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Coming to terms with the fact that you’re never going to win a Maillot Jaune or Maglia Rosa is something most riders confront sooner rather than later. For those good enough to have enjoyed success at a higher level, however, the relationship between their careers and racing ambitions is more complex. Dedicating yourself solely to riding might pay dividends on the podium, but what brings riders success in competition is invariably that same blend of drive and talent that has reaped rewards in their professional lives. On a photo shoot in Swiss Alps for the latest Rapha Autumn/Winter collections, three accomplished riders revealed how they have dealt with the work-racing conundrum.

The Veteran | The Contender | The Doctor

I thought it was a good read.. the comments with regard to feeling a bit brain dead after too much riding (a lot!), yet how riding is a fantastic time to reflect and also a great place to socialise really hit it home with me. It’s obviously a marketing exercise, but an interesting one at least.. the photo shoot they were on here.

Elsewhere, Lance has been wind tunnel testing.

Dominic has a VIP invitation to the Rapha Autumn/Winter Collection launch party this Wednesday 5th November. He may be able to obtain additional invites. Anyone interested should email him (or comment here and I will forward it on).

Tokyo-Takao-Yabitsu-Odawara(-Tokyo) 130ishkm
Ebisu Stn. 6:30am.
David’s Hse 7:00am.
Elsewhere as required.
Odawara – Tokyo via Shinkansen is 28mins and will require a bike bag (or several bin liners).
As per last Sunday, we should get to Takao around 8:30am.. arriving in Odawara around Midday at best guess.
<a href=“http://www.mapmyrun.com/ride/japan/tokyo/odawara/672333238563″>TakTakYabOda</a><br/><a href=“http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-ride/japan/tokyo/odawara“>Find more Bike Rides in Tokyo/odawara, Japan</a>
Any suggestions or route changes gladly accepted.
If you’re not in you’re out 🙂

CYCLINGFELLAS – the Cycling Community has gone LIVE.

CYCLINGFELLAS is a social networking website made for cyclists.

Please join now and help me to make this website a success. Thanks, Marek

It was time to see 紅葉 (kouyou, the turning of the leaves), so I headed for Okutama yesterday. At the rest area overlooking the dam holding Okutamako, I met Chris from Canada who had just rediscovered doing bicycle tours and who had been consulting POSITIVO ESPRESSO for tour tips.

Further along the lake, I sought a place to have my first rest for food and found a sobayasan cum omiyageten where after buying some biscuits I ended up being served tea and kaki (persimon) by the two friendly and chatty ladies running the place. They were quite impressed one could cycle all the way from Tokyo within just a few hours. In old times, their ageing father who was also present had taken two days to do the same trip. Lucky I have a decent bike!

There was not much of kouyou in sight around Okutamako. This year’s autumn seems rather mild, delaying the onset of the season. So I decided to cycle on, up into Tabayama Valley, where indeed I found kouyou – plenty of it. It was a real pleasure cycling through the beautiful landscape, so much I didn’t really notice how much uphill I was going.

An overall leisurely ride across the Yanagisawa Pass took me onto the Autobahn down to Enzan.

Arriving at Enzan station, a special express bound for Shinjuku was about to pull in and I would have had to wait 40 minutes for the next one, so I decided to test the patience of the JR attendants by taking my bike onto the platform and into the train without even any pretence of having covered or wrapped it. Nobody stopped me. When I had to pay for the express fare on the train, the attendant told me that normally I would have to wrap the bike, but again no attempt to expel me. I apologised, and was about to explain that actually I knew what I was doing and I even had my bicycle bag with me, but then thought that was probably better left unsaid.

Thoroughly enjoyable Sunday ride, Takao and back, thanks to David, Bryon, Ben and Dominic.
Left home just after 6:10am, met Ben in Hiro-o, Bryon and Dominic at Ebisu, then off out to David’s house. Straight down the Tama as usual, said bye to Dominic around 7:30am who was on kid watch duty and had to get back home, an hour later we were at the Seven-Eleven in Takao, not too shabby at all. Raining however! We set off to do the Otarumi TT. What started as a half-hearted attempt became far more serious as Ben took on the pacemaking at the halfway mark providing an excellent wheel to hold onto. I only fell away in the last few metres, but we both held our own against a couple of local (and much lighter!!) domestics. I timed both from the Family-Mart at the Takao Crossing and at the Seven-Eleven further up the road, stopping the clock at the brow of the hill. 20:09mins 7.39km or 15:20mins 5.35km. We re-grouped and headed back to Takao. My brakes are really rubbish in the wet, scary almost, the ‚cork‘ blocks on carbon rims give me no confidence whatsoever, but made it back down with no drama, if a tad more slowly than my companions. After another quick pitstop in town, we headed for home. One final quick stop for more fuel at the Tama Seven-Eleven and then back along the river. One flat for David, quickly changed in just a few minutes and we were back at his house before you knew it. Back up Komazawa dori for the rest of us, I was home at the strike of midday. Perfect.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:%2F%2Ftrail.motionbased.com%2Ftrail%2Fkml%2Fepisode.kml%3FepisodePkValues%3D7039771&ie=UTF8&ll=35.63928,139.482549&spn=0.056414,0.510588&output=embed&s=AARTsJo8UOGuJsKqxBBbDSgO9FF9dh-xFw
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Garmin download here

Looks awesome.. particularly looking forward to Stage 15, the climb into Verbier and then Stage 20, up Ventoux!

July 4, stage 1: Monaco ITT, 15km
July 5, stage 2: Monaco – Brignolles
July 6, stage 3: Marseille – La Grande Motte
July 7, stage 4: Montpellier – Montpellier, TTT 38km
July 8, stage 5: Cap d’Agde – Perpignan
July 9, stage 6: Gerona – Barcelona, 167km (Spain)
July 10, stage 7: Barcelona – Andorra-Arcalis, 224km (uphill finish)
July 11, stage 8: Andorra-la-Vella – St-Girons
July 12, stage 9: St-Gaudens – Tarbes (via the Tourmalet)
July 13, rest day and transfer to Limoges
July 14, stage 10: Limoges – Issoudun, 192km
July 15, stage 11: Vatan – St-Fargeaud, 200km
July 16, stage 12: Tonnerre – Vittel, 200km
July 17, stage 13: Vittel – Colmar (via col de la Schlucht)
July 18, stage 14: Colmar – Besançon
July 19, stage 15: Pontarlier – Verbier (Switzerland)
July 20, rest day
July 21, stage 16: Martigny – Bourg-St-Maurice (via col du Grand-St-Bernard and Petit-St-Bernard)
July 22, stage 17: Bourg-St-Maurice – Le Grand Bornand (via 5 climbs, starting with Cormet de Roselend, finishing with col de la Colombière)
July 23, stage 18: Annecy, ITT 40km
July 24, stage 19: Bourgoin – Jallieu-Aubenas
July 25, stage 20: Montélimar – Le Mont Ventoux
July 26, stage 21: Montereau – Paris/Champs-Elysées

Sunday Ride, Ebisu Stn 6:30am, David L. House 7:00am (or so), Sekidobashi 7:45am(ish?) – Ride to Takao Seven-Eleven, if time quick Otarumi TT, return, back at Ebisu by midday, from Central Tokyo this is approx. 120km round trip.

MK’s Positivo Quote 14 July:
„It is always difficult to ride with new riders when you don`t know how good they are. If they are fast you are looking stupid and you have to exhaust yourself to keep on. If they are slow you either a) bitch about that because they were invited by other members from the group or b) you wait for them impatiently because you have brought them with you and everybody else is bitching.„

With this in mind this ride should be considered a friendly junk mile trip..

www.bicyclelinks.info is an old-school, 1996-style site packed with links to purportedly every useful cycling institution on the web. Sorry if this makes you waste the next 12 hours surfing the interweb. via thegoat

I was out early Saturday for a quick training ride. David was a blink of the eye at some point on the return leg and then stopped to have a quick chat with Michael. I was riding with Dominic who is new to the road riding scene but participates in the spin classes at TAC with me. He just bought a Pinarello FP2 as his first ’steed‘. He complained of a little lower back ache early on but otherwise seemed very comfortable on his new bike. I have been pushing him and a couple of other guys to get out and ride with me recently with reasonable success.

Tom (not sure) and Bryon (Specialized) who you guys have met at this year’s Fuji are keen; Aussie Ben (Cannondale) has already heard of Tom via TCC; Pat (Antares) from my office who kindly lends Walter his bike for the Fuji Hill Climb every year (maybe he will attempt it himself this year!); and David (Smith) (yes! ANOTHER David!) who is an experienced Japan rider.

I am looking forward to gettting everyone out for a ride together, but for the meanwhile these guys, just like me, prefer early rides of 3hrs or so to be back home around 10am. David, Ben and I have all had babies within the last month and are still working out the boundaries of what is required, reasonable, necessary and needed. The river is as good as it gets for now I think.

Looking forward to introducing you all sometime soon, and if anyone wants a short weekend ride then just let me know.

PS. Really looking forward to celebrating Michael’s JCRC championship 🙂 Gambatte sir!