there is no "I" in cyclyng

This ride was actually quite enjoyable. After I made enough failed attempts to find short cuts, I decided not to test my luck again and took the main road from Aso to Beppu (Road 11). The traffic wasnt too bad after all. This length of this stage was 95 km and it included three proper climbs. The first one was less than 10 km away from the start, the second one 30 km. The second climb was the more enjoyable one, with me getting a reward when I reached the summit : a beautiful, indescribable view onto Aso and its surrounding valley(s).

About 40 km outside of Beppu I crossed paths with another (touring) cyclist. Since i was descending fast I only noticed at the last second that it was a foreigner like me. The last climb of the day was just after I passed through Yufuin town. The rest was a nice 15 km descend into Beppu town. There, I did not waste any time and got on with sightseeing. I did the famous "Jigoku" Tour, visiting the famous Onsen / Spa's. namely Onnishibouzo (to see: mud bubbles), Umi-Jigoku (pond of hot, blue water), Yama-Jigoku (steaming mountain), Shiraike (pond of hot, white water) and Chinoike Jigoku (pond of hot, red water).

After checking into my hostel (Khao San Beppu), I took of to find some dinner, after which I had a bath in the well known (if not best known) Onsen in Beppu : Takegawara Onsen.

This is the official end of my "Tour de Kyushu" as I wont be riding / cycling any more around here. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain and i will take the opportunity to  hop on the train to relocate to another city I yet have not been : Hiroshima.

Including the rides within the cities I visited I cycled just over 500 km in 5 days [on the bicycle].

my legs were very tired and the wind just as strong as yesterday. i rode the entire 70 km against the wind, which drained every little bit of energy out of my body. i wanted to take a short cut up mount aso, which turned out to be a big mistake as the road that i wanted to take did not exist any longer causing me to ride an additional 15 km (half ot it uphill).

Eventually i found the road taking me up Mount Aso. However the headwind during my climb was so strong, that i had wanted to give up on several occasions. This climb had been the toughest physical challenge so far for me. And the mountain didnt seem to have a summit. I kept climbing and climbing. Finally, I arrived at the top to be told to go back down. the statement: its too dangerous up here, the wind is too strong! i had no choice but to leave.

After I checked into the Youth Hostel in Aso, I got back on my bike to witness the fire festival at the Aso shrine. It started off with taiko drummers, the continued with people swinging burning straw coils around. Anybody was allowed to participate with the occasional coil flying into the masses. I am glad i was able to see it.

The rain finally had stopped and was replaced by strong winds … which overshadowed an otherwise very nice ride ! after i gave my farewell to the owners of the hostel (Akari International Hostel in Nagasaki), whom i had known from my early days in Tokyo, I was headed towards Unzen. The road I took led along the coastline, the course being an constant up- and downhill. I was very surprised when I bumped into another cyclist on my way. We stayed together from then on, him making adjustments to his orginal plans to go the same course as me. I had decided to take a side road up to Unzen mountain, which he declared to be a very tough climb. Nevertheless, I didnt mind and we both enjoyed each other company, which we both got to appreciate when we had to climb for 8 km straight up.

After we arrived at the top of the mountain I was pretty exhausted, but not exhausted enough to explore Unzen. But all I saw was steam from the boiling sulfuric water, that seemed to be everywhere. It stank, but one can get used to it. Afterwards, we parted way, him returning to Nagasaki, while i continued on to Shimabara. There I visited the castle, and then got on the ferry to Kumamoto, where I arrived at around 5pm. I just had enough time to get a good view at the castle and to explore the central part (Shimotori).

Tomorrow I will go to Aso-san, another active volcano about 40 km away from Kumamoto.

my second day was one way … up ! climbing , climbing and more climbing ! what would be a dream for any hobby cyclist was a pain for me … a) i am not in shape and b) i was carrying additional weight was made a huge difference ! i chose to go avoid the main roads which meant i had to take huge diversions – which turned out to be a good idea as the road i was going on were totally deserted … a dream for any cyclist. fukuoka was a pain to get out … but the further i got away to better it was getting … i did roughly 20 km of pure climbing before I got to Takeo Onsen … i took my lunch break here [about 1,5 hours later than anticipated] … the sign there read 79 km left to nagasaki, while my clock read 2pm, which meant i had to hurry up in order to make it.

i was doing well going along the main road floating with the traffic until i made a decision to turn left after i passed Ureshino Onsen, to take a much quiter road through the mountains to get away from the traffic [along road 6] … this turned out to be another "crazy" climb which didnt seem to end [it stretched for 10 km ] .. however there was literally no traffic and the landscape looked amazing .. finally i got to the top and i found out why there had been no traffic .. the road was all closed and i was mad (!!!) as it would mean i had to go back .. in my desperation i skipped the road barrier and tried to get past the road construction work which was all about building a connecting bridge … it looked completed but wasnt … however the was an old road bypassing it (lucky me) .. i got back on my bike to head down to Oomura, when it started to rain … damn ! it was only another 30 km to Nagasaki and enough time left to reach it before sunset … however the rain was too strong and i was soaked in no time, which caused me to head for the next train station.. my tachometer read 141km when i finally got off. tomorrow will be a day without cycling as its supposed to rain all day .. i will use the time to do sightseeing in Nagasaki.

My flight was gonna leave at 6.25 am – so  i thought i give it enough time at leave my house 5 am .. i calculated 30 minutes for my ride to Haneda Airport, which would just be straight down Kampachi dori. It turned out to be much longer than i thought (of course !!!) ^ my speedometer showing 17 km when the terminal came into sight – but then i had like 30 minutes left (enough ?) .. with 1,5 km left to go the unexpected happened … a puncture … i had no words left – i just had to laugh 😉 … there were 15 minutes left when i turned up at the check in counter – i knew it was too late – but i had to try 😉 the clerk then asked me if it was OK if i took the next plane instead … as if she was apologizing for this inconvenience … an hour later i sat on the plane headed for fukuoka.

after reassembling my bike i took off to do as much sightseeing as possible starting with the Hataka – side before continuing on to the
Fukuoka – side. Within the next 4 hours i had seen most of the sights, so i decided to head down to Dazaifu – an traditional town about 15 km south. I had no real clue how to get there until i finally found a map in one of them convenience stores, which seemed to be everywhere. The traffic was heavy and the temperatures pretty high (for a march afternoon), which caused my head to ache. Anyways, I finally made it to this pretty little town, which seemed to accommodate more sights than the Hataka and Fukuoka together.

When I got off the bike my computer read 75 km – not bad considering that i pretty much stayed in the same city (area). Tomorrow, I am planning to go to Nagasaki, which will be pure cycling, with only 2 planned sightseeing stops – in Takeo and Arita. Lets see how far I get.

… to cut a long story short: 30st out of 38 in D class. But hey, this was a very fast race with lap times of slightly more than 2 minutes for 1.5 km = 45 km/hr average. The course was flat, only 2 sharp corners. I could stay with the headgroup for the first three out of 10 laps, after that I fell back into the next group of five. Still felt a lack of endurance power. Interesting sprint at the finish in the group with then six riders, managed to start the sprint almost timely and ended in third place.

My kids did better: Henri finished 15th in the older age group of the primary school kids. Karen made an unofficial 13th place in the Milky Race.

But the effort for this race is rather small: One hour drive, one hour training before the race, 30 minutes racing time and then one hour back.

A complete shock although was the choice of this year’s race entertainment by Nikkan Sports. One Manzai group – almost not funny and then a modern female Enka duo : The stripped nothingness. Hey Nikkan Sports, bring our P-cup idol Fuko back!

I guess that most of our hardcore members have kids who are already too old or none, but nevertheless, with the addition of the Cervelo to my bike line-up I am going to sell my MTB and slipstream. If you know somebody who is interested, please give him my contact details.

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/