Heavy Weight Class

On Sunday, around 1800 cyclists participated in the 26th Annual Tour de Yatsugatake, a hill climb from the town of Yachiho on the western side of the Yatsugatake mountains up Route 299 toward Mugikusa Pass, Elev 2126 meters.

I had signed up for the E Class (Men, Ages 41-50), but from reading the Tokyo Cycling Club (TCC) postings became aware that there was also a "heavy weight" class for riders weighing over 75.0 kgs. (165.346697 pounds).  Since I currently weigh around 95.5 kgs. (210.54146 pounds), I emailed the organizers a few weeks back, and they were kind enough to switch me into the heavy weight category, euphemistically referred to as the "Bicycle 21 Cup".   Since I was in the "heavy weight" class, which would be starting at the same time as the mountain bikes, I decided to ride my hand-made, steel-framed Yamabushi, a 4.3 pound frame with a heavy cyclocross fork, cantilever brakes etc., just to add another kilogram or two over.

Doug E. and his wife Michiko were kind enough to give me a lift up on Saturday evening.  I stayed in a slightly dilapidated business hotel, featuring a room with thick stale tobacco smell and scenic view of a wall of an adjacent structure about 6 inches from the window.  This was in the town of Nakagomi on the southern outskirts of Saku City, about 15 kms from the start.  It was raining hard on Saturday into the evening as we drove up from Tokyo, but the forecast for Sunday looked spectacular.

I awoke on Sunday to an email from the organizers announcing that the start would be pushed back by 30 minutes from 9AM to 930AM, a result of attempts to deal with the snow that remained on the upper elevations of the hill, and which had been added to by snow the night before.  An earlier notice on Saturday that I had not seen had apparently announced a change of the finish line from Mugikusa Pass (2126m elev) to the Yachiho Highland Ski Area entrance, almost 500m lower.  

Instead of a 25km race with 1300 meters elevation gain, we would race 15 km and climb 800 meters.  This change sent my race plan back to square one.  I had hoped to outlast the others and use superior endurance to prevail, ... but that would no longer be possible.  I now had the perfect excuse for a middle of the pack finish.

Heavyweight??

Doug (who had selected better accommodations) showed up at the start line in his TCC 2011 kit.  I must admit I was a bit suspicious if this pencil thin guy  I was looking at really weighed 75 kgs and belonged in a "heavy weight" category.  He reassured me that he did weigh 83 kgs or more when he had signed up in January, and this morning had weighed in at 75.00001 kgs after drinking a liter or two of water and putting on his gear.  There were a bunch of guys in the group who looked as if their bikes and wheels were designed for "weight weenies" and subject to low rider weight limits.  And they all looked pretty young.  I thought that perhaps I was in the wrong place.

Doug managed an excellent time of just over 48 minutes, for 6th place.  With my extra 22 kgs and a few more years of wear and tear, I finished in 1:00:41, for 45th place out of 95 starters -- just about what I had expected.

Looking at Doug's podium photo for the heavy weight class (copied below from the TCC site), I think all six of them must have been between 75.00001 and 75.00009 kgs with their clothes on.  One rider seems to have done the climb with a baby strapped to his chest just to get anywhere near the weight limit.  Next time I'll suggest to the organizers that they add a weigh-in to the proceedings! 

Clay Locke, formerly representing TCC and now riding for Team Peugeot Cycles Nippon, was the overall winner of the Champion Class, with a time of 37:42.  Wow. 

Eugen and Patrick also had times in the 47~49 minute range.  Excellent, but not quite good enough for the podium in one of the "normal" age-based categories.

Podium for the Heavyweight Category?

Anyway, the organizers finally let us descend the mountain at 11:30AM, and I continued for a nice, leisurely ride up the valley on Route 141, then over beautiful little Route 68 through Hirose and Kawakami, then up over Shinshu Pass and down to Nirasaki where I hopped an express train home.

The bike is comfortable and handles nicely.  Very stable and confident steering, though the slightly longer cyclocross fork and resulting higher bottom bracket than my road bike give a bit different feel descending through curves.

The combination of flowering cherries and snow capped mountains -- Yatsugatake, the Japan Southern Alps, Mt. Fuji, and other local peaks, was very nice.  If only the clouds would have burned off completely ....

Looking back at Yatsugatake, from between Hirose and Kawakami.   I am very happy with the new Ortlieb handlebar bag I got for use on longer Brevets.

Fertile soil of Kawakami, where all the farm laborers seem to be Chinese migrants; looking back toward Yatsugatake.  Mugikusa Pass is toward the right (northern) shoulder of these mountains.

The gradual climb through farmland toward Shinshu Pass, until the road turns up ahead.  No other cyclists today and only one or two cars between Kawakami and Shiokawa Dam down the other side of the hill.
Much better than Route 141.

Sakura blossoming and Southern Alps ... and almost no traffic ... on the Masutomi Radium Line through Sudama toward Nirasaki

Looking back up the Masutomi-Radium Line toward Shiokawa Dam and Shinshu Pass.  Snow visible on Mt. Mizugaki.

THE BARA BARA RIDE

from right to left : Deej, Clay, Yair, Jules, two unrelated riders, Setsuko (perhaps)
No Davids in sight. Also no slot machines.

When we planned to organize a classic ride on Sunday, we didn't know that this would draw the biggest group in team history. And for some reason it comprised of only one David, actually the original one, now with beard. And, of course it became an undisciplined, unorganized "recovery" ride in the typical fashion of our team.

I woke up early in the morning still with very heavy knees as a result of the 200 km trip the day before with Ludwig where we circumferenced the Hakone mountains. Already on the way to the meeting point at the Tamagawa I noticed that I could barely ride 30 km/hr in the flat, neither force my heart rate to go over 155 BPM. But not to worry, as this was an official Positivo Espresso "recovery ride". So I expected some fast pace along the Tamagawa until everybody burned out and then a leisurely ride up to Otarumi and Tsukui.
Well I arrived on time at Tamagawahara bridge and already a large crowd has gathered, not only the usual Positivo suspects such as David, Jerome, Dominic (David), Bryon, Yair, James (David) and Michael on his Cervelo with new Shimano Di-3 (this is an upgrade from Di-2 which includes a small electrical assistance motor, invisble to the human eyes), but also Fumiki and his friends "Ko" and "Sho" (together they ride under the name 故障) and Deej and Jules from the TCC. I was tempted to collect participation fees and ride home (150 Yen for PE members, 15 million Yen for first timers) as a free and rich man.

And while I was talking with Fumiki as he casually mentioned "Everybody's riding already" and I turned my head just to see our group taking the first bend at the horizon. So we had to hurry up and chase behind the peloton. It was impossible to catch up as everybody in the front group pedalled as fast as they could and there was a strong headwind that we had to overcome. Finally at the bridge after Sekidobashi we caught up but at this point we have lost already Bryon and either Ko or Sho, not sure. The tempo was just murderous for me and I was looking forward to the point where everybody would relax; this was supposed to be a "recovery" ride.

We then rode the usual road along the Asagawa where we encountered a dispatchment of stormtroopers or perhaps baseball kids and where we left a mildly negative impression on the local population. Little girls were graping there teddy bears tightly and small boys looked up to there mothers, saying "Mama, when I am big I want to become a foreign bicycle rider." "Rather I will set fire to the house and kill the whole family."

We somehow made it to the Takao 7-Eleven where we re-grouped and linked up with Tom, Hiroshi, Nishibe and Clay from TCC. To the neutral outside observer we must have looked like a very fast group thanks to the strong additions from other teams.

I spoke with Jules and he asked me "Are you the guy with scars all over your leg?" How did he know? Where my lovely deadhead-diapers lurking out from the bib trousers? But I agree, scars on the legs are even cooler than shaved legs. And they hurt more. But the part of my body that hurts the most was my behind, as I did more than 400 km of cycle riding the last five days. I will refrain from posting pictures here.

Then we started the Otarumi TT and even before the official starting point Tom, James, Deej, Clay, Hiroshi, Fumiki and Jules went off like rockets while I stayed with Nishibe, Yair and David in a second group, followed by Dominic, Ko, Michael, Jerome.

On the top of Otarumi we took a group shot to document this historic event (more riders then average blogviews per day in 2008).

From there on we continued downhill and then took the classic turn to Tsukui lake. All of this still at very high speeds. Things became a little chaotic. I guess all of us took the left turn at the Circle K that leads to the Tsukui North road, but then not all of us went along the North side and definitely many lost track when we rode into Hashimoto. David proposed to ride his favourite backroad shortcut and I was hanging on for dear life, as I had no idea where I was and in case I got lost, it would have taken me days to find the way back to Onekan.

Somehow we managed to re-group at the Starbucks 7-Eleven at Onekan, but in the process we had lost Tom, Michael and Dominic who rode home on their own.

Deej, Clay and Jules started first on the Onekan, followed by Jerome, me and the rest of the pack. Just a few hundred meters behind the tunnel we saw Deej who was screwed. No, I don't mean that he was bonking, I mean, to be precise, that his tire got screwed by a app. 20 mm wooden screw, NiCr plated, judging from the look, probably made in China. After making sure that he was OK and had everything he needs for repair we continued along the Onekan and at one point I met David and Fumiki again while finally continuing leisurely with James along the Tsurumigawa home. Fumiki said that he enjoyed the ride-out but that he would now ride into the mountains to do some more serious things.

At least the last 20 km or so I had the feeling of a "recovery" ride.
So I guess it is time to propose two or three things here to "avoid confusion in the market place" (the most favourite quote by Japanese business executives when a company/competitor starts to do things differently than before):

RENAME THE POSITIVO ESPRESSO TEAM INTO POSITIVO ESPRESSO TEST TEAM

Well, the Cervelo Test Team is called so because in addition to racing, it also fulfils the role of testing the Cervelo bikes under severe conditions. We do not belong to a bicycler maker (well, Prolite, perhaps), and therefore we are not testing any bikes. But we constantly test the well being, patience, nerves and physical composure of all team members and therefore we rightfully deserve the name "test team".

DEFINE "RECOVERY RIDE"

Recovery Ride - As opposed to the common understanding of a recovery ride in standard cycling, a Positivo Espresso recovery ride is defined by the fact that most of the riders attending, will be recovered sooner or later from the roads by firefighters, ambulances or archaeologists eventually ("Hm, high BMI index and DuraAce 7800 group set - probably an investment banker from the early 21st century I would guess."). The average speed will be ridiculous high and climbs can be long and painful. However, regardless of distance and elevation, a recovery ride must include a statement in the official announcement that it will be finished in the early hours of the afternoon.

RIDE ORGANISATION

Again, if it comes to organisation of rides and freedom of individual members to do what they please, Positivo Espresso is second only to Bakunin. I understand that some of us are not happy with this and I can understand their point of view. On the other hand, the quest to get our unorganized, undisciplined team changed, i.e. to ride organized, perhaps even in a paceline (!) and stay together has been undertaken by many brave souls and not led to any success so far. I also feel that I am lacking the divine powers to change this. So perhaps it is more important to change expectations. An organized rides, in Positivo Espresso fashions means, that we meet in a somewhat organized fashion.

PE Half-day Otarumi Classic a.k.a. BARABARA JITENSHA JIKEN !!

Thanks everyone for joining this morning's ride & thanks MOB for having organized/coordinated this !


Screwed up the self-timer...apologies!! MOB, hope yours turned out OK....
("Framed version" of this pic here)