2009 Mt.Fuji Hillclimb...lottery!

According to a reliable source (GORO), participants in this year's edition of the Mt.Fuji Hillclimb will be chosen by lottery (just like the immensily popular Norikura HC in August). Fortunately for us, there is allegedly a special quota of foreigners...
WHEN: JUNE 7 (SUN), 2009
APPLICATIONS: MARCH 2 (MON), 2009 (only thru Internet)

Shiobara Hill Climb Day 2

That's how winners look like. But before anybody can jump on the sacred podiums of the Shiobara Hill Climb and receive the holy radish from the hands of the pretty shrine maidens, hard work has to be done. Read all about it.

Shiobara, the race starts in the village below and leads through the roads criss-crossing the mountain up to the point of almost no return.

Goro going down after his splendid finish.

The next day we woke up, rolling from our beds which were fixed on the sloped ground floor of the hotel very early in the morning. Painstakingly trying to be silent, we moved our two beloved bikes out through the window and made our way to the start point of the Sunday race, located at TEPCO land.

The town of Shiobara was still very quiet and no local townsfolk were on the streets yet. However from all corners, backyard alleys and manholes, cyclist were gathering on the main street and silently proceeding to the start. Tom and me were lucky to find two riders from NALSIMA FRENDS [Yes, this is what they had written on their jerseys], who rode rather fast and gave us the chance to draft effortlessly along.

Just arriving at the start area.

To our surprise we found out that the start point was not on the top of the hill, as we have investigated the previous day, but on the very bottom, immediately after the start one has to climb a slope - not a good start for me at all.

Tom has made up his strategy, which was basically to start at a crazy speed, get away from the main field and then try to maintain the distance over the first 12 km of up-and-down-land; after that, on the last climb which was equal to the race on Saturday, he would take it rather easy. My strategy was to stay with the main group the first 12 km and try to survive the 7 km climb at the end. And take it rather hard.

At the start, training for the race.

Too soon our D class group was ready to start with Tom and me pretty much at the front. The signal came and immediately Tom started to accelerate as crazy in order to gain some distance already on the first hill. However, he was not successful, many other guys could follow him and closed the gap. But the consequence was, that the average speed became very high. Whileas I was able to match the pace on the flat and downhill parts, I lost ground on every climb and finally after 4 km or so I was on my own.

My mood improved slightly as I was able to overtake some of the earlier started riders (women, but even C class), but then I was overtaken by the E class main group (one minute late start) and at the end of the 12 km run also by the F class (two minutes late start).

Whereas the race has been held on the main road so far, now the course turned to the right, where I shifted from outer into inner gear and started the long climb up. The first kilometer of climbing leads to the start point of the first day race and for the complete climbing distance [from the main street turn to the finish] a special “Climbing Price” is awarded by the organizer JCRC.

Revisiting the monster slopes of the race on the way down.

Anyway, I tried to stay with the E class field on the climb but just couldn’t. I tried to keep a steady pace up. And much to my surprise I overtook some more riders, mainly women and I could also close the gap to a rider from the D class field. So I asked him if we should stay together and go only into competition the last 500 meters, so that we can ride up faster as a team. He said yes but the result was, that I mainly pulled him up. He was a little bit faster on the very steep parts, but I was clearly faster on some of the flatter stretches.

Carefully I avoided to ride over any chestnut on the road, the most important goal was to reach the finish and collect the JCRC points, a good ranking or a good time was only of second importance.

Finally we made it within 500 meters of the goal. We started to accelerate and to sprint towards the finish, but the other guy was younger, better looking and had more reserves so in the end, as the day before, I ended up in second last place.

At the finish, basically done.

Anyway, we had good results. In the D class field Tom finished in 14th place in 49:45 min and me 36th in 1:01:00 hrs. The D class winner did an incredible 45:12.

In the special mountain price category, Tom finished in 103rd place with 29:21 min and me in 204th place with 37:36 min out of 229 (male) riders. This shows clearly that JCRC races are not neccessarily for beginners and that there are many strong riders out. Even in the female category. This incredible thirteen year old girl, who won the women category on the first day also won the mountain price in 29:40 min, almost as fast as Tom.

As usual Goro-San had the most impressive result, as he finished in 9th place in the special mountain price. He is now eligible to start in the A class, a very considerable achievement in one season, given the fact that he started in E class at the beginning of the season. Chapeau, Goro.

Tom and me then rode down the hill to the event ground were both of us were presented with the “Giant Radish of the Day” prices, which we truly deserved.

Please check our complete results here, here and here.

Overall it was a very good race in splendid surroundings and I wonder why we don’t take more such opportunities as Positivo Espresso team. We can easily rent a bigger car, throw 3 or 4 bikes inside and head for the unknown countrysides on Japan.

Naturally, after spending that much time on hill climbs during the last two days, Tom and me were still affected by the side effects of this life style,as one can clearly see in the last picture, showing us on the way home in the car.

Shiobara 2009, here we come again.Please all take a look at the statistical data of day one and day two below.

Professionell Hill Climbers Part II Day I

If you want to improve your hill climbing performance you will need to resort to drastic training method.

It is not enough to ride your bike up and down the slopes every day, you also need to be prepared mentally. Virtually you have to spend you life on the slopes. Your whole life becomes inclined - you start to live on the edge of the slopes.

Tom and me know this and we trained hard before we went to attend the Shiobara Hill Climb . When we arrived at the race base camp, we were still suffering from the serious side effects of the training.Here we can see something that happens quite often to professionell hill climbers. Indurain, Pantani, Cippolini, Wim Vansevenant, .... nearly every great rider of his generation felt victim to this degeneration. And all of them got used to it as well. Something that is also true for Tom and me.
[TCC Readers start here]

In no time we were at our hotel and checked in before going on a training ride. Where accidentally I got stung by a bee. This must have been the first time since I was eight year old and I considered this bad karma.
The Shiobara race is a two day hill climb event organized by the JCRC and a Japanese sports newspaper. The race on the first day is a pure hill climb time trial, about 7 km long and 450 meter elevation difference. The track is quite nice actually. First of all, the landscape is beautiful in this part of Tochigi. However during hill climbs I tend not to see any landscape when my heart beats at 170 RPM + and my brain thinks in very little circles. But most important, there are some flatter parts on the road up where one can relax a little bit and save some energy to power up the steeper parts. My guess would be that some of the hair needle curves are up to 14%. I really don't know why I do this, my only consolation being that I sure would win in my weight class. If there would be one.

The second day consists of a road race which starts about 12 km away from the hill climb on a up/down road before it goes up a hill which leads to the start of the first day race. While we didn't know on the first day what was awaiting us, we did know very well on the second.

It was still early morning, the weather was fine and we had about five hours time before the time trial would start. I have to admit that I was rather pessimistic about traveling time from Tokyo to Shiobara and I forced Tom to wait for me at 6 AM at Futago Tamagawa. This left us with plenty of time before the start and a so far not experienced feeling of relaxation.

From our hotel, which was somewhat close to the day one start point, we rode back the road to the day two start point in order to familiarize ourselves with the course. The road is beautiful, winding along a river with some nice sightseeing spots.This photo shows Tom and me at a famous spot where a young Japanese maiden called Roleleiko was sitting on the cliffs, combing her Schwarzkopf-colored blond hair and was singing in Flemish
"Ik wess net wat soll et beduteen, dat ik soooo tlaureege been.." Wheras container ships navigating the river below where smashing head forward down the rapids and into the cliffs trying to escape the terrible combination of J-Pop and Flemish lyrics.

We met Goro-San from the NFCC team on the road who just came in by car. We tried to convince him that we came on the bikes from Tokyo, which he believes for not even a nano-second. Then we went to the start area to watch the other riders suffer. Our highest interest was concerning the women riders start. There was one about 12 year old girl on a Giant bike who was looking not exactly right in place but later smashed the competition and made first place. Overall, judging on the basis of looks, visual expression, legs and bike types, we made a pretty accurate forecast about the finishing results. I also found my personal benchmark (number 920).

Goro-san was supposed to start in B class, not in the lowly ranked D class (which, according to a Friend of Tom is for "beginners") in which we squirms were gathering. By chance I talked with a friend of Goro who then turned out to be an A class rider and I apologized immediately for accosting him.

And then it was already our turn to race. Already from the start there was a monsterslope.
The D class starting sequence this time was by age, followed by late comers. Tom and me were pretty much the last starters and as the D class was anyway the last group to start, I was afraid that I would be the last rider up the hill.

I started and Tom was then taking off 15 seconds behind me. When I looked after 17 seconds behind me to see if Tom has made the start already, he was just overtaking me. But much to my surprise I was also overtaking the rider who started 15 seconds before me. Then I was overtaken by 3 more riders from the D class and I settled into survival mode, tackling one slope after the other. There were some flat parts where I was clearly faster than the other guys, but mostly I was on my own and no other riders where in sight. The view from the road was beautiful and I never had the feeling that I had to give up. Just pumping, giving everything and looking at the ciclo to check distance and elevation.

At hill climbs I can do about 15 meters up per minute, regardless of slope and distance. So I figured out that I would need about 30 minutes. I checked this with last years finishing times and the winners in the higher classes are at about 20 minutes, 50% faster than me. Unfortunately that seems about right, based on my experience.

Within no time I was at the last kilometer mark. I continued to stay steady and then I rode over some chestnuts by chance. I heard the sound of air coming out of the rear wheel tube. It was about 400 meters away from the finish so I accelerated to ride as long as possible on the bike. Then I noticed that the air was completely out of the tube and when I navigated a curve the bike started to slide outwards. I rode some more meters with the flat rear wheel and then I demounted the bike and walked up the hill.

A lot of people were waiting at the finish, they asked me what happened when I walked up and I said "puncture". But then the guy who started 15 seconds behind me turned around the last corner and everybody was shouting that I should start to run. And I did run with my bike to the goal and incredibly enough I didn't made the last place! In fact I was only slghtly slower than the 30 minutes target. Tom finished 15th, in the middle of the field.

Later on, on day two, Tom and me where awarded the special Gambaru-Sho (Persisting in the face of obstacles) price, but this is a different story which will be told on day two.

We went down to the local supermarket where I bought myself a well deserved ice cream and Tom a good bottle of local red wine. We retired at the hotel and went to bed early.
[to be continued]

Sunday morning in Shuzenji: A race report

[TCC readers, please start after the photo]

God created the earth and after almost finishing his work on the sixth day, he had still quite an amount of hills, slopes, gorges and sharp road turns left in his Lego Earth construction kit. As he spend already quite some time fiddling around with Norwegian Fjords and the like, he just dumped all this stuff in a place called Shuzenji in Japan, erected a high fence around the area and placed warning signs:

" MANKIND! DO NOT ENTER! AND DON'T EVEN THINK OF CYCLING HERE!"

Everything went fine for the next 5 million years or so, then the first Japanese appeared in the place, lost a big war, started economical reconstruction and the time was right for building a splendid cycling track somewhere in the country. Almost naturally the choice felt on Shunzenji.

"Yeah God, what you wrote made very much sense five million years ago, but now we have carbon frames, Shimano Di2 electronic shifters and 98 gram AX lightness calipers for 169.000 Yen a pair. Hm, different picture, right? And by the way we will fully leverage the investment cost with syndicated bundled loans from Lehmann Brothers, convertible of course."

Since then, Japan enjoys the existence of a full fledged bicycling training track which is disguised as a bicycle-themed amusement park. And as the JCRC (Japan Cycling Racing Club Association) decided to hold at least two races a year in their annual championship series there, I need to go there to attend the races.

THIS IS AS CLOSE TO BICYCLE HELL AS IT GETS.

JCRC decided to let the D class race start at 7:44 AM, which in turn let me wake up at 4 AM, jumped into the packed car and drive the 140 km or so from Tokyo to Shuzenji. Amazingly the streets were full with cars, even at this time in the morning. The car navigation system, which is not really up to date, proposed some crazy routes, which are basically calculated on the fact, that the fastest road between Tokyo and Kyoto is still the Tokaido. First proposal : 3:20 hours. In the end I made it in 1:45 hour without speeding too much.

Arrived at the parking lot and already many cars and riders were there, even some tents from guys who spend the night there. I assembled the bike and did some training laps on the road circling the parking lot. As I did a training ride to Tomin no mori two days ago (700 meters of constant climbing) I could still feel the pain in my muscles. As usual I was overtaken by other riders, who even during training go 50% faster than I will ever be able to go.

This year I attended the first JCRC Shuzenji race in March as well. At the race in track counter-clockwise direction, I already lost contact with the main field after the start on the first climb when the pace-making motorcycle was leading the field. This should give a good idea of the hardness of the track, the level of the competition and the performance level I am living up to.

I think the only chance I ever have to win something in Shuzenji is, if all other riders would be forced to sit backwards on their bikes, with the legs strapped tightly to the front fork and pedalling with their arms. In addition it would help if they would also be blindfolded. In other words, I really shouldn't go there and race.

At 06.30 AM the gates to the amusement park were opened and I proceeded to enter. There was no registration desk outside and of course I did not bother to take the registration confirmation postcard with me. At the entrance I was asked, if I have the registration with me. This was a pretty stupid question, I thought, because what else would somebody at the age of 45, in full racing attire with his bike do at 6:30 AM in Shuzenji. All the attractions, like the rollercoaster for the six year of age were still closed anyway. So I thought, OK, let's nevertheless try the polite Japanese approach first:

" I am so sorry, accidentally I must have left the postcard at my house, is there really nothing that can be done?" Accompanied by much sucking of air and constant pulling of the right earlobe.

"It is absolutery forbidden to enter without registration."

Bull. What should I do?

"Ha.Ha.Ha. Prease enter, I was only joking."

I completely fell for it. I think that this is a good sign and gives hope for the internationalization of Japan, if people finally are able to do this quite of complex, Western type of joking.

I proceed to the track and did two training laps. The race was conducted in clockwise direction which suits me much more. At the start there is a slight slope which is followed by a steeper slope for some more time. From there on its a constant, fast downhill ride with some fast and sharp turns. It is easy to reach here 60 km/hr and more, but for milquetoasts like me, I constantly stand on the brakes and trying to stay on the road. Then a long climb starts, perhaps 80 elevation meters, followed by an even faster downhill where one comes close to 70 km/hr. And then there is the steepest part up to the finish line. In total the track is 5 km long and a total climb of 120 meter elevation is involved.
I never did more than 3 laps in a row on this track and I was supposed to do 5 today.

I went to the start at 7:30 AM and met Goro-san who started in the C class 2 minutes ahead. Also I met Ishii-san, one of the nicest Japanese riders I ever met and who is racing D class just as me. He crashed just in front of me at the Hitachi-Naka race in July, as he was trying to bunny-hop over a crashed rider in front of him: Result: Fork broken, carbon frame unusable, retired from the race. If he hadn't, he would have been a fierce contender for the D class title this year.[Readers who are actually interested to read about the race, please start here].

Bang. And the C class is off from the start. 2 minutes later the D class starts. The light drizzling rain almost stops immediately. And 2 minutes after the E class starts. I can easily follow the peloton and I think: "Hey, I am in good shape". But then I notice that the pace making motorcycle is still in front of us and everybody is holding back. The leading motorcycle disappears at the start of the first downhill section and too early I find myself at the start to the long uphill part. Due to the huge mass momentum which my body is supporting, I have a good impulse which takes me beyond some riders for the first 20 meters or so, once I ran out of momentum, I am falling back into last place. I hear that familiar sound: The motorcycle, that is trailing the field behind the last rider.

After the first lap I am very much behind the peloton, but I can also see some other riders from the D class with white helmet covers which are within reach. When I go up the long downhill for the second time, the E class riders are overtaking me, they have made up for the 2 minutes delay in starting time.

I always find the first two laps the hardest: There is still so much in front of you and the body is still feeling the pain; simply not enough endomorphines running through one's vein. I go back into survival mode and try to keep some pace and stay at least above 15 km/hr on the uphill parts.

That works out fine. Finally I start to overtake some of the other D class riders, not many, but at least I cannot hear the sound of the motorcycle any longer. My lap times are around 11 minutes, so I am much, much faster than in March and I should not become overlapped if I stay steady. If I manage to do fast four laps, I can take it easy on the fifth one: There is nothing to win for me anyway but I must do four laps before the head of the field finishes the race in five laps, otherwise I will get disqualified.

There are some crashes in the downhill section. One rider is holding his head, it seems he has crashed just shortly before I arrived and he seems to be in pain. On the long uphill of the fourth lap I overtake one more D class rider from Nalsima who is struggling hard. I give him a smile and shout "Gambatte". This is not altruistic at all, I don't want him to give up, otherwise I might end up again in last place.

Then the C class is overtaking me on the uphill part. Now I should be worried. Really worried. In less than four laps these guys have made up one lap on me minus two minutes later start. The top of the D class field must be very close now. So I give it one more push to the top of the hill, than start the fast downhill and stay with the C class riders, then with good momentum I even overtake some of them on the last uphill. I am really worried that the D class will outsprint me and that I will get lapped. I give everything I have and finally cross the finish line.

Then I realize, that I still have to go one more lap. Oh yes, I should not get lapped, but I also must finish the race. I go relatively easy and risk nothing on the downhill parts. I am relatively fresh when I arrive at the last uphill to the finish line, so I make a good show and sprint into the finish.

No sound of motorcycles behind me, I shouldn't be in the last place. Great. So the evening conversation with my son will be slightly different than usual:

"I attend the race today at Shuzenji."
"In which place did you finish?"
"Well, 47th place."
"Was it the last place?"
"Actually, no."

Actually, I made a very respectable 47th place. Out of 48 riders of course. But some of the other riders I overtook gave up. Or perhaps they were lapped.

I met Goro-San after the race, of course he made another splendid show and finished third in the C class race. Ishii-san finished in 40th place, but still 4 minutes ahead of me.

Out of 8 JCRC races this year, I finished 3 times in last place and 2 times in second last place. One second last place was only due to the fact that I dragged somebody to the race who was definitely not prepared to race in D class. Everywhere in the world this would be considered a lousy performance. However, due to the somewhat peculiar point-system in Japan, I am leading the D class classification. Only three more races. Three more last places will do the trick, I will almost fly to victory.

This Saturday (Agu 23): OHSMK Loop

Start: 7:30 from Sekidobashi....
More details: http://www.tokyocycle.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=943

Race Report: JCRC CSC Gunma

After racing in Tsukuba on Saturday I left the place early as there was not very much to celebrate and drove my car in direction Gunma CSC.

There are no highways connecting Tsukuba with Gunma as both are places where noboby want to go in the first place and if, then only from Tokyo. So I drove about 120 km to Takasaki on country roads and had the chance to witness the decay of the Japanese countryside. There are places which are basically deserted at 8 PM in the evening. Everybody seems to be 90 years or old and is sound asleep in bed at such late time.

I saw also some very big pachinko parlours.

It took me almost three hours for these ridiculous short distance - about the same time it took us to ride 120 km during the Tsukuba race on our bikes. I was still under the heavy influence of Jerome's wonder dried plums and continued to fill the cabin of my car with inflammable flatulent gases. That is not so bad when you are driving, but at one point I stopped at a 7-eleven to buy some food and when I returned to my car and opened the door the pure disgust was so extreme that it took utmost self discipline to enter.

Anyway, many times I lost the way as the cars navigation system is running on a data set which is more than five years old. Be ensured that despite the fact that nobody is living in the country side any longer, there are many new roads built, tunnels dugged and bridges erected. The navi ignored them all and showed me the way through the most backward tracks and the "hosoi michi" of the North.

I arrived at Takasaki at around 11 PM and started the demolition of the toilet. Hard to imagine that this hotel room can be ever rented out again. Looked for a Ramen shop (or "Law men shop", as I have seen recently in Tokyo), couldn't find one still open and went to wara wara. Then I had six hours of sleep before I left the next morning for Gunma CSC.

The track itself is at 800 m elevation somewhat close to the ski resort of Naeba. There is a Shinkansen station near by. This is all very well, but it is extremely hard to find the road to the place. When I went there the first time in April this year I thought that I have completely lost my way. Or lost my mind. Or both. Or somebody else did, but I could not imagine that this road was used by somebody else then lodging trucks. But this is exactly the way to Gunma CSC.

There is a very good documentation on the web about the current state of the city of Chernobyl, which was evacuated after the reactor catastrophe in 1986. And there is one photo I like in particular, showing a ferris wheel. Take a look at this photo and then you have more or less the precise image of what Gunma CSC is like. Sure, it must have been nice in the sixties, but now it is hard to imagine why somebody should some here to visit. There are nowadays many places like this in Japan and one would like to scream "Can't you see that your country is falling apart?". I was once a guest in a village close to Itoigawa n Niigata prefecture where the youngest inhabitant was more than 60 years old. It was a beautiful village with a lot of old farm houses and the people were so nice and friendly. But it is not hard to imagine that 20 years from now there will be nobody left there. The school was locked up since decades. There was no store, nothing. If you don't believe me take a look for example at the book Deathtopia. Here are some more photos of the Gunma CSC.

Refreshing room at 2. level
Terrace with greenery [green roofs are now a must in Tokyo anyway, thanks Ishihara].
The restaurant Turini, named in plural after an Italian town.

And last not least, for every cyclist with a body weight of 90 kg and more Gunma CSC is a hell of a course. Constants ups and downs don't let you find your rhythm and suck all what is left or energy out of your body. Especially if you attended an eight hours endurance race the day before. Here is a layout map of the track:
I added some comments. Funny enough, this maps explains the resting places around the track. You probably need them. It is really a difficult track. It may not be as hard as CSC Shuzenji, that's true, but for me it is cycling hell.

I was starting in the D class, 6 laps of 6 kms, total 36 kms. In April it was five laps and I finished in D class in 37th position with 1:01:38, the winner was at the finish in about 50 minutes. Oh, did I mention it? 37 riders reached the finish. With this time I would have made also almost last place in E, F and X class. So basically it was a complete disaster. This time my goal was to give everything until the fifth lap. Then I could not be overtaken any longer and would be allowed to finish. The highest risk was to be lapped and get disqualified, I didn't even thought about reaching a good position.

Before the race we could do one practice lap. The down part is no problem, I could easily stay with the peloton. The exhausting up and down was even exhausting when done in a training lap and at the uphill hell I was not even able to keep the pace despite the fact that this was training.

My plan was to stay with the main field as long as possible and draft until the uphill hell on the second lap. Also Goro Akiyama was in the same D class race, he had woken up at 4:30 AM in Tokyo and took the Shinkansen and a Taxi to the race.

Then it was already time to start. The first kilometer was behind a pacemaking motorcycle and I was in the front group. Then the pace increased as the race started and I could keep up with the peloton during the up and down part. I utilized my down momentum to accelerate up which went very well until we reached uphill hell. My speed dropped to 17 km/hr and the other guys overtook me until I was the last one and then I lost contact. So despite having a good lap time of 11:01, I lost already one to two minutes on the top. I was then on my own for a while until I was overtaken by the D2 group which has started three minutes behind us. I tried to keep up with them, but again I lost contact at the uphill hell. I took me 11:31 for the second lap, which is still good for me and what I needed not to be overtaken.

I was subsequently overtaken by riders from the E1 and E2 class groups. Nevertheless my lap times were OK. with 11:20 min and 11:38 min. I could even overtake some guys from the endurance race that has started at 8 AM and which continued until the end of our race. There is this guy who I meet at almost every JCRC race and who looks like the killer in Silence of the Lamps. I overtook him.

After five laps I had a total time of 57:15, more than four minutes faster than April. And I was not overtaken. The winner finished in 59:38, so much faster than my April time. From the forth lap on I even closed on another D class rider and we stayed together for the remaining distance of the race. I started to took it easy at the last lap. I would reach the finish and it doesn't matter if I come in in last or second last position. As I had only a lap time of 12:43 min, I then finished in last position.Believe me, I am not ashamed to finish in last position at Gunma CSC. I have been much faster than in April and I have made it to the finish line. I was so exhausted but happy. Goro Akiyama of course made a much better job and finished in forth place.
Goro was so kind to allow me to carry his winner certificate and prizes to my car so it looked like that I have won something. We then stored all our belongings in my car and re-dressed. As we were standing more or less naked in the countryside, I threated him to take pictures and post them on the NFCC website to provide some more excitement there.

We had a very nice trip back, it is so much more fun to travel with somebody as pleasant as Goro is. We were discussing the most urgent and pressing issues of the Japan of today: Why do streets have no names in Japan? But why has almost every slope one? [Goro's explanation: Because we Japanese like hillclimbs). How can you avoid getting tickets? Why should you not run over red lights during traffic safety week in front of the assembled police force of Okutama? And so on.

So within no time we were back in Tokyo and I could finally collapse in my room.