but close to 3 km of climbing up for both of us in the sun made this a very exhausting and happy day.

Once home, I put the insurance files back in the shelve and called my father.

A more factual account of the day is written here.

Also Tom and me had the same idea, that we should make some investment to enjoy future trips by having something like this. I heard that every Belgian has one, it is like Takoyaki grilling pads in Osaka. As I have studied in Aachen, city borders touching Belgium, I might also be eligible to buy one.

2 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, Cervelo Soloist, Mob, Tom

von | 17. August 2009 · 05:06

O BON

This is a follow-up to the Sunday-ride invitation from David below. Please continue to read if you are interested in Sunday rides (as opposed to weekday rides).

David had invited two friends to join a typical Positivo Tour from his house, something along the lines of going incredibly fast the first 10 km to erase all doubts who are the masters of the universe, then loose the newcomers somewhere in the mountains, find them eventually dehydrated in front of a convenience store, pass by without stopping and say „Hi, see you next time.“

In order to protect the innocent and because both of them are lawyers I will not reveal their true name but call them MONOPOLYMAN and LAVAWOMAN.

I met them at the 7-Eleven in front of Takao station and we decided to give Wada Toge a try. This is always a good road for newcomers, because it cannot possibly get worse and after Wada all roads of the world look flat in comparison.

Obon is the official Umeboshi drying week in west Tokyo and we saw many of these hellish pickles laid out in front of the houses along the road.Some people seem to have left for vacation and upon return their house will be covered completely with letters and pamphlets.While LAVAWOMAN was ploughing her way up on the approach to the Wada entry, MONOPOLYMAN had a chance to take a good look at the sculpture garden.Then the climb to Wada started. We didn’t wanted to do anything crazy, so all of us rode up at a slow speed. Jerome stayed with LAVAWOMAN to protect here from unwelcomed advances from other cyclists while David and MONOPOLYMAN went ahead. I stayed with LAVAWOMAN first to protect her from unwelcomed advances from Jerome, but as he behaved and, worse, other cyclists were overtaking me, I started to climb up faster. While overtaking some of the other cyclists again, I gave confusing hints: „Don’t give up, only 300 meters left – vertical, of course.“, in order to compensate for my lack in power and my plus in weight.

David and MONOPOLYMAN were already at the top when I arrived and while we were waiting for the others to come, we told MONOPOLYMAN about the witch in the tea hut.

And here they came, Jerome visibly suffering, but LAVAWOMAN still motivating him and shouting „Don’t give up Jerome, you can do it!“. Then LAVAWOMAN bought a bottle of water from the witch, something we would never dare to do and remarked: „She was quite nice“ Ah, LAVAWOMAN, you must be more careful, you were already subjected to the treacherous magic of the witch. Not even your lawyer charms will work here.

We then took the obligatory memorial photo and asked another cyclist to do this. It took Jerome about 15 minutes to get up from his sleeping place and join us for the photo. Time means nothing in France.
And then we went down to route 20. Took another photo at the Fuji viewpoint. Fuji was barely visible. I thought it would be nice to have a better view on Fuji with all the blue sky today.

Meanwhile, one of the riders has managed to break a spoke on his front wheel.
Jerome has offered one camenbert cheese free of charge for the first one who can guess his name.

We managed to fix the spoke with some tire repair patches back to the rim so that at least it stopped making noise.

When I took some more photos suddenly everybody had gone ahead and as I felt still good I called David, left a message that I would part and continued to cycle along route 76.

I arrived at Doshi Michi and continued to ride to Yamanakako to see my Fuji. The roads were pretty crowded and it was hot but not that humid. And I found a very nice shrine on the way and bought some Ema for home.
Finally I arrived at Fuji Yoshida Station (Bubble -ugly building) and took the train home via Otsuki. Probably a mistake, could have ridden down road 139 to Otsuki on the bike, would have been faster most likely.Chaned in the wrong train at Hachioji and went to Ebina. Back to Hashimoto, then finally home after spending four hours in the train. Sat next to a girl who wore a t-shirt reading „Fuck me please“ on the front. When she got up and left she had „Fuck You“ written on the backside. Probably on the way to the Glay concert in Shinyokohama.

Nice day, nice suntan.
By the way, David, Jerome and me went riding Otarumi and Bijotani on Friday as well, then returned over Wada from the backside to Hachioji. David had to go back to work early and I returned by train. When I arrived at Shinyokohama the station building has been taken over by group of elderly people wearing green hats.

2 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, Jerome, Mob

von | 26. Juli 2009 · 09:11

Tour de West


The town of Ituskaichi froze in awe. Older people remembered a day in September. 1945, when an large US army convoy drove through the town, but since then this has been the biggest gathering of foreigners ever. TCC, Yokota USAF-CC, Half-Fast and Positivo Espresso had called for a mass climbing of Kazahari.

I met James aka „FarEast“ and his beautiful Pinarello FP3 bike at Nakayama station and together we took the train for Hachioji. So we had enough time to talk about the important things in life: war in Iraq and Afghanistan, global warming, hunger crisis in Africa and upper house elections in Japan. Actually the only thing I can now remember from the conversation , in which we most certainly came to precise solution for each of the mentioned problems, was that I should spend 10 times the amount of a very good Shimano DuraAce bottom bracket to buy something which, unlike me, has ceramic balls inside.

It took us only 30 minutes to ride from Hachioji to Itsukaichi, overtaking red traffic lights and orange clad „You can“ riders.

When we arrived at Itsukaichi station there were already about 10 riders present but more and more came. I chatted here and there and got to know many of the riders which used to hide on the TCC forum behind names such as „Chazzer“, „Eloy“,“Morlock“, „Alan Willi“ and „Shimano Sora“. Many nice people.

The Positivo Espresso team was able to muster three riders, Tom, me and Thomas, how, against payment of a handsome fee, had come in full Positivo Espresso wear.
I think the new jerseys are very well looking, also the bright orange color prevents car drivers from simply ignoring the PE rider. Another, not intended side effect is, that the color scheme offers a irresistiable attraction to butterflies who are mistaken us for beautiful flowers and try to copulate with the jersey or something. Sorry, I don’t remember all the details that my father told me, when I was thirteen years old.

The problem with large group rodes is, that it takes so long to organize things and it is so nice to chat with everyone; it took us more than half an hour to get started, but once we were, the tempo was quite fast from the beginning. In the front were the very fast riders and I was in a second group of the „fast looking“ riders.

In no time we were at the Motojuku T junction, the official Positivo Espresso Togebaka TT start point and I accelerated even more to ride up to Tomin no Mori as fast as I could. It took me only 18 minutes the reach the Y junction and that is quite fast; there a group of 5 to 6 riders was waiting to regroup. I shouted some excuse like „I think I forgot my wallet at the top“ and off I went taking the first climb at full speed (13 km/hr or so). My devilish plan was to be first on the top, not waiting for anybody else as all the polite and social riders were waiting for the slower ones at the Y junction.

Unfortunately my very good plan folded within 3 minutes when Alan, Sergey, Tom and some other riders overtook me as they had plans on their own. And were very much faster than me.

So I ploughed my way up getting overtaken by David and later by Naomi. But at least I could stay within visible sight of Tom. Then Sergey overtook me on the last one hundred meters. I don’t know why I was so stupid to give already everything on the first climb, but to set a new togebaka record is always a good motivation. Barely I managed to stay below 1:03 hrs. It’s a long way to go under the hour, but with more training and better (cooler) weather, it should become possible in autumn. Anyway on the top I felt like Floyd Landis on the climb the day before he drank his wonder beer.
Long break at Tomin no Mori, more riders arrived but by far not all. Out of the original group of 30 – 40 riders, I met perhaps less than 20 back at Tomin.

Perfect summer weatehr. Hot, humid and blue skies, all performing draging factors.

This was also the end of the „How manly are you?“ competition, the remaining elevation to Kazahari Toge I took at a much slower speed. Tom and Thomas had agreed that we continue to Matsuhime and return via road 35, instead of joining the party people and close the day already at noon with a heavy dosage of beer, soba and yakiniku.

The descent was fast as usual, but when I came to the T junction (Matsuhime pain left – Party right), there was nobody there. I thought that they would went ahead already to Matsuhime so I speeded up on the road to Kosuge. I was tempted to take the shortcut, but this is against unwritten Positivo Espresso rules. I arrived at Kosuge – nobody there. I tried to call Tom and Thomas on the phone, but they didn’t answered. So what to do?

OK, I thought let’s stick to the very original plan and climb over Matsuhime, then try O-toge and take a train home from Otsuki and I started to climb up.

And there, where the shortcut joins the Matsuhime climb again, where Tom and Philip waiting – what a nice surprise. They had seen me going ahead at the Okutama T junction (thanks to the bright orange of the PE jersey and the clouds of butterflies around it) and went ahead to catch me. When they came to the junction, they were wondering if I had passed already or if I would still come. But rightly considering my poor performance they waited – and there I was.

Together we started the climb up to Matsuhime in the heat. We rode together for the first 30 meters, then Philip and Tom went ahead and I only saw them again on the top. So, the second had climb of the day was done.

A fast decent with an empty stomach led us directly to the gates of a big supermarket close to Sarubashi, where we went on a shopping spree in the bakery section. I bought two much and had to carry a piece of applecake in my back pocket for the remains of the ride. When I unpacked it four hours later it looked more than baby food.

Anyway, we started the third hard climb of the day which was Suzugane, taking us from road 20 to road 35. Also this one we climbed in no time, although some tectonic movements in the last two months must have made it much longer, higher and steeper – this was not the Suzugane I remembered, crossied with Ludwig in the snow during this winter.

Then we had to climb over Hinazuru, which was a much shorter climb and somehow, despite the heat, I also felt that some power come back and it became easier to climb than going up Matsuhime.

Philip had his wedding anniversary this very day and was desperately trying to get back home before 6 PM. So we rode down the road from Hinzuru as fast as we could until we came to the crossing with road 76 {If required I can act as a witness to state that he was giving his best effort to be back in time}.

There we had a discussion about the fastest way home. Tom was opting for Otarumi and Hachioji, Philip was in favor of riding to Hashimoto. In the end Tom rode alone over Oatarumi and Philip and me continue on route 76 over Makino Toge. Looking now at the map it is very well possible that this was the shortest way, but it also included some serious climbs over Makino Toge. I was slowly running out of power and I started to curse this climbs.

But finally we had made it into Hashimoto and after a short break at a 7-Eleven (Philip, already in full compliance with Positivo Espresso rules), I showed him the way to the One-Kan express road so that he could find his way on his own to the Tamagawa.

I was really worried that he would not make it back and time. And also he was getting faster by the minute, either because just like Jerome he is such rider that he develops more strength during long rides, or simply because of panic and fear in view of his wife’s reaction when arriving late.

I really hope he made it in time. And if he made it, I wonder if he would be able to enjoy the evening, or if after all the exhaustions of the day, his body would simply by an empty hull, waiting to be refilled with meaning and power.

Also I became faster at the latter part of this ride; most likely the reason is very simple: Having lost all fear of my wife a long time ago, I go on this long rides and dehydrate to the biggest extend possible. Yesterday I lost 4 kg of body weight AFTER I drank and ate at home and compared the weight before and after the ride. So getting lighter means less weight to carry up the mountains, which it turn makes my performance better. I should consider also to cut off some riding-irrelevant body parts to make it even better.

Anyway, I drove back to Hashimoto station and took the train home where my body hull arrived at 7 PM and was unable to contribute in a meaningful way to family life.

Later in the evening I watched the second last stage of the Tour de France 2009 up on Mt. Vendoux. Contador crossed the finish line and I felt asleep immediately. Woke up late the next morning, still not fully recovered and with no wish to ride a bicycle for the rest of the day.

Blogging is therapy.

[Stole some pics from the TCC site, please let me know if not OK]

4 Kommentare

Eingeordnet unter 2009, Mob, tcc, Tom