High Intensity

Met Ludwig 8 AM at Futago Tamagawa and we headed out for Wada. Beautiful autumn weather, blue skies, Fuji in the background but strong gales and a nasty headwind when riding out. We met Charles at the Tamagawa, every time I meet him he has a new bike. This time it is a Cervelo R3SL with the ultralight Lew Racing wheels.

We skipped the break at the Takao 7-Eleven, instead making one at the Combini at the entrance to Jimba Kaido, then proceeded along the river to the Wada TT start point. After a short break we were getting serious. Perhaps I overdid it a little bit in the beginning, starting too fast. 2/3 up I saw Ludwig only 20 to 30 m behind me, he on his first Wada climb. Then a last sprint to the finish, and he actually overtook me on the last meters. Respect, considering that I had my best Wada time ever, 21:10 minutes (See Togebaka).
One of the NFCC guys (forgot his name) was training at Wada. He went up there three times today.

We then started the descent to route 20, Ludwig then parted to head for Yabitsu, I had an early 門限 and headed back to Sagamiko. I still felt OK and there was a good tailwind, so I tried the Otarumi TT from the Sagamiko side. Again, 17:11 minutes was a new best time for me.
Then the nice descent from Otarumi followed by the rather boring roads along the Asagawa and the Tamagawa in direction home. I met the NFCC guy at the Tamagawa, he had a crash and his front deraileur didn' t functioned any longer.

I went to my favourite bakery, Kaysers, bought some nice stuff and started to take care of my family at home. Not such a long distance today, but two nice high intensity rides, app 50 - 70% of the Saiko duration. Another shorter trip tomorrow, followed by one in the mid week and I should be in good shape for the Saiko race.

Otarumi Toge in 1933 [no joke]

[MvH adding:

It was very nice riding on to Yabitsu. Very clear views of the mountains and emerging autumn colours. Too bad I did not bring my camera that day.

From Miyanomae the way to Yabitsu looked familiar. I had taken it before in July, with Michael, David, Juliane and others. Painful memories returned as I was climbing upwards. Only that this time I did not feel any pain at all and was wondering why the same trip had been so much harder just a few months earlier, even without the Wada sprint. The heat must have made a big difference. And maybe the fact that it had been the first time I ever did a bicycle ride over 100km long and bigger mountains up? This time around, the 124km and something like 2,000m climbing seemed like a gentle weekend ride.]