200km early January brevet

January 8 was the Sunday of a long weekend, followed by a holiday Monday (coming of age day). Jerome and I picked this day for an R-Tokyo 200km ride, one of our PBP qualifiers. The route was pretty typical for an early January 200km event … the classic/standard R-Tokyo start at Todoroki arena area in Kawasaki, standard route out of Tokyo (Nakahara Kaido then Chogo Kaido, then eventually heading south to hit the coast at Oiso), a ride along the coast road, Miura Peninsula, etc. The weather was good … dry and not much wind, not so cold after the first few hours. 

We met at Kanpachi and Nakahara Kaido around 540AM and made it to the start on time. Jerome struggled with the online Google form check-in system a bit in the cold and dark, so I headed out first. I managed to keep ahead until the first PC at around 68 kms. From there we rode together on the second leg to the tip of Miura. On the third leg home, he was waiting for me to catch up from time to time, but at least I was not far back.

There was traffic. There was a lot of traffic, especially for the middle of a long weekend. 

And this route requires patience with red lights. Lots of red lights. 

An upload of this photo was the proof of start.

First Fuji views were obstructed and show the smog.

Finally some car-less stretches heading south toward the coastline.

Sky Blue Parlee in foreground, junkyard in back.

We stopped for lunch in Misakiguchi at the tip of the Miura Peninsula. After lunch, we rode past an incredible line of cars sitting, waiting to get into the town. 5kms long? There were more lines at each bottleneck up to Zushi, where our route turned east. Yokohama, again, was mobbed with people, both cars and pedestrians around Minato Mirai.

Fuji barely visible in the haze and light clouds.

A quick snack in the sun.

Minato Mirai on the return
(from here photos loaded out of order)

Almost done.

Classic view near southern tip of Miura

Minato Mirai crowds.

Wish we had ridden through more country like this ... or at least up and down the eastern side of the peninsula instead of slogging through traffic on the western side.

Misaki harbor, now searching for a lunch spot. We found a restaurant - Chiritontei - that was just fine!

Again, too much haze.

We finished in around 10 hrs 40 mins. If we had not had such a relaxed, sit down lunch, we would have been closer to 10 hrs. If we had not needed to wade through the traffic, then under 10 hrs. Not fast, but not so slow either.  I rode 227kms for the day, including to/from the start.

Another PBP qualifier out of the way, in the bag, checked off the list, crossed off, wrapped up, completed, and DONE! I've done my 200 and 300, and my 400 and 600 remain. Let's see, that means I am either half way (2 out of 4), or one third of the way (500 out of 1500km) depending on the way you think about it. 

The rest of January I will focus on swimming and also try to ride the Pelso recumbent regularly to regain my "recumbent legs". I'll get back on the road bike in February and beyond!