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„How you climb as a big guy has to be totally different, get over the idea that you will just grab a wheel, hang on, and spin up a hill. That won’t work for you Charlie, because you aren’t built to spin up hills. You need to whip out your Testosterone Bucket, take a drink, and really believe“

As we approach the Fuji Hill climb again this year (June1) and I stare at the scale which will not budge below 185lbs, I wonder if I’ll ever get up the bugger in under 90 mins..

Mission (partially) accomplished! We made it to Enzan … but hopped the train from there rather than going back via Sasago. It awaits another day.

Near top of Yanagisawa looking behind

The haunted Sasago Tunnel

The weather forecast looks good for this Saturday (11-19 deg, 10%) and somewhat ok on Sunday (10-15 deg, 40%) so I was thinking of a nice trip into the Yamanashi mountains on Saturday.

I realized how tired I am to go along the Tamagawa, so I would like to propose to meet in Ome at the station at 10 AM – those who like can go there by bike (ca. 80 minutes from Futagotamagawa) and those who don’t go there by train (for example Shinjuku 8.54 hr).

Then we travel from Ome to Okutamako along route 411, cross Yanagizawa Toge and take a break at Ensan. Depending on the energy level we have left, we continue then to Sasago Toge and cross over to route 20 to Sasago and Otsuki. We can then decide to take the train home from Otsuki or continue to Hachoji or home.

As an idea.

Sasago Pass closed to traffic until April 10-11-12?

Team – this is the way forward! We can win everything if we enter the tricycle section at race events.

Outside it is raining and the last cherry blossoms are falling to the ground. The complete atmosphere is somewhat melancholic and there is little reason to spend time with work related matter. Everything can wait until tomorrow.

However this winter I bought a lot of stuff from Assos through David Marx and I promised him to write something about this stuff on the Positivo web site. As the winter is gone by now and all stuff was thoroughly tested I can finally make good on my promise :

So the most important Assos gear I bought was this yellow Fugu jacket. Only the jacket, not the yellow trousers. Also I noted that in my jacket I look completely different – but it would be hard to blame the jacket for this.

But it is in fact a very warm jacket. According to the Assos website in should be worn at temperature from -4 to + 7 degrees. Please note that the temperature should be measured INSIDE the jacket. Really, I was wearing it one day when I crossed Otarumi with Tom and the temperature outside was around 3 degrees. We made a break at a Soba shop close to Takaoguchi and when I undressed from the jacket it was completely wet on the inside. Tom can confirm that. So every degree more than seven will extract 500 ml of sweat from your body. But nevertheless it is a very nice jacket and it has this huge one pocket on the backside for all kind of stuff and this nice collar and it really feels good. It is expensive yes, but it brought me well through the winter season.

There is little I hate more than riding on a bike and having cold ears. I used to be sensitive against rain but after riding last season almost completely in the rain (10 hours in Sadogashima, one hour home from lunch with David, david and a summer associate in Tama Jiman and and and) I lost that arrogant attitude. So I always wanted to have this robo cap from Assos and in fact it is very comfortable and warm. Again it looks different on my head, but I am not working as a model in Switzerland. This was a very good purchase and I threw away all other kind of winter bandannas, caps and tutus after getting this wonderful piece of gear. David Litt has the same one in red. Of course he had one in red so I wanted on in orange,my but then I had to compromise on the yellow one which might not fit so well in the color scheme of new Cervelo bike.

Oh yes, I also hate cold feet. So I bought this Assos shoe covers which were neither available in orange nor yellow. I have bought Pearl Izumi and Shimano in the past, but they do not have a long life duration when used by someone like me. These things are good, they keep the feet warm (OK not dry, but which shoe cover really does?) and they are easy to put on despite my initial judgement as the zipper cannot be opened fully on the back. The only drawback is, that the zipper is made out of metal and in the shape of the Assos logo. Therefore it is really hard to pull the zipper up and one of them has been lost already. David was so kind to send the shoe cover back to Assos in Switzerland for repair, but honestly speaking I would prefer a small strip of plastic attached to the zipper as in case of my old Assos airblock jacket rather than to have this fancy logo which hurt my sensitive manager fingertips. But nevertheless, these are the best shoecovers I ever owned.

But the most wonderful items I bought from Assos are these early winter gloves. They are available in yellow and red, among other minor colors. They are just wonderful warm and it is hard to imagine that you need anything else for winter in Japan (at least in the greater Kanto area). What I particular like about these gloves is, that they have no velcro fastener. They are very long so they can be worn over the sleeves of the jacket and it is so easy to put them on or off. Really of all the items I bought from David this year, I like these gloves the most. By now you might think that I am getting paid by David for talking so much good about Assos. I really like the gloves, shoecover and the robo cap and also the fugu jacket is nice. It is not the fault of the jacket that it just didn’t get cold enough in Japan to wear it. But I bought some more items which are just standard or even sub-standard :

This lycra shoecover from Assos is what I wore when racing in Kawagoe in March this year. It has to take part of the blame that I finished in 25th position. No, I was just joking. But in real life the color is not as half as nice as the photo to the left shows it. I mean, in the photo it looks like your foot is filled by divine yellow light. No, this is not the case. And after using it only once, it has now two holes. Maybe I should have bought the red version.

The Thermic socks socks have also a problem : They are just not warm. Maybe it is my feet, but after the experience with the fugu jacket I expected something hotter than 1.000 suns protecting my feet against the cold – and I was disappointed by these socks. So I almost exclusively wear them at home with my blue slippers which provides a nice color matching.

Again I bought some other socks which are good but nothing special. Please take a look at the socks photo gallery below.

All in all I had a very active winter season thanks to the support of David Marx. He also provided an excellent service, exchanging the fugu L size jacket against XL size when I was too confident about my body measurements and taking care of my all too many whims.
Thank you David.

It’s simple. Race 21 miles and see who is the king donut! In circuit style, ride 7 miles, then eat as many donuts as you would like. No limit. Then, ride 7 more miles, eat more donuts, then ride the last 7 mile lap. Glory and adulation are waiting for you at the Finish Line. Proceeds benefit the Utah Amber Alert ID project.

For every donut you eat, subtract three minutes from your time! Ten donuts? 30 minutes right off the top. Finally your appetite and your pot belly are your greatest assets!

My kind of racin‘.. 🙂

Click the pic for the video of this racy number in action..

The structure of the frame is completely made from solid carbon fiber rods, except for titanium rear dropouts and 7075 aluminum alloy inserts for the BB and the headset cups. During construction, all the beams were bonded together in the frame jig, with systematic and precise control of the position and alignment in the structure and the overall geometry of the frame. Once all carbon beams were bonded together with special epoxy resin, each joint was lashed with carbon fibers to ensure their strength. This was almost surgical work, really requiring a lot of patience. The critical parts of this frame were the connections of the „main tubes“, mainly head tube and BB area. Then, each joint was softly sanded to have a smooth shape. On the frame, there are more than 300 joints, this painstaking work took about 300 hours.

bmeres