To Atami ... and its slopes, and back on a sunny winter day

Miyagase-ko

More Miyagase-ko

Aikawa/Hanbara area after dusting of snow.

Sunday I rode my first brevet of 2016, a 200 kilometer trip from Inagi-shi to Atami and back sponsored by the Aoba (Yokohama) Velo Randonneurs group.  Aoba rides often start along the Tamagawa, within 10-15 kms of my home.  This one was a bit farther away, 17-18 kms, with start and finish at Omaru Park just at the base of the "hospital hill", making the day's ride 235-240kms total.

The Aoba volunteer "staff" for this ride included Tominaga-san and Minoda-san, two of the most intense commuting and randonneuring cyclists in this part of Tokyo.  Tominaga-san, whose 50+km daily roundtrip commute takes him down Komazawa Dori, and Minoda-san, who I sometimes see if I happen to be riding along the Tamagawa during commuting hours -- heading downriver on the Kawasaki side in the morning, back up on the Tokyo side in the evening.  Both much faster than me. Both signed up for the Saitama Audax 2400km "Japan end-to-end" ride scheduled for Golden Week. There were lots of friends and acquaintances among the riders on this event as well.  Aoba seems to attract a lot of regular, seasoned participants.  Lots of Audax Saitama PBP jerseys and 2015 Audax Japan vests produced for PBP (I wore mine).

Aoba staff at the finish ... still light after 5PM now!

Aoba staff at the "secret" control point on the descent south of Miyagase-cko

I left home a few minutes before 5AM, arrived at the Start just as the briefing was about to begin, and due to a quick restroom detour ended up near the back of the slower of "bike check" line and one of the last out on the road.

Start briefing 530AM

The first 30 kms traffic lights were a problem -- I was stopped at more than the usual number of lights heading out Onekan, and seemed to hit just about all of them going through Machida/Sagamihara area over to Aikawa.

The other problem was ice.  Just a few minutes after the start, crossing a bridge OVER Onekan, there was already an accident, a cyclist who has fallen, police van on site already with lights flashing, awaiting ambulance.  He apparently broke some bones (collarbone? arm?) but will recover.  We were ice-free until the area around Hanbara and Miyagase-ko, where again the road became a bit treacherous at points.  Yoshida-san (who I recently discovered is an executive at the Japanese subsidiary of a Netherlands-based company that acts as secretariat for a Tohoku rebuilding charity effort I have been involved with since 2011, and whose office I have been visiting regularly for the past 4 years) slipped on a patch of ice as we approached Miyagase, but at least did not break any bones and completed the ride.  He said this was his third brevet of 2017, already!

I made it through the icy patches without a problem.  I was riding the Renovo -- a rideable work of art -- with 700x28 Conti tires inflated to around 70 psi (4.8 bars) and so had much, much better grip on the roads than most of the cyclists I saw with their 700x23 or 700x25 tires at 90-110 psi (6.0-7.5 bars).

The Renovo was a joy to ride as always.  The combination of its wood frame and slightly larger tires really does seem to dampen the bumps and road chatter, so I feel less tired and jarred -- a noticeable difference on the last stretches of a long ride like this.

My clothes also worked perfectly, in weather ranging between 0 and 8~9 degrees Celsius.  I wore my Q36.5 "hybrid Q" tights and jersey/jacket.  While lighter weight than most winter gear, I find it perfect in this temperature range, with a long-sleeve inner layer and, during morning and evening hours, a light goretex rain shell.  The key for me is to keep head, hands and feet warm, then get by with as thin, light and breathable gear as possible over my trunk and legs, to reduce condensation and stay warm not only when I ride but when I stop to rest.  It worked perfectly on Sunday.

The highlights of the trip for me were (1) Miyagase-ko after a light overnight snowfall -- the photos tell the story, and (2) taking Route 740, the "old road", between Manazuru and Odawara.

Route 740 was a revelation for me, a way to get off of the horribly congested coastal Route 135 for about 10 kms of the trip between Odawara and Atami.  Of course, I assumed that if it is an "old road" and goes high through the hills of Izu, it must be impossibly hilly, right?  Actually, none of Route 740 was steep, and I think the total climbing was no more nor less than on the coastal route with its ups and downs.  With this road, I will consider cycling to Atami (or Manazuru/Yugawara) in a whole new light.

Mikan orchards line Route 740 looking out across the bay toward Oiso and Hiratsuka

The crowded coast road visible at the bottom of the hill

The event's route planner (the aforementioned Minoda-san) seemed to want to avoid a "flat winter brevet" and wanted us to go up and down some hills for training.  So the route included around 2200 meters of real elevation gain.  Most of this was to good purpose and took us through nice territory.  But after we arrived at Atami and took a circuit of the harbor area, there was one last nasty, steep climb up through the town and it seemed like half the way to Atami Pass (actually just under 200 meters of elevation gain), to the turn-around convenience store.  This was pure punishment, climbing on a narrow shoulder past a line of cars at over a 10% grade ... with little to no view for reward.  Still, it did manage to make the 200 km event seem, well, not so easy.

A rider wobbles into the turnaround check point, having just made it up the hill

Entrance to the Atami "plum garden" -- trees blossoming already in early February!

The Sagamigawa, on the way back into town

I made it back to the goal in just under 11 hours.  Not a fast time by any means but a very nice ride on a course that had its challenges.

Team Metabolic Racing (as in Japanese "metabo" or "metabolic syndrome"--Perhaps I could join?

Sunday's route.

Kita (Nishi) Kaze ni Makeru Na! Don't give in to the North (West) wind!

If last week's Gunma 200 km Brevet was a bit of a disappointment because of the 530AM Sunday traffic on the Kanetsu expressway and the lack of true Gunma February winds ... yesterday's 300 km Aoba Randonneurs-sponsored event met and exceeded all expectations.

Notably, it was another one day ride that included the stretch in Gunma east of Takasaki, and at two points (that I noticed) took the same roads as last week.

But this time, Jerome and I would get to and from Gunma by bicycle.  And we also could get to and from the start/goal by bicycle.  So no traffic jams, no tolls, no gasoline stations.  And we could ride 300 (actually 330) instead of 200 kms, leaving home at the same time and getting back only a few hours later, after a family restaurant stop at the finish with Tominaga-san and the organizers near Yanokuchi.

The temperatures were cold, below freezing the first few hours and again at night, never really warming much in the day, despite sunlight.

And the wind was fierce, much of the time above 10 meters per second (40 kph/25 mph), and gusting higher.  This was the true "don't give in to the wind" ride.


Jerome and I were the first riders through the bike check and started out with another faster rider who, fortunately, knew the route well.  We were caught at a traffic light by a large group after about 2kms, but the fast rider gunned it over an overpass (on which bicycles were permitted, I might add), and Jerome and I did our best to follow.  Pretty much everyone else took the surface road, and it was another 30 or 40 kms before we saw a few others.  The fast rider would pull ahead, then we would catch him at the next red traffic light -- a pattern that went on for at least 20 kms.  These roads are not pleasant at mid-day, but between 6 and 8AM on a winter Saturday morning, they were fine.

We got really fierce headwinds on the stretch running NW toward Takasaki.  Jerome was working with two other riders, but I was well back, alone. Crossing the bridge pictured below, SW of Honjo, I managed only 14 kph, even though I had refueled with an energy bar where I snapped this photo.

The run to the east from Takasaki to Tochigi was fast and easy -- flat and with a tailwind.  The only issue was congestion amid the suburban sprawl around Isesaki, as it was now mid-day.

There was a memorably nice stretch (with tail/cross wind) along the top of a levy Northwest of Koga (Ibaraki).   And other nice stretches as the course hugged the hills of western Saitama north of Hanno.

We struggled going straight into the wind around Hanyu and Gyoda in northern Saitama, fatigued from having ridden more than 200km.  Jerome pretty much pulled me through that stretch at a speed of maybe 20-21 kph.

I wore my PBP vest and yellow Assos wind block jacket, the latter in honor of Juliane P.'s yellow Assos and also with a hint of Uma Thurman's yellow jump suit in "Kill Bill".   Kita Kanto Expressway above.

Jerome, at what he declared one of our "best rest areas" -- tucked beneath the pillars of the Kita Kanto  Expressway, cars roaring by behind and overhead, modest bits of trash strewn around.

At the 250km last control point, with 57 kms still to go, it started to get really cold.  Tominaga-san, who had pulled in to the prior controls just as we were leaving, had closed the gap and arrived only 5 minutes or so after us.  We have seen him at many other events, and he was one of the few finishers on the last Brevet I rode with Jerome -- the October 2012 600km Kanagawa monster.  Jerome and I rode with him to the finish.  Jerome and Tominaga-san opened up a gap on me on the longish, very gradual hill south of Hanno, but they waited for me on the other side, and I could keep up (and pull my share) the rest of the way to the goal.

We were finishers 6, 7 and 8, out of close to 60 who started, with a time of just over 15 hrs 30 mins.  The next cohort did not arrive until 50 minutes later -- the wind taking its toll.