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First, it was „Beyond the Peleton“ with Cervelo.  Now it is „Behind the Peleton“ with Ritte Racing, the Belgian brand that Jimmy Shinagawa highlighted for us back in May. 

Each video is short — click through to Youtube to see some of the others.  I liked the wheel change „on the fly“ during a race.  Effective low cost marketing?  Yes, if enough blogs highlight it.  Unfortunately, the UCI did not have much sense of humor about the Ritte Bosberg:

I found this amusing write-up on Joe Papp’s very good blog-site, Papillon (http://joepapp.blogspot.com). For those who do not know this site it is well worth reading. As a former pro cyclist who was caught doping and who came clean, he has some interesting insights to what is going on in the sport nowadays.
This is not quite Tim Krabbe’s book The Rider but is a good read.

„Ok, the first rule of racing in France: Never ever, ever, ever believe a Frenchman when he says the course is „almost completely flat“. To an Englishman flat is flat, with possibly a bit of a downhill finish. To a Frenchman, flat is at best „rolling“ with a „small“ climb of maybe 8% and, I swear I am not making this up, a finishing stretch of maybe 500m into the village along cobbles at 22%!!!! It also comes of the corner at the end of the circuit’s climb, just to really spice things up.

Le Grand Prix de [small French town]. Thankfully, I rode the circuit first, and thankfully they wouldn’t let me race Elite 1,2 and 3! Because I had only just registered with their association they made me ride 4 and 5. Police outriders at a local amateur race, a beautiful course, 10 laps making just fewer than 50k. Cat 4 and 5. Sounded do-able.

How did it go?

How can I put it?

Basically, I got raped. By 40 angry Frenchman. For an hour. Over and over again, whilst a new friend (the French cyclist who invited me to the race after giving me directions to go training earlier that week) laughed at my suffering. He said he hadn’t been that entertained all year.

On the rolling section the peloton averaged 50kmph. From kilometer 0. Seriously.

Some wad attacked on the first lap, got about 20 meters on the peloton, and then we groveled for a lap, trying to rein him in. And as soon as we had, someone else goes (actually it was mostly the original wad attacking again and getting others to do the same), we rein them in, then someone else, and so-on and so-forth. By about lap 4 (I really had forgone the ability to count by now) I felt the inevitable happening. I was slipping back through the peloton. Losing wheels each time every f*cker and his dog stepped on the gas at the top of the climb. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t the first to get dropped. Surely someone else couldn’t take this punishment for much longer too?

So as soon as I see the old boy next to me start to shake his head, I am onto him like a flash. My new best friend. Please Granddad, give it up. I’ll keep you company. It’ll be our own little grupetto. We can share our horror stories, tell each other about the injuries that have held us back today. Now I did say he was old, maybe mid 50s if I am being generous to myself, but f*ck he was stubborn. Every time I saw a gap ahead of him, I thought, „great we can relax now, and I can shake my head disapprovingly, point and blame you for being dropped“. But no, he would summon up something from his leathery, ox like thighs and back on we would get. More pain, more racing heart, more burning lungs, more f*cking lunacy. Why am I doing this? I am on holiday!

And then finally, it happens. He looks down at his gears (the eternal fail safe excuse for an impending crack), mutters something in French, shakes his head some more, and he’s gone. I am not going to come last! Well, not if I can beat him up those cobbles at the end, or knock him off at least. I then have a bit of a second wind, inspired by my „victory“ over a retired Frenchman, I manage to find a few more wheels for half a lap, a few more dropped, and then I am done. I wait for a nice stretch of road with no spectators, and I gratefully sit up and wait for the stragglers, and hope they haven’t got too much fight left in them.

But of course they do. And actually there are quite a few I hadn’t seen. About 12 of us. So I spend the rest of the race trying not to get dropped by some other losers, and suffering the indignity of the final police outrider laughing at my pain, and then finally we hear the bell. Should I go early? Hope to give myself a head start for the monster at the end? I give it a go. I fail. I give it another go. I fail again. F*ck it guys, we are racing for last! I am a tourist. Give me a break! So I sit in, try to save myself. And I needed to. Then end was brilliant. One of the funniest and craziest things I have seen in a bike race. Guys just stopping dead halfway up the finish. Guys walking. Guys running. Guys falling. Shouts of „putain“ and „merde“ filled the pretty little street on the lord’s day, accompanied by the childlike, joyful laughter of the spectators. There were still remnants of the main peloton struggling up it when i got there. I was in the 27″, took it easy and I thought to myself, If I don’t have to get off, I won’t come last.

And I didn’t.

As I coughed up what felt like the remnants of a lung, I flopped over the finish line, into the village square, received a kiss on both cheeks from a beautiful French girl as she put my finisher’s garland round my neck, and then found a nice corner to throw up in. It was f*cking brilliant. Insane but brilliant. I can never return to racing in the UK with any real enthusiasm now. I had forgotten how well the French do all this. Every weekend! I had spent too long away from it. Too long. When i got home, after a two hour „nap“, I began persuading my fiancée that we would be spending three months every year back in France so I could race „properly“ again. Thankfully she had found the whole experience so funny, she was easily persuaded.“

-contributed by a Pappillon reader

This Saturday Jerome and I joined the Kanagawa Oct 2 400km Brevet from Numazu to Karuizawa and back.

400+ km.  4870 meters of climbing (really).  23 hrs 57 mins.  Please click through to „View Details“ via Garmin Connect:
http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/51523117

Completed in just under 24 hours, with many stops, including a steak dinner at a family restaurant in Saku, Nagano (complete with after dinner nap); too many brief rests slumped over my handlebars in the dark on the middle of the last two long climbs, completely exhausted; and 30 minutes or more passed out in a 24-hour McDonalds on the Southern edge of Kofu, Jerome and I the only customers other than a group of attractive women in the smoking area who looked as if they had just gotten off work at 2:45AM Sunday from one of the local establishments.

There were some familiar riders — a few from the Chubu 600; Tsuchida-san from the Saitama 300 km event in March, the ex-Keirin star who rode with a much younger guy (perhaps his son? protege?) as an assist; Daisuke S. from the Positivo Catteni club team; Jose, a Philippine expat who Jerome and I met just 2 weeks ago in Oume; and some of the Kanagawa organizers.  We rode the last 75 km with an English speaking Brevet-crazed freelance software engineer from Kobe, Moriwaki-san.  He did the Cascade Pacific 1250 km this summer, an identifying tag from the event still attached to his seatpost, as well as a series of three 1000 km Canada events (one day off between each in the series!), and said he had done a German 1000 km Brevet in a prior year, starting out of Munich.  And no doubt he would have zoomed ahead of us, but for the fact that he waited with Jerome 30+ minutes for me at Lake Shoji-ko after the last long climb, and he must have been saving himself for next weekend’s Chubu 1000.  All that, plus a mechanical problem (dying bottom bracket) that required him to make an unscheduled repair stop at a bicycle shop in Saku.

As with last time, Jerome had not registered and was an „unofficial“ entrant.  He did commit to the organizers that, next time, he will register in time and pay the modest fee.  He had a late meeting at work that went to 11PM on Friday evening, and so went straight to Shin Fuji on Saturday morning, planning to meet me 25 km into the ride or so.   We missed our rendezvous, as I got through the first 25 km very quickly — a tailwind making it possible to zoom down the coast line at around 40 kph without undue effort, and Jerome stepped into a family restaurant for breakfast.  In any event, I continued on, knowing he would catch me somewhere up the Fujikawa. At least he did not need to wait for me until we were well over 100 km into the ride.  Then he waited at the top of (or down the other side of) each hill, each wait longer than the last.

As with other events longer than 300 km, there is way too much to put in a blog entry at 1AM.  A few highlights:

1.  The climb to Shinshu Toge went through some beautiful country.  Somehow I was expecting stark, harsh terrain (like the approach from 411 to Kamihikawa), but there were nice farm villages and valleys, and even some downslopes to mix with the climbing from Nirasaki (360m elev) to the pass (1460m elev).  Most of the gradient was reasonable – just a few km of 10%+ climbing near the top.

2.  The „surprise climb“ of the trip was from Saku (low point 670 m elevation) to Naka Karuizawa (1003m elev).  I somehow was hoping that the turnaround point — 60% of the way from Saku to the center of Karuizawa (well, the Shinkansen station), would be at the same elevation as Saku.  No luck … and plenty of slow, suffering riders to witness after we started back down the hill.

3. We saw the sun rise over Mt. Fuji as we passed through „Asagiri Kogen“ – Morning Mist Highlands.  A beautiful site … the scene not captured on film, as I was at that point descending at a good clip and has zero energy to stop and take photos.

4.  This was a really well-thought-out course, especially compared with the Brevet at end of August.  The Fujikawa was very nice, the route out through Minami Alps/Nirasaki avoided much of the „sprawl“ of Kofu, and travel on „main roads“ — 141 from Saku back to Nirasaki, 20 through Kofu, and 358 up to Mt. Fuji — was mostly during the dark of late night and very early Sunday morning, when traffic was almost non-existent.  … until buses, cars and trucks started roaring up Rte 358 before 5AM Sunday.  Our only suggestion to the organizers was that they try Rte 2 instead of Rte 141 between Koumi and Saku on the outbound leg, as the truck traffic on 141 can be heavy.  Also, the course had the benefit that all of the hard work is done before the last 50 km, which includes a 30km+ downhill stretch that starts just after passing Motosu-ko.

The view North while crossing the Fujikawa on Rte 300, 75 km into the ride

The view South.

The view West.

The title for this blog came to me while cooking tonight (a delicious ragout with fusilli which was very good even though I say so myself). I was listening to the B.B. King & Eric Clapton album called ‚Riding With The King‘. Now I am not suggesting my riding partner Laurent is regal in anyway other than perhaps being The King of The (Quick) Drink After Work. We met by the river at 7:15am and headed off while discussing the day’s route. In contrast to the official Positivo style where a route is planned and then ignored, we didn’t start with a plan. Both of us set out from our homes feeling tired and expecting a shortish ride but then The Russian mentioned a drive up to some caves he did with his son earlier in the summer and we started to think bigger. Along the way we met Pro Dave (James M) who was waiting for Mossad’s man in Hachioji, Yair. They were to do the last ride before Pro Dave headed off to ride the Tour of Cameroon with his team. We rode for a few km before our paths split and sent Po Dave off with our best wishes and the warning of non-male-borne diseases in Africa for which we do not even have names.
Nowadays we ride along the road by the river rather than on the cycling/jogging/dog-walking path and this was definitely a good thing on this day as there was the 30km and 50km marathon walk going on. There were many hundreds, if not a couple of thousands walkers on the path. The variety of dress was interesting: some in T-shirts & shorts, others in jeans and collared shirts while others were decked out in full hiking gear with boots, gaiters, two cross-country style walking sticks, ruck-sacks, compression tights and GPS watches. And don’t forget those bells to warn bears of your presence! I saw it all except for ropes and crampons. We arrived at Ome and paid our respects to the Aurora Bakery by buying a Royal Milk Bread each which we devoured sitting outside. it was on our last visit here that Laurent was cleverly unmasked as a Russian by an American agent pretending to be a stoned, mid-30s, shoplifting loser. Great disguise which had us all fooled.
We rode on to Okutama and then turned up Nippari Kaido, a new road for me. It climbs gently up to a shrine and some of Japan’s longest caves. Much of this road is even prettier than the wonderful Yabitsu Toge. On the way up we met Steve ‚ Montezuma‘ Tallon who I had not seen since the Tokyo-Itoigawa ride. He was looking to blow off the cobwebs of jet lag with a warm-up climb up Nippari Kaido and then Nokogiri and Kazahari. On the descent we tried to explore roads leading off the main road but they went nowhere far before turning into rough tracks. Having briefly rejoined Ome Kaido we turned off up Nokogiri, another first for me. This climbs up 650m to 1,000m at the top. Almost all the way my Garmin reported a gradient of 9-10% with stretches at 13%. It is interesting to see how much stronger I felt now the temperature and humidity had dropped compared with August. I was surprised by how good I felt on the climbs considering not having had a good night’s sleep for a few days. We were actually chatting on the way up unlike the near death experiences The Russian and I endured only a few weeks ago going up places like Shiozawa Toge. The descent however was rough and much time was spent on the brakes. Parts are already slippery with moss and wet fallen leaves are just beginning to accumulate. A fast run from Honjuku to Itsukaichi was interrupted by an ice cream stop at a tofu store. Tofu flavoured soft cream is definitely recommended.

Just as I was preparing myself for the uninspiring ride from Itsukaichi back towards Tokyo The Russian, no doubt utilising his orientation skills learned in an elite but secretive academy back in Moscow, led me on a great road through villages, paddy fields in which old men were hanging out the rice hay to dry, shrines and under highway underpasses until we popped out at Fussa. From here we made our way back to the Tamagawa road and raced with a powerfully built man in an ugly jersey who was up on the cycling path. After we pulled ahead of him I felt we had made our point and so did not bother when we got held up at a traffic light, but The Russian kicked hard to pass me saying that we cannot let this guy go. Therefore, after riding 160km already we found ourselves riding into a slight headwind at 40km just to overtake someone we did not know to prove a point – what point though I am not sure.

At the outset of the ride I think we were both a little tired and perhaps were hoping the other would suggest an easy ride but in the end we had a great ride in wonderful weather and had a lot of laughs. 190km, 8 hours and 1,900m of climbing.

via fxyomatosis

via La Gazzetta Della Bici

A $45,000, six pound carbon road bike assembled by Fairwheel Bikes

Nope, there’s no “teen” missing from that “six” in the headline. You read “six pound carbon road bike” and that’s exactly what the wizards at Fairwheel Bikes in Tucson assembled about a week ago for the Interbike trade show.

The six-pound bike.
Six pounds barely qualifies as a healthy weight for a newborn baby, let alone a complete, rideable bicycle. And you might well argue that this baby was born a little prematurely. According to a Fairwheel representative, the nearly 100-percent carbon machine was quickly assembled. He mentioned that the build was hasty and they’re planning to revise some of the spec.

To get the scoop, I talked to Rico de Wert, builder of the bike’s aluminum cranks. He said that most of the parts are available from small, boutique manufacturers, but some key pieces are fully custom and might never again be built. But de Wert himself plans to bring his crankset and a new stem he’s working on to market sometime in 2011.

The SPIN Custom frame was built by Marc Siebert. As far as we know, it’s the same one built for Günter Mai and profiled by VeloNews in March 2008. But according to de Wert, it was purchased by “some American,” and now wears a few new parts to further drop its weight. De Wert says the frame itself is completely rideable and has already logged nearly 20,000 miles under its former owner.


To view photos:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/09/interbike/interbike-2010-tech-gallery-%E2%80%93-a-45000-six-pound-carbon-road-bike-assembled-by-fairwheel-bikes_142776/attachment/ib_fairwheel10

Spec highlights include:
Customized AX Lightness brakes (we didn’t nail down if they’re the AX3000 or Orion model)
A 281-gram (with bearings) machined aluminum crankset built by Rico de Wert
Hubs by Dash Cycles of Boulder, Colorado
Custom 24mm carbon rims by AX Lightness laced with Pillar titanium spokes
AeroLite Lite Pedals, custom drilled to shave a little extra weight
NoRa CfK carbon stem, built by Oliver Grest of Germany and his Grest & Hanke GbR company
Schmolke custom TLO road bar by Stefan Schmolke
Carbon downtube shift levers by BTP
Custom one piece Tune Speedneedle saddle integrated with a Schmolke post
A heavily modified SRAM Red rear derailleur

To give you a sense of how insanely light the parts of this bike have to be in order for the machine to make weight, De Wert said the wheels alone weigh just 585 grams. That’s both wheels together.
Sure, it’s totally ridiculous. But it’s the kind of bike porn we all live for, so enjoy.
And even if you have an extra forty-five grand burning a hole in your pocket, don’t hold your breath. We’re sorry to report that it’s not for sale.

Source: Velonews

With Christmas ‚only‘ three months away my children have started drawing up lists to tell Santa Claus what they would like to receive. The lists are now stuck all around the apartment, including at eye level for both positions a gentleman assumes in the lavatory. So I thought perhaps I should send a letter to Santa explaining that I ’need‘ another bike and, as he is likely to be convinced by my reasoning, perhaps he could see to it that it is a Pinarello Dogma frame size 56.

So why do I need a second bike? This weekend the family and I headed up to our place in Tateshina in Nagano Prefecture. I had been there last weekend as well, driving around to map out future rides. Now was the time to try out some of these rides. Once the luggage, bike, wife and dog were in the car there would be no room for the children. Even leaving the wife behind would not have freed up enough space for both children so we had to take 2 cars. No question of leaving Humphrey (the dog) behind as he loves the long walks and swimming up there. So I reason, I need a bike to leave up there so that we do not have to exaggerate the family carbon footprint. By the way, there is something very satisfying about getting off the Chuo Expressway at 12:05am on a Saturday morning and seeing the toll is only Y1,000.

On Saturday, I left the house down a treacherous hill to join the Venus Line at Tateshinako. From here I rode up a few kms and then branched off on a road linking to the Marchen Kaido (Rte 299). The ride was an extremely pleasant 20km climb up to Mugikusa-Toge (2127m).

This is a very nice climb with only light traffic. The gradient varies between 6-8% and then becomes easier nearer the top. All the motorbikes were those of sensible middle-aged men out for a ride, rather than lunatics on hotted-up racing bikes (I would meet these the following day on the Venus Line). At the top I pulled up along side a Harley Davidson whose owner was photographing the sign to signal the top of the pass. He seemed non-plussed by a lycra-clad gaijin (why should he be?) but when I identified his bike as a Fat-Boy he was impressed and decided that despite my attire I was worth a quick chat. He explained that the newer model Harleys are much quieter and thus less interesting to him. When I then explained that I have a 1978 Ducati 900ss he became wildly excited as these bikes are well known for a great sound. We parted as buddies: he made his way back to Nagoya while I did a U-turn home to get home for lunch as promised. For some reason, on the way up the long climb I started to dream of a curry. Great descent but for the last 1-2km climb back up that treacherous hill to the house. As I pulled up to the house I was met by my fan club. Later I had that curry.

The following day (Sunday), I took the soft option and drove the 17km along the Venus Line to Shirakabako and parked. I then rode up Rte 152 and on to Rte 155. Instead of climbing up Rte 67, a steep climb up to the Venus Line, I chose a new route (Rte 142) which took me up „The Other Wada Toge“. This is a beautiful climb. About 550m elevation gain at a steady 6-7% gradient. I stopped counting the curves but a sign near the top was for Curve No. 70 – I think I started around Curb No. 20). Some beautiful views and a nice old open fronted thatched building for what purpose I do not know other than to offer shelter to cyclists and hikers.
This is no witch house!
From here I rejoined the Venus Line, turned left and rode to Kirigamine Highlands and on down to Shirakabako again. Being a holiday weekend the Venus Line was busy up here. Young bikers riding like lunatics and overtaking across yellow lines and various car clubs (a convoy of Mazda Miatas etc) took away some of the pleasure but the views were breathtaking.
When in a car one doesn’t always notice the gradient but in arts where I thought I would be riding along on a flat road I was in fact riding up a 6% slope and into a headwind. Had I had the time I would have turned right instead and gone on to Utsukushigahara Kogen. I drove this road last weekend. There is an 8km Alp d’Huez style series of steep switch-backs which look to be an interesting challenge.
These rides were for discovery purposes. Next time I will ride from the house to in a loop taking in Alp d’Huez v2.0 to Utsukushigahara Kogen and back along the Venus Line. About 110km with 3,000mm of climbing.

As I write this I strikes me that I have 2 motorbikes, neither of which I ride now, but only one road bicycle. Will Santa rectify the situation I wonder.

Jerome and I enjoyed a beautiful day and, as planned, made it to Karuizawa (183 km or more distance and 2748 meters of total elevation gain) in time to hop the train home for dinner.

As usual, we started out fast and averaged just under 30 kph to Oume.  After a quick stop (too early for Aurore) we continued on to the Holy Fountain and then over Yamabushi.

Through Chichibu City, some prefer to swing SW on Rte 140, heading out to town as if their goal was Mitsumine Shrine … before cutting over to Rte 299 via Rte 37 … or going way high and way West via Rte 201.   Others prefer turning right and just slogging along Rte 299 through its congestion and following as it dips way down to cross the river and climbs the other bank, typical sprawl until clearing Ogano, when it becomes a very nice road.  Today Jerome and I tried a middle path — going straight, which took us to a big suspension bridge (which had a nice view back to Chichibu) and into the the Chichibu City „Muse“ park. 

The park is on top of a ridge that provided an extra little climb, very pleasant road, and we ordered a quick plate of curry and rested some at the „stained glass“ cafeteria before heading on our way, a fast descent down the back side of the ridge and then joining Rte 299 having skipped the worst of it.

What had been a very fast trip to Chichibu and the park slowed to a long slog, as we both started to show our fatigue.  I showed it more.  Jerome usually pulled way ahead, then waited for me.  The stops and rests grew closer together.

Jerome waited for me, resting, at Shigasaka Pass tunnel entrance.

I rested on the way up, taking a photo looking back along Rte 299 — where we had been.

The mountains of the Gunma border — impressive as always.

I thought Jerome was just being kind, waiting at regular intervals and being a good sport about it, except I realized he actually needed the rest when I caught up to him waiting at the side of the road at a nice stop at Uenomura (gifts, crafts, very nice new building with river and bamboo down the hill in back and a much better place to rest that the typical convenience store, if without much of the food — I think called the Uenomura „fureai-kan“ or something similar). 

He motioned me to the side of the road and told me we needed to stop at the rest area.  I was looking unhealthily pale and covered in sweat much of the day — my muscles okay but my body generally and circulatory system tested by the fatigue.  Here in Uenomura (just at the beginning of the climb to Jukkoku Toge and before the turn off from 299 in Gunma onto Rte 45, toward Shimo Nita („the city that Konnyaku built“) as we rested and recovered yet again, we pondered the time — somehow the hours had passed by on Rte 299 west of Chichibu City, our fast start squandered.  We still had over 50 km left to Karuizawa, and some big hills, first Shio-no-zawa Pass (not Shiozawa Pass — the next road East), then the long climb from Shimo Nita (Elev.  260 meters) to Wabi (和美) Pass (Elev 970 meters) and into Karuizawa, with some very steep short bits (13-14% or more).  We decided we would see how we were doing at Shimo Nita and make a decision then.

An unnecessary conversation as it turns out.  We climbed from the Uenomura rest area (Elev. approx 590) over maybe 5 kilometers up to 740 meters elev, then found the mouth of the tunnel that bypasses Shio-no-zawa pass.  Inside the tunnel, we continued a gradual climb for about 20 seconds, … then the road pointed downward at what seemed like a decent 2-3-4% grade.  We went very fast the next 3 km inside the tunnel, and the descent on a wide, well designed road, just beyond it, at probably our fastest speed with least work all day.  At Shimo Nita we turned for Karuizawa without hesitation.

More mountains of Gunma

The climb to Karuizawa was painful because of some very steep parts, reasonably heavy traffic for a true country back road, and one section where you go under the expressway … soaring what seemed like very far above us, cars zooming by on two bridges that appear from a tunnel on one side of the valley, and disappear into another tunnel.  At one point I needed to rest, and the most comfortable (least uncomfortable) place was the slightly inclined plane of the retaining wall next to the road.

But we made it to the top in one piece, then a victory ride down the hill and into Karuizawa … cut short by a huge traffic jam about 3-4 kilometers south of the station … everyone in Japan (well, every one who drives a late model German car or Japanese copy) was heading back from golf or out for a meal in central Karuizawa, or trying to get to the one underpass where they can go from the South to the North side of the shinkansen tracks.  We slipped through the traffic watching for car doors, but it was surreal — cars just sitting, red tail lights as far as the eye could see.  I hope they enjoyed the weekend!

70 minutes back to Tokyo station, by shinkansen.  Another successful P.E. tour, in the books.
http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/49616761