Christmas season is hell for bicycle riders. All the good food on the table, the sweets send from home by well meaning relatives plus the relatively cold weather outside give ample reason to stay at home and do nothing. With Ludwig coming back from a cycling shopping spre in Germany, we decided to test his new stuff and break the vicious cycle yesterday.
We then went up to the (new) Hinazuru tunnel and on the way down on the other side I proposed to take a look at the old Hinazuru tunnel, or, to boldly go where no other Positivo Espresso rider has gone before. The road was in pretty bad shape, but still better than route 76. 
Obviously Jerome has driven his car from Chichibu to Hinazuru and parked it close to the entrance of the Hinazuru tunnel. It seems to me that the left brake light is not working and I would recommend to check this.
I do not want to reveal well guarded secrets, but Ludwig also found a nice water heater which he intends to give free of charge to the guy who buys his band new Selle Italia saddle.
Of course we missed the entrance to Suzugane pass and we continued to road 139 which then lead us back to route 20 and Sarubashi eventually. After a nice bowl of Tempura soba and the Daikokuya restaurant (a very traditional place), we decided in view of the time to abandon our plans to ride up Matsuhime (another great tradition of us to abandon great plans) and continue instead along the old Koshu Kaido, now called route 30, to Uenohara and then cross over to Itsukaichi.
Since some month I have the idea of doing a check-up at the National Gymnasium in Yoyogi, perhaps I have spoken with one or the other about this one. It would be nice to do this check as a Positivo Espresso team at the start and at the end of the 2009 season to see how much we have improved. Or maybe not. This post is about the start check. Or maybe not.
After staying in Shibuya late yesterday night with my son and doing the things young people usually do in Shibuya [to be precise: playing table tennis and eating cheese fries at Outback], I decided that I should not go through all the hassle of riding out to Chichibu or some other mountainous place just to end up in piles of knee-deep snow. Instead I had an invitation from Hiroshi to join him and his clubmates for a training session at the Kawasaki Keirin. 
It takes only 30 minutes from my house on route 140 to Kawasaki station, I arrived on time. The road is not too bad and there is even a river, Tsurumikawa where one can ride stretches of the ride on a cycling/pedestrian way just as in case of the Tamagawa. I was surprised how big and well developed the area around Kawasaki station is, completely different from my image where I put Kawasaki in the file lettered "insignificant".
Apart from that I have been in Kawasaki one time and that was in 1991 or 1992, going to Club Quattro to watch STAR CLUB, a Japanese Punk Band which a friend from Switzerland called Urs (all male Swiss are called Urs, that is similar to Kims and Parks in Korea) recommended to me as the Toten Hosen of Japan. After watching them, I believe there were more the Plastic Bertrands of Japan [Thanks Tom for reminding me of this guy when you wrote your blog recently].
Hiroshi waited for my at the parking place. I gave him some Lakritz for welcome, he managed to eat them well. The parking space was packed with cars of the spectators, did they come to watch us? Was I am going to race immediately? Of course not, a lot of people come to the Keirin stadium, owned by the city of Kawasaki, to watch the Keirin races at other places on the big screen and place some bets.
Hiroshi was so kind to show me around, so I could take a look at a hall with rollers, where the Keirin pro warm up before the races, including ventilators in front and ashtrays on the bench. I also took a look at the parking place where the pro bikes were standing; I saw a Kalavinka bike, so nicely described in this wonderful book : "The accidental office lady." He also explained to me the basic differences compared to road bikes. Not the obvious things, but the finer details, such as there is almost no distance between the lower tube and the front wheel.
First we went in a group of seven riders, starting slowly at 20 km/hr but accelerated equally slowly until 40 km/hr. We took turns in the lead after each lap. The pace was fast, but I could follow almost until the end. The last laps were at 46 km/hr and there it became increasingly difficult for me to hang on. It takes some power to concentrate on going at the same speed all the time, not faster, not slower, not to leave any gaps to the rider in front and keeping the same distance. It is not allowed to shift gears or to brake, so everything has to be managed with pedal power.
The level of concentration is similar to riding in a a group during a race. I tried my best to keep pedaling all the time, not to use the brakes or shift the gears.The general feeling is a litle bit like on a home trainer, there is no change in position on the bike which I generally dislike because my butt starts hurting after some time. As long as one goes at the same speed I managed well, but sometimes there was some confusion when we overtook other groups and I started to brake or to shift out of habit.
My thanks go to Hiroshi who as so kind to introduce me to track racing and to Tom who introduced me to Hiroshi. I would like to do it again in the near future. It is good to know that there are still so many things left in cycling which can be explored. Not only track racing but maybe I need also a mountain bike to do the remaining stretch of route 76 next year.
In the last two years we have something like a Positivo Espresso Team and Juliane was one of our core members. Needs more to be written?
Juliane did a lot of interesting things here and I am glad that I could be part of some of them. She tried to sell my crappy sandwich panels from SKW when I was still working for Schindler Elevator.
I in turn took her and her boyfriend at this time, Nils, to my favourite hair dresser in Jiyugaoka which was almost the end of our friendship. We shared some of our secrets nevertheless.
I guess the first time we were riding on a bike together was in 2001, when Johanna, Tom (my boss at Schindler), Juliane and me embarked on the first Yamanote Challenge, a round trip along the 42 km long Yamanote line, stopping at each of the 28 stations and taking photos of all three of us. It took us eight hours. Which was mainly due to the time the photo taking took, we had to ask a harmless bystander and explain him what we want. I did not even have a digital camera at this time.
By chance I watched "Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress" on video which includes a scene when the little Chinese Seamstress is leaving her small mountain village and parting from her lover and her friend to search for new luck in the big city. There is no relation whatsoever between this story and the story I am trying to tell about Juliane. But the sadness is about the same.
Champion jersey. On the way to the bridge I discovered already that it didn't make my any faster. And then going up I came to Sekidobashi with the full intention to show off my new 2008 JCRC Road SERISEOtarumi I felt a lot of pressure, as everybody naturally wanted to beat the champion. But I was still fast enough and get stay within a distance of Tom and Hiroshi which was good enough for this state of the season.
I am moving through the nature and the spirits and ghosts of the forest are moving the leaves by invisible hands to create hidden messages and symbols. I went twice to the Ghibli museum in Mitaka and one can see a short movie at the cinema there. The first time I saw a short movie about a little girl that hikes through the forest, somehow it left a lasting impression on me. My children are afraid of the movies, I can understand why. There is this nativity with whom the characters, mostly children move through their lives and one can almost smell the danger that waits for them. There is always the expectation, that something, bad, terrible will happen. But it never does. Everything works out fine just naturally.
I ripped down my winter jacket so that the full glory of the JCRC champion jersey came into display and said: "Of course I am racing often, I am the champion of 2008.", not mentioning D class or any other circumstances that would devaluate the full glory of this marvelous achievement. Caught red handed in an orgy of evil, the poor guy dropped down to his knees and grovel. After right and order was restored, we continued on our way.
There is a famous old rock ’n’ roll song, which was also performed by the Rolling Stones at the beginning of their career just before the French Revolution:
“Get your kicks / on Route 76”
Last week Thursday, on a perfect
We were already late due to the fact that I tried for the first time to cycle through Yokohama in the morning to the Keio Keirin track at the Tamagawa and we hurried up to reduce the distance between us and our goal. At Otarumi / Takao, Ludwig went on to try his best on the time trial and in fact he set a new record with 13:50 minutes. I was feeling not too well this day, perhaps it was a cold, perhaps still the last symptoms of a very unpleasant food poisoning, perhaps it was not my day. Perhaps Ludwig is just faster.
We then went further along route 20 until the crossing with route 76 where we turned South towards Doshimichi. Route 20 is not my favorite one, but there is little traffic on route 76, some nice dams and bridges and a lot of meaningless up and down. Finally we came to the small
Our last food supply dated from the Takao 7-Eleven, the traditional purchase spot of Positivo Espresso, so we were quite in need to get something into our stomachs. There were some unattractive local supermarkets, some of them guarded by wild beasts (dogs, in fact), so we choose one of them. It is interesting to note that the things they sell in villages like Aone is quite different from the things in
The snacks in case of villages like Aone consist of sixty year old country maams, with about the same consistency and charm as octopus on sticks.
One of them came out of the bar, saw us sitting there and immediately started to play Enka music at extreme levels. Hey, I got my Enka vaccination a long, long time ago and I react almost neutral to this threat today.
We then went back to the supermarket to try to find out about the conditions on route 76 with the local population. The following conversation unfolded:
“Is it possible to ride on the bikes from here along route 76 to
”Impossible, there is a signboard saying that traffic cannot go through.”
”Hm, but, just as an example, if one would ignore the signboard [not that WE would ever do that], would it be possible to ride through?”
”It is impossible; there is a locked gate which closes the road.”
”Hm, yes, but, just assuming there would be some crazy foreigners (不良外人) [Definitely completely different from US] and they would not care about the gate and climb over it, would it be possible to ride through?”
“Impossible, it is very far away [Note that we have traveled already 90 km to the village from
So with these bits of extremely helpful information, we tried to find route 76. After ending up on Doshimichi and a dead end, we finally found a promising road leading deep into the forest. We climbed up quite a bit and then Ludwig suggested to go back, because it looked like the wrong road. So we went back, tried some more dead ends, than we rode up again as we had no better alternative. Just by chance there was a guy working there and we asked him if this would be route 76. No, it wasn’t.
“All you bikers come here and think that’s the right road, but it’s not. This is a 登山 road which ends after the next corner.”
But luckily he knew where the entry to road 76 was and he showed as the way.
"Can we go there up to Tansawa lake?” we asked.
“Well I guess so, there are some parts of gravel roads and I guess it is impossible for a car to pass there, but you should be able to go through on a bike.”
No mentioning of signboards, gates and distances.
So we rode back one more time and finally we found the entry to road 76. It was then when I made my plea: “Ludwig, it’s almost 3 PM and I am feeling miserable, let’s ride back.” Ludwig finally concluded but now, one trip later I can reveal that this was only a dirty trick. Fully knowing that Ludwig would be on a business trip the following week, I wanted then to go there on my own and claim all honor for myself, not like in case of the Mitsumine exploration some weeks ago where I had to share with Ludwig.
The rest of the trip wasn’t so interesting. We went back Doshimichi, then crossed to road 64 to Miyagaseko where we had a short break and then we took the fast road down to Hon Atsugi, where we hopped the train back to Tokyo or Yokohama respectively. Actually the way home from these rides is now much shorter compared to ride back to
So on Thursday this week I tried again. I slept too long. Then, just when I was ready to leave, I got a phone call which required some urgent actions. Finally I was out of the house at 10 AM. Now I fairly well know the road to the Tamagawa and I made good progress. Within almost an hour I was a Sekidobashi (compared to 45 minutes from home, or one hour 10 if I meet with others at David’s house first). In a break from tradition which was required due to the late time, I didn’t stop at the Takao 7-Eleven, flew up Otarumi (not that I was fast, but I was feeling much better than one week ago) and made the first break of the day after 2:30 hrs at the 7-Eleven just outside Sagamiko on route 20.
Then I proceed the same way as the week before to Aone, 76 still being a beautiful road.
Again no break as I was terrible afraid of snack maams, Enkas and wild beasts. And it was late. I found the entry to route 76, the trick is to look for signboards leading to a camp ground called 神之川. The road was in good shape, flat and led to the said camp ground. This must be a beautiful place in summer, now it was a little bit deserted and an old wrecked right-wing bus was left to rot on the roadside there. I always wanted to know where these things end up.
From there onwards, the road moves up the hill slowly. Within no time one find’s oneself in deep valleys. One still can see clearly the top of the trees on the ridges, as they are only perhaps 500 meters away, but the elevation difference is easily 200 meters or more. The road is still in very good shape and leading along the river. Then there is a final river crossing and there is the gate. It’s the typical hypocritical “Traffic Closure Gate”: Tom would laugh at it, it’s easily possible to climb over it and there is even a little way around it. Just to be sure I left an empty jelly bag with my finger prints and some DNA materials on it at the gate in case I get lost.
The road is still in good shape at the beginning, but after 200 meters there is a stretch of gravel road. But only for 20 meters or so. Despite the fact that the road is not maintained, the surface is good. However there are a lot of stones and rocks on the road and one hears the sound of the rolling stones from the slopes:
“Get your kicks / on route 76.”
Actually it is more like “rumble, rumble, plick-a-block, rumble, crash, krawummmmm.” Then the first tunnels are coming. One would naturally assume that these are very rough tunnels, excavated into the hard rock with bare fists by bold and rough men a century ago, given the fact that this is such a goddamn deserted place at the edge of civilization leading from nowhere (Aone snacks) to nothing at all (Tanzawa lake grounds). Yet, this is Japan and while as a tax payer I hate the former Ministry of Construction, as a bicycle riders I can only stammer “Thank you, thank you for all these wonderful roads in the middle of nowhere.”, get down on my knees and kiss the feet of their officials. The first two tunnels where built in 1991 and 1993, both of them wide enough to accommodate Hato buses with retired MoC officials on a day trip.
Then there is another stretch of gravel road followed by some asphalt stretches. But the relation between asphalt and gravel stretches is then heavily leaning towards the later. At elevation 600 meters there was only gravel road left, I still had at least 400 meter elevation difference between me and the top of the mountain where a perhaps 2.000 m long tunnel was waiting for me and I had no idea if one could pass through or not. And it was already 14.30hr, so I decided to ride back. I am not a crazy foreigner.
Finally I took the same road back to Hon-atsugi as I did one week ago. After precisely 140 km and 6:30 hours, I was back on the train heading home. As I made almost no breaks, almost 6 hours of that was spending riding on the bike. Coming home, I had the next surprise before jumping into the bath: Less than 93 kg of body weight, a first for this year.
Which brings me at the end to three interesting questions:
First, suppose you are 60 kg of weight and you have no muscles at all. You can subsequently not move, not survive and definitely not climb hills on your bike. All of this will improve substantially with 5, 10 or 15kg of muscles. Finally you have the preconditions to become a good hill climber. But from a point onwards, the more muscles you get, the more your performance on the hill will detoriate again. Despite all the power from your muscles you are getting too heavy. Your muscles will not be able to move up all their mass up the hills. A Sumo wrestler will not become a good hill climber, neither a heavy body builder. So where is that optimal point? Or, what percentage of muscle weight on your total body weight is the optimum (not considering the all decisive factor for most of us: the weight of body fat). Anybody any idea?
The second question is, who has been up route 76 or rode at Tanzawa lake? Graham said that he ran at
The third and last question is, what happened at Juliane’s farewell party tonight? I don’t have the answer yet, but I will let you know.
