Social Riding ... Overkill?

On Sunday, I headed out on my first normal weekend ride in some time.

The weekend before, visitors in town, then looking back down the calendar, Tokyo-Itoigawa, the weekend before that, recovery, and before that, Tohoku Brevets, Ishigakijima, Yatsugatake, Tateyama, etc.  So I have not really had any normal weekend rides since the trip over Matsuhime on April 1.

Since I did not plan ahead, and ended up leaving home well after 9:30AM, I rode alone.  Still, I was determined to make this a "social" ride.  Alone, but social.  "Social" in the sense of socially networked.

I made sure that my Garmin GPS was fully charged and switched on as I left home.  This is my ride to Tomin no Mori and back -- 148 kms and including the classic hill climb up to 1000 meters:

Or here:

I use two GPS online services, RidewithGPS and Strava.  I gave up on Garmin Connect when they switched from Google maps to Bing's vomit-colored yellow, difficult-to-read maps at one point -- though they seem to have improved since.  And Mapmyride ... had some annoying features for its free (non-premium) users and the site did not function nearly as quickly for me as RidewithGPS.  Strava ... might have captured my loyalty, except they initially limited the number of rides per month that a non-premium user could upload, so there was no way to "catch up" and load a set of historical rides.

Also, RidewithGPS has the best explanations I have seen online for how to upload to a Garmin Edge 705 or Garmin Edge 800 micro SD card the free OSM maps available at various sites -- tricky, and crucial if you need a map for a region where you do not have (and do not want to pay a lot of money for) a Garmin basemap.  They also make it extremely easy to draw your own tracks for a future ride.  And they help you to download your own or others' rides and tracks, give you information on which type of file (tcx and gpx) to select, and how to upload/use those on your Garmin device, for which purpose.  So they are doing the "customer service" that Garmin really should provide.

Strava is much more polished, has more money behind it -- maybe real venture capital funding, etc.  Ride with GPS seems to be two guys (maybe just one?) in Oregon.  When you have question, you get a personal response from Cullen.  So long ago I decided I would use RidewithGPS, and it is the only service where I signed up for "Premium" (paid) features.

Still, I now find that I really need to upload my rides to Strava as well, since it has become a social network, and if record a ride using GPS, and don't upload the results, it is as if I did not ride it at all.

This has the feeling of back when Facebook first became popular a number of years back.  If people were in a group of friends that reported happenings on Facebook, you were pretty much compelled to do so as well if you wanted to stay in touch.  Now, I'm following over 20 Tokyo-based cyclists on Strava, and 20 or more are following me.  Plus I am following Taylor Phinney (BMC) and Ted King (Liquigas).

Some of the folks I follow record EVERY ride, even daily commutes, by GPS.  Every day I get an email telling me who rode where: that M. rode to 9.8 work and set a personal record on a 500 meter stretch of a road, or that G. rode home from the swimming pool.  And of course the email also notes that Tom rode 250 kms and set the "KOM" on more passes in the mountains of NW Saitama.

The feature that drives all of this "social" (but not truly social) behavior is Strava's segment feature.  You can define a "segment" from any of your rides, and then track your times (and others') on that particular stretch of road.  And you will unwittingly ride others' defined segments and get a notice after the fact that, even when you did not realize that you were being "compared".  Ride with GPS has added a similar feature, though they have fewer users in Japan at this point, so it is less of a network effect.

As Graham noted the absurdity of all this to me a few months back, one of the defined segments is along Komazawa Dori, from the traffic signal at Nakameguro/Yamate Dori up the hill toward Yutenji.  This 650 meter stretch, with 20 meters of elevation gain, is now to be raced at maximum speed (?).  Actually, there are four traffic signals along this stretch, and plenty of traffic, so it is not recommended for racing.  I've ridden this stretch for years, ... but always commuting, and I never thought it was a test of my climbing ability, or worth uploading.  I should note that Graham rode a personal best up this slope on his way out of town on May 26, and is now back up to 3rd place out of 45 Strava riders, ahead of James, Dominic, Thomas P., Tim S., Shane, and even Race-Across-America veteran Jamie S.  Keep it up!  Kudos!  And the rest of you, haul ass and put up some better times.  We are watching.

So I set out on Sunday with a specific goal.  I wanted to get a better time on the climb from Motojuku Crossing to Tomin No Mori.  This is a true, even a "classic" hill climb segment in the Tokyo area.  It is where Pete W. and many others train regularly.  I don't ride it regularly, but I've gone up it at least 2-3 times each year since 2005.  My personal best at the climb, in December 2010, is 68 minutes and 43 seconds, as you can see from the Positivo Espresso Togebaka page.  (See Togebaka #3).  I think I did it in 71 or 72 minutes once back in 2008 or 2009, but not with a full GPS recording.

The problem is that when I did the climb in December 2010, I must have rested at the bottom and/or the top, and missed either the beginning or end of the segment, and left the recording on while resting at the time.  So the Strava/Ridewith GPS segments add additional time, recording 102 instead of 68 minutes.

So yesterday, despite roads that remained wet, the hot, sticky mid-day air, my Brevet wheelset (testing slightly heavier Conti Four Season 25x622 tires on 36/32 spoke wheels), and suffering a somewhat bloated stomach after the traditional 7-11 food stop at Itsukaichi, I tried to make a good effort on the climb.  I started BEFORE the intersection at Motojuku, and kept going for at least another 50 meters AFTER the parking lot for Tomin no Mori, no stops, just to make sure that I got a complete time.

I recorded 73 minutes and 31 seconds for the Strava segment, and 73 minutes 14 seconds for the nearly identical RidewithGPS segment.  Not great, but acceptable given the conditions, and enough to at least push me up by 5 spots in the rankings.  I need to go back and try this climb one cool morning later in the year, with my best climbing gear, and see if I can get my recorded time under 70 minutes.  And I'll need to return to most of the "Togebaka" climbs later in the year and at least post a time that is representative for me, even if I'll never be KOM up these or other hills.

If you don't post and share a ride using these services, ... you might as well have stayed home.

Super HC Up Toyo Tires Turnpike -- A Tradition Since 2010

On Sunday I joined the second annual "Super Hill Climb" event as one of six participants from TCC (Tokyo Cycling Club).  After a nice early warm-up ride to Shin-Yokohama Station, the Kodama shinkansen deposited me at Odawara after a trip of only 15 minutes.  Outside Odawara Station there were at least 10 Japanese riders taking road bicycles out of their rinko-bukuro.  It was only a few kilometers' ride to the start, and offered a great close-up view of Odawara Castle.

4 out of the 6 TCC riders finished in under one hour.

I was the slowest of the 6, finishing at 1:05:50, 296 out of 507 in the 40-49 group ("Road D" group).  But for me this was a very good time, within 9 minutes of Thomas and Travis, whereas on the similar climb last week of O-Toge, I finished within 20 minutes of Thomas and 18 of Travis.  And the 507 riders in the 40-49 group all looked like typical Japanese "climbers" -- very low body fat, pencil thin types, some tough as nails.

The route, up the "Toyo Tires Turnpike", a toll road usually normally closed to bicycles, involved a climb over 10 km from just above sea level (25m elev) to around 1000m elev., then 3.3 km of riding up and down hills along the top of a ridge, until one last uphill sprint to the finish.  There is plenty of 13% grade, and several kilometers where the average grade is higher than 10%.  I tried to keep a 10-11 kph speed even on the steepest stretches, and was pleasantly surprised that I could do so.  Including the up and down sections along the ridge, the aggregate ascent is close to 1100 meters, much more than the Ekiden climb up Route 1 in Hakone.

After a brief rest at the top, my real ride began.  Down to the lake -- Ashinoko -- and up and down small hills along its Southern shore, in heavy weekend tourist car traffic.  It took longer than I expected to get to Sengokuhara, the flat-ish area at the East end of the lake, where the tourists were parking and hiking among the tall grasses.

Hakone, Sengokuhara, looking toward Otome-toge

Then a short climb up Route 138 toward Otome Pass, through a tunnel, then down, down to Gotemba, and on the first plausible road I turned off of 138 and struck off to the N/NE through the valley toward the base of the next climb, Mikuni Pass, stopping at a convenience store for spaghetti and to check a map and make sure I could get to the climb without too many detours.

Mikuni was relentless, starting at below 500m elev and peaking at over 1150m elev, and much of the way 13-16% grade.  At least it was reasonably cool. I got off the bike once for photos and some water when the "circular" pavement pattern appeared.

The dreaded circular pavement pattern. The grade was already crazy below here.
Unlike most roads, it did not change noticeably when the circles appeared.

I dismounted a second time higher up ... and needed to walk 100 meters or so up the hill and around a bend to find a place where I could actually manage to re-mount the bike and clip into my pedals safely.

The clouds got darker and darker, but we had dry roads all the way back to town.

The Mikuni climb flattens out a bit the last 2 kilometers or so to less than a 10% grade.  At least now I've climbed it once, and can go back another time to try it fresh from bottom to top without a foot down.
I met Jerome, who had ridden out to Yamanakako, and we enjoyed a fast trip down Doshi Michi and back into town in the failing light.

Around 175km and around 2500-3000m of climbing.  At last I think I am fully recovered from PBP.

Rainy season in the Austrian Alps

The Japanese rainy season, especially towards the end of June when it is not only wet but gets also unpleasantly hot, is the perfect excuse for escaping to the more moderate climates of the European Alps. Or so David thought when he signed up for the TransAlp. So far the weather seems to be holding up in Sonthofen - sunny start this morning as the last minute photo proves, and a forecasts which suggests improving weather from today. So far so good.

My own escape was somewhat less lucky. I arrived in Munich on Thursday evening, to make it through pouring rain to Kitzbuehel, in the Tyrolian Alps. Rain throughout the night and into the morning. Perfect excuse to get a couple of phone conferences done, and a lot more e-mail. But wait - was this what I had come for to Kitzbuehel, a couple of days early before starting to teach a training programme from Sunday?

It finally stopped raining in the late morning and I was immediately on my bike for a short ride under still threatening skies. I managed to stay dry and returned for lunch.

In the afternoon another try. The sun was even lurking through the clouds occasionally. I went for the most famous hill climb course in Austria, the Kitzbueheler Horn. The start is just 10 minutes from my hotel. Over 7km it is a relentless climb at usually 12 percent, sometimes more, from 700m altitude to 1,670m.

Many famous riders have put up best times here, e.g. Cadell Evans (not yet on his Canyon). All nicely documented on a "Wall of Fame".

From the Alpenhaus it is possible to climb another 300m at similar gradient to the very top of the Kitzbueheler Horn. I did this twice last September and the 360 degree view from the peak is simply astounding, in particular in good weather.

But today the weather was not good, and in fact no sooner had I reached the Alpenhaus did some very cold clouds come blowing down from the peak. I plunged down the road in a desperate attempt to escape, but one kilometre down the rain caught up with me. From there it was a miserable descent: 900m down in 8 degree cold rain, wearing summer clothes (but even something warmer would not really have made much of a difference), desperately grapping the breaks to maintain a safe speed yet make it through this hell as fast as possible. I was dreaming of a hot bath back in the hotel...

This was not the greatest start to my stay in Kitzbuehel. As we say in German, "vom Regen in die Traufe", quite literally!

Again rain through the rest of the day and throughout most of the night. The next morning looked a little more promising, but still with threatening skies and a supposed 35% chance of rain. Good enough to give it another try, again without venturing too far before the afternoon, when rain was forecasted once more.

I chose a loop around the mountain range towards the northwest of Kitzbuehel, facing the famous "Wilder Kaiser". Google maps suggested it was possible to avoid the main roads for most of the loop, following side roads. Indeed, this was possible, but as always in Austria, many of those side roads turned out to be unpaved.

In fact, at some point the cycling path became a hiking path! Impossible to tell from google maps, making this section appear like a nicely paved back road...

I ended up doing a fair amount of riding on unpaved paths and even hikling, just as last year. Unlike Japan, most of the unpaved paths are easily passable by road bike. They tend to be so well maintained that it is possible to even climb up many unpaved mountain roads. But of course they add to the wear and tear of the bike, especially the tyres. My first back tyre on this bike lasted for only 2,000km before the top of the tyre came off in places. In Japan, I always end up wrecking my tyres through side cuts from sharp stones on rindos. Not so here.

There aren't actually so many paved roads here. Basically just one trunk road per valley. There are very few actual passes and almost no tunnels (and tunnels are always closed to bicycles). Unlike Japan, no attempt is made to connect roads over hills or mountains, just for the sake of connecting them. It is possible to ride to the top of many mountains, but with the exception of the Kitzbueheler Horn, the roads are always unpaved. A paradise for mountain bikers, but not really for road bikers.

Nonetheless, the scenery is a nice change from Japan, even in this bad weather.

As I will be teaching my younger colleagues throughout the week, I will be following with envy the progress the PE teams are making through the Austrian and Italian Alps, on what seems to be more interesting paved roads and passes which can be found in my immediate vicinity. With a bit of luck, next Saturday may offer the opportunity to repeat another attack of the Grossglockner Hochtor, the highest Austrian pass at 2,500m, 100km to the south-east of Kitzbuehel.

The Lost Weekend and Transharz V

The Lost Weekend is not only the title of an old Hollywood movie from the Forties that I never saw AND the title of a LP by the Monochrome Set that I never liked (because it was so much inferior to the predecessor "Eligible Bachelors") but also it wasn't a weekend that I lost: to be precise,  the last one. In total I rode more than 390 km on my bike.

89KM

Thursday was a national holiday "Ascension Day" in Germany, also known as "Father's Day". A more appropriate name would be "Tube Puncture Day" or "Father Annihilation Day", but I come to the point shortly. To understand the full context, I have to  first inform the readers of this international blog that do not know the customs of Northern Germany in detail.  Unlike people from other nations who gather in solid buildings that provide solid shelter, to drink substantial amounts of alcohol, people from Bremen prefer to walk through the countryside and drink beer, in particular during winter time. This custom is known as "Kohlfahrt" and large amounts of beer are required to endure the view of the rather dull countryside. Consequently, laked amounts of beer need to be transported and that is done by means of hand carts. A typical example of a hand cart is shown below.

The hand cart also functions as some kind of broom wagon in case one or more of the particpants lost their ability to walk during the process of the Kohlfahrt. In that unfortunate but rather common case, they can be stowed in the cart. So whether consumed already or not, the beer doesn't leave the hand cart for longer periods during the event.
 
During Father's Day large groups of Bremen's male population gather with or without hand carts at the embankment of the Wümme river and stroll along as far as they can get (about 37 meters). Unfortunately that was also the road I had selected for my Thursday ride. Within 17 meters riding on the road there my front tire exploded with a loud bang. I do not recall the number of glass shards I had to remove from the Schwalbe Ultremo ZYX tire, but the work was similar to that of a surgeon that removed the shrapnels of a hand grenade from the body of an injured soldier. Moreover the exchange tube that I had so thoughtful packed in my gear was pre-punctured so I rode back on my bike to my home rather slowly.

As it was already late, I didn't want to exchange the tube again, so I swapped my white Swiss DT front wheel with my high flanged Maillard hubs wheel from the Seventies, a rather odd choice for my modern looking Faggin bike. But which turned out to be fine.

And then I headed out again to the river Wümme, this time joining the embankment further up North hoping to bypass the mobile party. After passing a brawl that ended in some bloody noses, encountering a fair share of broken bottles along the road and seeing many drunks on bikes, with a beer bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other, I finally arrived at a "normal" street with "normal" traffic. But before that I was offered a beating when I called one drunken guy that passed the road without looking an "Asshole" and two random bystanders took offense as they thought (and liked to thought as well) that I was talking to them. The mood was hot.

From there onwards riding was fun again. I made the usual tour through Wormswede, but I stayed in the 140 HRM range in order to built up some stamina. Unfortunately some fathers do not only think that getting drunk is a good idea, but also believe that driving home afterwards is an even better one. I almost witnessed a traffic accident just in front of me when one car overtook another one on the open road and the overtaken car suddenly decided to make a left turn (we ride on the right side of the road in Germany). Squeaking tires, the smell of burned rubber...but luckily nothing serious happened.

Anyway, that was a good and solid ride.

71 KM

Friday was a normal workday, so the remains of fathers were already removed from the roads when I started to ride around noon. Again the weather was beautiful and warm. This time I rode to Fischerhude first, then to Quellkhorn and in direction Worpswede before I made a left turn in direction Timmersloh. In the meantime I had repair my DT Swiss front wheel and I told Kaipi that I would join his spontaneous Harz Tour the next day. So I took it very easy again and returned via Timmersloh and through the fields and pastures to Fischerhude and Bremen. On one of the small agricultural roads towards Bremen, I encountered the larger version of the "Handwagen". That is a moving pub pulled by a tractor for those groups that expect that everybody will get drunk and nobody will be left to pull the hand cart. Two girls on horses where riding behind the trailer as well, as they were not able to overtake it.

But at one point, where the road was not fenced off on both sides, they took the opportunity, put spurs to their horses and galloped on the green sidestrip, overtaking trailer and tractor. The earth was shaking under the hooves of their horses. That was really impressive. Again I was home early after a much enjoyable ride.

170 KM

The next day I woke up early and met Kai at Bremen Station to catch the train to Hannover and Goslar at 7:19 AM. Since I haven't ridden in Japan for quite a while it was the first time that I got up that early for a bike tour. Germany is blessed in summer with daylight until 9:30 PM and later. I had met Kai the first time when we rode the Bremen Bike Marathon 210 km in May this year. He was able to hang out with the lead group until the end while I had to give up after about 130-140 km. He had posted on the clubs forum one day before, looking for riders to join his trip to the "Harz" and I had spontaneously said yes. Some hours later, when thinking the whole thing over, I realized that a) the Harz inlcudes some mountains and b) that I have sold my Cervelo bike some time ago and that I do only posses the Faggin bike for competitive riding (I have a large amount of bikes for non-competitive riding hidden in my garage as well). The Faggin bike however, has no front derailleur and only one chainring. Needless to say that it is not a compact crank but a standard one equipped with a 52 chain ring. Perfect for Bremen. Not so perfect for mountains. But as I had said yes already and I thought: "Hm, this will get hard but afterwards you can write a lot of nice stories about your stupidity" I decided to go along and join the Harz tour.

The most famous people I ever met were Günther Netzer (He was sitting in the seat in front of me in a Lufthansa plane) and Calle del Haye, a former soccer player of my home town club. In 1986 I was eating with my friend Peter and his girlfriend Kirsten at a restaurant in Aachen. We were placed with other guests along a long table and they were sitting on the other side of the table. Peter handed my a piece of paper on which he had written:

<----- CALLE DEL HAYE

I have to explain that Peter always made strange jokes, so I thought that would be another one. So after reading the note I said loudly "What's that fucking shit about this asshole Del Haye (at this time del Haye was playing for Fortuna Düsseldorf. He was the black sheep in a very poor team that was relegated at the end of the season)?" Peters eyes led me to my direct neighbor on the left. Needless to say, it was Calle del Haye and his wife.

Apart from that I almost met Verona Feldbusch in Japan after she visited the school of my kids.

But this is nothing against the kind of people that Kai was able to met in his life so far. Please have a close look at the below photo that was taken in 1983 during the blockade of the Mutlangen US base during the protests against nuclear weapon armament in Germany. 

Yes, this were the good old times during the cold war, where we had clear ideas who our enemies (US army) and who our friends (US army) were. Here we can see the late 1972 nobel laureate Heinrich Böll on the very left and later German prime minister candidate Oskar Lafontaine in typicial Rodin thinking posture. And guess who that good looking guy in white Addidas sport shorts in the background is? Right, this is Kai with his friends Peter, Andi and Siggi. Wow, that is something.

Kai used to grow up and live in Stuttgart but had moved to Bremen 20 years ago. Within this time period he was able to fairly adapt to the lifestyle and humour of Northern Germany, which provides a shining example of what I am supposed to do.

We jumped on the train that was fairly on time and we were joined by a group of young Nazi skinheads that were probably on their way to a different training camp in the area.(club name: "steel tempest").

When we arrived in Goslar memories from the cold war popped up in my head again. The area there used to be right on the border to former East Germany. In order to stop a possible rapid advance of Warsaw Pact tanks, the NATO decided in the fifties to built a formidable obstacle along the border line in form of an artificial mountain range that was codenamed "HARZ", an abbreviation for "Heartland Armed Resistance Zentre".  This shouldn't be mixed up with an obstacle against good taste called "Peter Hartz".

The construction activities continued for almost 40 years. Some of the obstacles were rather small in scale.

But others were rather big, so big that they were called "Großer Brocken" (eg. "Big Chunk") and reached 1.140 elevation meters.

Construction activities were stopped in 1990 after German reunification and what remains today of the whole area are the closest "mountains" to Bremen (only 2 hours or more away) and a population that is mostly drunk and enjoys mining tunnels.

Kai and me rode all days through the Harz. We rode up, he with his compact crank and me with the 52/28 setup. We rode down on long descents, reaching more than 70 km/hr. We rode on roads and we rode on gravel roads. We had some cakes in a cafe and some more food at a gas stand but otherwise we didn't took any long breaks and rode our bikes. It was very intense. I had about one hour more riding time than Kai at the end of the day as he had to wait fequently on top of the mountains for me to arrive. I didn't gave up on any climbs but it was hard to turn the crank. So I crunched my way up on the slopes by brute force.

Kai and me in front of the traditional Harz photo spot (since 2011)

In order to spread fear and respect in the Harz area I decided to wear my original Japanese Champion 2008 jersey from the JCRC. At least I was much impressed by myself.
But I doubt that any of the many, many motorbike riders noticed anything. They are so annoying, a real pest.

I tried to expain to Kai that my bike has a gold chain, gold jockey wheels, gold chain ring screws and other gold accessories as a homage to Rene Weller, one of the coolest guys in the universe.

1 Rene Weller, also known as "Handsome Rene", wasn't only a very successful boxer, pimp, and con artist. No he was also a fantastic singer almost as good as David Hasselhoff. And he has once said something really cool and intelligent, something that is so beautiful in style that i can only be said in German:

"Ich bin immer oben. Und wenn ich unten bin ist unten oben."


170 km and more than 2.200 levation meter later we were back in the train to Bremen where we arrived after a long day at 10:30 PM. Out of the 15:30 hrs we had spend more than 5 hours in the train, about 8 hrs on the bike and the rest was breaks and waiting. Proving the weather is good, we will do it again next weekend.

61 KM

On Sunday after receiving Harz V I could hardly move and I wasn't at all in the mood to ride my bike. However, I had an appointment with my former girlfriend MFG0006. Just like the musical pieces of Johann Sebastian Bach are numbered from BWV0001 to BWV1128 (Bach Works Register) I decided to code former girlfriends by MFG numbers (My Former Girlfriend). As MFG0014 became my wife, the usage of three leading zeros seems to be a bit optimistic. But hey, one has to be prepared for the exciting things that might happen in one's life. Look at Lemmy from Motorhead for example.

After separating 26 years ago in Düsseldorf, MFG0006, also known as "Jutta" has decided to settle, among all place, in Bramstedt, which is somewhat close to Bremen. To be precise it is between Bassum and Syke. She had invited my for strawberry tart so I rode the 30 km down to Bramstedt in the heat. It was almost too hot to sit outside.  5 hours later I was on the road again riding home with the additional weight of strawberries in my stomach.
Time for a nice Rollo, I thought. This was really a very intensive weekend that was made possible by my family deciding to stay in Berlin and focus on figure skating. One more time and I shall be on good shape for the Transalp. So watch out for Transharz VI.

The Great Yanagisawa etc. Attack

James, Jerome an me planned to do a 250 km "weekend tour preparation ride" on Friday which led us to some surprising places.

As it can be read on the ride announcement post, we were planning to attack Yanagisawa Toge (about 100 km away, over 1.400 m high) followed by Kamihikawa Toge and some other minor peaks. So we met very early in the morning at the Tamagawa and made good progress in direction Ome along the main road. We passed the brand-new Fussa town hall, followed by the Ome town hall under construction. What a waste of money (at least they could spend the money for road repairs).　Fussa has a populationof about 60.000.

Until James rear wheel got a flat from a glass shard that penetrated his tyre. Believe it or not, it took the three of us more than 45 minutes to get his bike running again; wasting another tube along the way, ripping apart one of his tyre levers and fiddling around with three bike pumps before we got the thing inflated finally.

So we were late already. And by now it had started to fizzle as well. The general environmental feeling was rather unpleasant, so we had a long breakfast & coffee break at Ome Station shopping at the 7-Eleven, Aurore bakery and McDonalds where we had six cups of coffee for the price of three. James complained to the girl behind the counter that was speaking in a frequency band barely audible by bats, about the quality of the coffee, so we all got one for free.

Later, when we mounted our bikes, the weather has become even worse despite all nice looking weather forecasts. It was miserable. In the best tradition of Positivo Espresso we decided to give up our ambitious plans and ride to Umenoki, hoping that the weather would be better closer to the coast.

It was the first time for James and Jerome to climb up Umenoki and we were all having fun [of different degrees and magnitudes]. James was zooming ahead but suddenly I saw him waiting some meters in front: Because of the recent storms, some trees were lying on the road ahead. But not only that, the trees have fallen in a way that they have ripped off the cables of the nearby power line so we needed to be double careful when crossing all the obstacles to avoid sudden and instant electro-execution.

I made it up to the top in 23:48 min and included that time in a new Togebaka TT (No.21 see right below, James and Jerome might want to add). On the top it was cold (3 deg. Celsius), raining and we met a friendly MTB rider who told us that the weather would be more or less the same down the other side in Itsukaichi.

So we made the only possible and logical decision and headed 4 km to Tsuru Tsuru Onsen, where we bought a towel (110 Yen), stepped into the outside hot water basin and relaxed and talked for almost two hours. We were still hoping that the weather might get better, but it didn't. Finally we mounted our bikes and rode on. It was hard, because after the Onsen my body was in a mental state of "OK, well done for the day, let's relax."

James wife wants to loose some weight to be even more competitive in the next JCRC race so she planned to visit the hairdresser in the afternoon. Which in turn implied that James had to come home early. We parted in front of Itsukaichi Station and Jerome and me continued to climb up to Kobu tunnel. Where the weather was still miserable.

And then we rode down on the other side to road 20 and Uenohara where we stopped to have lunch for another very relaxed hour.

Finally we rode along road 76, taking a turn to include Magino pass (read correctly: Makime pass) in our ride. Makime-toge has a very steep last part with a donut-patterned concrete road but suddenly I felt super-strong again and sprinted up the final approach to the top.

And then we made our way along Doshi-Michi back to Hashimoto where I could convince Jerome that it would make sense to jump on the train home. Most of the riding and climbing was done after the Onsen visit but even by riding until 5 PM, we only managed to go 140 km in almost 12 hours.

In Shin-Yokohama I assembled my (dirty) bike and rode home, passing the skating rink where my wife and daughter have spend the last 5 years almost every day and night. And for the first time I actually met them there outside. So we agreed on a race, who would be home sooner: them with the car, or me on the bike. I won hands down. I even had time to undress and jump into the shower before they came.

Now I guess I should also clean my bike to be in good shape for whatever my bike and me have to endure on Sunday.

Three guys under blue skies

Jerome, Ludwig and me decided on short notice to do another ride before Christmas, O-Shogatsu, family dinners and business trips will take their toll on our bodies and ultimately on our performances.

I left the house almost in the dark on my newly outfitted Cervelo bike. Nagai-San upgraded everything except for the crank set and bottom bracket at the beginning of the week after my forced conversion to single speed on the weekend before. I could convince him that I do not need a new crank set as I do not want this ugly piece called "Hollow-tec" on my bike which looks like the DuraAce crank set. I could not convince him that I can also live with my old Ultegra brakes so there were replaced as well with the more bulky looking 6700er brakes. When everything is new everything shifts fine, so I guess the good performance is more to the newness of the groupset rather that to the improved design. The front derailleur works perfectly now. The rear works fine when shifting into lower gears, but shifting into higher gears is a little bit tricky and one needs to get accustom to the levers.

Whatever, design-wise the bike is hugely improved and this is much more important then vulgar activities such as "shifting gears" or "braking", the later normally resulting in less speed.

Jerome an me met shortly after seven in Shin-yokohama, mounted Shinkansen Kodama 633 to Odawara which was way to short a trip. We met Ludwig at Odawara station and before eight we were on the way to Hakone. I showed Ludwig and Jerome the old Tokaido road which was pleasantly quiet and we made it up through the hair needle curves at a steady pace. It was quite cold and there were some icy patches on the road in the shadows. After waiting for Jerome some minutes on the top, we continued along Ashinoko road 75 when suddenly Jerome got pestered by official telephone calls: A Japanese customer has found a bolt in a package of cheese he bought from Jerome's company (I cannot tell the real nameof his company, but let's call it "El Shacho" here). He opened another package just to check and found another bolt in this package as well. Of course he was furious and demaned an explanation from El Shacho why the nuts were missing.Meanwhile we continued to route 138, but instead of going this boring road down to Gotemba, we continued to climb up to Nagao tunnel where the pinchers of hell were waiting for us as usual. This is a very gradual climb with almost no traffic and a dilapidated restaurant close to the tunnel where I would love to eat some day.We then went down on the other side, slowly as parts of the road seemed to be icy. Then we made our way through this urban mess and sprawl of Gotemba and Oyama until we came to Fuji Speedway and to the starting point of the Mikuni pass climb.

Urban sprawl and chaotic city planning brings up another topic: As we have already December 23rd and I do not plan any bike trips until the rest of the year in the route 20 area, I can now finally write that 2009 is the first year in serious cycling where I didn't crashed in the (ugly) city of Uenohara. This fine tradition (since 2007) is finally disrupted and perhaps I should stay away from the city for the complete year of 2010.

After taking a short break at the foot of Mikuni we started finally the climb. The break is not required for anything useful in preparation, I guess we just do it because we are afraid to start anyway. Mikuni is pretty hard. It is about two times the distance and more than two times the elevation difference that the Wada challenge (Takao side) has to offer. It doesn't offer much resting places along its first 4 km and even stretches with 8 or 9% slope are considered nice recovery places. I was also pretty tired after the Hakone climb and felt the beginning of a bonk (as opposed to bonking) so I barely made it up to the top. To be honest, I was zigzaging on some of the steeper parts.

Just looking at the "Hall of Fame" website of TCC, it amazes me that Clay can ride up there in less than 33 minutes.After that we made a short break at the approved Yamanakako 7-Eleven where we met another older Japanese rider who was much engaged in brevet activities. He told us that one need to attend at least 3.500km of Japan Audax sponsored brevet events before you are even considered to be registered for Paris - Brest - Paris and that Japan has the largest population of brevet riders worldwide. We spoke about the Itoigawa fast run and David's heroic attempt of the 400 km brevet this year. He said "Oh yes, I was up on Yanagizawa and I saw a colored (黒人) rider coming up during the brevet." We said, that was probably not David. But thinking it over now, perhaps one may look colored after 400 km of riding and it was David indeed.
And off we were on Doshimichi in direction home. Ludwig and me were in front and crossed over Yamabushi pass, then went almost to the Michisaka pass road where we waited for Jerome at a Daily Yamazaki combini.

We waited quite a while but then Jerome rode past and we went in pursuit of him. There was a nice tailwind, Ludwig and me worked together and in addition the weather was still sunny and the road was in good and fast shape. But nevertheless we were not able to catch Jerome. Ludwig finally caught up with him after 18 km, close to Aone, but it took me another 7 km or so before finally the three of us were together again.


The rest was more or less boring riding on the South side or Tsukui lake and through Hashimoto. But we were incredibly fast: We did the 52 km between Yamanakako and Hashimoto station in 2 hours and this included some climbing plus riding through urban congestion.

There we split. Jerome and Ludwig took the Onekan to the Tamagawa, while I took the train home form Hashimoto. For me 130 km or riding, about 2.300 meters up under blue skies in fabulous Japanese winter weather. It is hard to get out of the bed in the morning, but once on the bike there are no regrets.
Tomorrow is Christmas (I promised my family not to do any bicycle riding) and after that I Will be in Okinawa between 25th and 28th (with son and bike). Perhaps I will do another trip before the end of the year, but that's it before the new season starts traditionally with the Ekiden ride on January 2nd.

Tour GPS of today.

I Y

Dominic, Ludwig and me decided to turn Wednesday's workday into a more pleasurable past time.

Ludwig and Dominic met for the first time on the train to Hashimoto, where Ludwig was pretending to read the Financial Times which caught Dominics attention as he was holding it upside down. Actually Ludwig has two reasons for that, first he wants to see rising curves on financial related charts more often and second it is just too easy for him to read a newspaper the normal way.

I was 10 minutes late but we started early at 7.30 in direction Tsukui lake, where we parked our bikes at a 7-Eleven to take supplies. (my one in the prescribed position).According to Ludwig that was the worse 7-Eleven he has ever visited, justified in particular by the missing assortment of Soyjoy bars. So we declined politely the official approval.

We then continued along Doshimichi and after finishing our pointless ride through Aone village (please check this club tradition which is now a must for every ride) we entered route 76.

Trucks have long been a source of cyclists dissatisfaction on the roads outside of Tokyo, but recently many improvements have been done to make the cyclists fate more bearable. Thanks to the support of the All Japan Truck Drivers Vehicle Beautification Association, cyclists can now enjoy the backside of trucks even more.

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Anyway, we moved further along the TCC winter shortcut to road 35 leading to Akiyama and Hinazuru tunnel.The manju shop passed approval procedure without any problems (although they only had anpan manjus, miso manjus were sold out). Dominic was surprised that, given the state of the building, the age and state of its inhabitants and the open fire burning in parts of the houses, that they actually owned a telephone.

He was also surprised to find his front tire punctured. Ludwig, who was anyway only in for the morning went ahead to catch a train from Otsuki, while we repaired the tube and buried the old one in the garden behind the manju shop as old Japanese cycling tradition requires.

A short climb up to Hinazuru, followed by a quick climb up to Suzugane, peaceful as always and a quick visited to a combini at Sarubashi resulted in a luke warm lunch at the resting place in front of the old Sarubashi.

And then after preludio (Hinazuru) and allegro (Suzugane) we started the main climb of the day, Matsuhime Toge (Furio). Dominic became recently stronger and stronger and we decided in view of the fact that he has applied for next years L'etappe du Tour that I will coach him for the event and that this would be our first training ride.

So from this point in time on I have the right to address him as "O-mae", "Kimi", "Baka" or whatever I feel just, while he has to use the most intricate forms of "irassharu" and "itadaku" when daring to approach me while scrubbing my back in the local sento. For this I will teach him the secrets of cycling which, honestly, consist mostly of suffering.

So we were happily going up the road and I was pointing out to Dominic that the small grey strip up high in the mountains before us IS actually the road we will need to ride up. And suddenly we saw another cyclist about 50 meters in front of us. He looked like a short hippy with long grey hair and old fashioned glasses, on a bike with backtray, somebody left over from the occupation of Todai's Yasuda clocktower in the sixties.

In turned out to be a women, I Y, as we later learned, who happens to cycle quite a lot and was not even very strong, (we could chat and ride up Matsuhime while Dominic had to stop and was much more silent in general) but who knows also every single road in the area. I mentioned some of the roads we have found out recently (Arima Toge, Haccho Tunnel, Nennogon) and she knew all of them and many more I haven't ever heard about (Nijumagari Toge) which seemed to be the most interesting places.I must say that I was very, very impressed. Since 8 years or so she is riding out regularly two, three times a week with the bike and we have never met despite the fact that we have done more or less the same roads all the time. She would definitely become a good addition to our team, however unfortunately she does not race.

After having a short break at Matsuhime we took the road back to Okutama where we left I Y at the parking place (she clinged to my back wheel all the time even when I tried some macho accelerations) and Dominic and me continued towards Ome.

Dominic was quite done and every movement was accompagnied by an assortment of noises indicating pain and disaster. But these are the rides that make adults out of boys and separate the guys who are standing in front of the toilet or sitting on it.

In Ome we had our meal at the approved Aurore bakery and watched a group of foreign school kids running around the block. No Japanese school kids in sight, perhaps some kind of punishment or special training for the Ome marathon?

Then we made some Japanese local girls laugh when they saw our "Shingo Mushi" mark on the back of our bib shorts.

And then we rode home by train.

Koyo leaves were beautiful by the way starting from 1.000 meter elevation. Temperature was just right and all in all it has been another beautiful day.

Silver Rides

The extened "Silver Week" is now finally over and a lot of riding has taken place. It started exactly one week ago.

On Sunday Ludwig and me met in Ome, had breakfast with "Aurore" the French mistress of the equally French bakery which is beloved by everybody and headed out in direction Chichibu. We tried to find Tom's new road but had initially some problems. Not sure, neither Ludwig nor me are efficient explorers of new frontiers and we use google maps for the way to the toilet in our house.The matter was complicated by the fact that a Japanese rider tried to draft with us. When we let him do some work in the front he drifted against the curb in a right curve and almost fell just in front of me. That was enough: we increased the speed and almost had him completely exhausted when we noted that we had lost the way.But then we found the road and it was beautiful indeed. No traffic, lot's of up and downs and a beautiful view into the main Chichibu valley leading to Yamabushi pass. After lunch a TT up to Yamabushi and a lunch at Shomaru we went down on the other side and up to Karibazaka. Many riders were out there and we continued along the green line to Sadamine pass, then took a turn North and went up the backroad over Kayunita pass to Nihongi. Boldly we decided to go further and discovered some new passes, such as Samugami, before we finally arrived at Nagatoro, the famous gorge which is mentioned in every sightseeing pamphlet about Saitama (although there aren't many).

From there onwards we rode further North and rode over Mase pass, a somewhat harder than expected climb before we finally arrived at this Shinkansen Station which is supposed to actually have a meaning. Somewhat. I am talking about Waseda-Honjo.

A nice ride and something more of Chichibu discovered.

The next day I rode to Shibuya to register for the Cycle Messenger World Championship. An event which is tailor made for me. I realized this when I came to the registration bar: I was the only guy with a road bike and also the only one who demounted by moving the right leg over the rear wheel. Everybody else swings the right leg in front, get somehow ride of the hands and the handle and turns the leg over the handle bar. Still much to learn. I checked for the jerseys but they were sold out already - only S size left. Also the XL t-shirts were gone. At least I got a free snicker bar. The registration was chaotic. David also wanted to register, but despite the fact that he went there two times he couldn't in the end.

My ID card was still in the made but I had to leave as I wanted to visit Positivo with my son and choose his new bike. We made a very reasonable choice (I hope). I would have loved to make the less reasonable choice.

On Wednesday Graham, Michael and me met at precisely the same spot in Ome and rode out in direction Chichibu again. WE took the fast run route this time. I "pushed" Michael over Yamabushi, staying behind him and applying psycho-terror tactics in order to make him fast over the hill. That worked pretty well and he made it in about 20 minutes up.

After a fast run on route 299 and the Laurent/Dominic/mob 7-Eleven on road 140, we continued until the intersection with road 37 and made a turn to the North. From there onwards we found the perfect point to follow our main tradition "the pointless ride".

You see, every time Michael, Graham and me are riding out, perhaps also in a group with other riders, we are obliged to do at least one stretch to an obscure location which involves heavy climbing and does not serve any other purpose than to arrive at this point for the sake of arriving at this point. We started this tradition this year, when I volunteered to show James, Michael and Graham the entrance to the incredible steep climb up on Mitake mountain, completely forgetting that the road to the entrance is already longer and steeper than anything we normally climb anyway. All of them were very favorably impressed and our bold undertaking and my leadership skills were the topic of many conversations made when the rest of the tour led the group up to Kazahari Toge in great pains.

So this time we decided to make a pointless climb up to Tsuchizaka Toge, a nice 700 m high pass connecting West Saitama with the Eastern Democratic Republic of Gunma-ny, famous for strong winds and tough women (Angela Merkel, and some 100 kg female hammer throwers, shot putter and discuss virgins). As the border was tightly controlled by tough women that hide so well that they were not seen AND this was our pointless ride anyway, we went back where we came from and rode further North to enjoy a fast lunch at a "michi no eki".

Michael and me took a new Keirin "0,00%" beer and when we tasted it we found out that was something missing. It was not only the alcohol but also any hint of taste similar to beer. I found also out that Graham is the other person in Japan who has read Julian Barnes. He is also the only person in Japan who has read "Peeling the onion" by Guenter "Waffen SS" Grass in a simplified English version.

And when we continued to ride and I wanted to shoot a photo, I was stil so dizzy by 0.00% of alcohol, that I forgot to un-cleat the leg I wanted to stand on and felt flatly on the road, much to the amusement of Michael who continued to tease me about the lack of alcohol resistance for the rest of the ride.

And then we made it to Nagatoro again. Beautiful and serene it is indeed. Actually it is so quiet, that almost all tourists who come there fall asleep immediately as we can see in the photos below. Also Michael, Graham and me took a nap and we woke up when we were kissed by a beautiful prince. But this is a different story. Again, a fast ride over Mase pass, one of my new favorites and then further on to Waseda-Honjo where we took the Shinkansen home, had a real beer in the train and made it home well in time for everybody's mongen.

The following two days were stuffed with commuting 41 km to the university and doing a training ride for the track race event of the CMWC at the Tsurumi river close to my home.

And then on Saturday I rode to the Keio Kaku and wanted to take part in the CMWC race there. The usual bunch of gaijins and Japanese messengers was already there: more tattoos could be seen than on the bodies of the Kansai chapter of the Yamaguchi-gumi, piercings enough to supply raw material for the great leap forward in China and haircuts like I would have had if I would been 20 today. Fine.

Then they didn't let me register because I was on a road bike. You can read the whole ordeal here on their blog site where I vented my complete frustration which these guys who are as flexible as the Hamamatsu police officials when I asked for my driving permit in 1998. OK, they are dressed differently, but the concrete in the head unfortunately remains the same.

Luckily David was there so I didn't felt so alone and after we have watched the TT event we decided to ride out on Onekan, have a coffee and talk about our favorite subjects: International Law and Jerome.

I was still so angry that I decided to ride to Takao and try to achieve a good time at Otarumi, which I did - first time below 14 minutes despite the wind plus with a heavy rucksack on the back.

And as I was still angry I thought that I could also add Yabitsu on top of this, so I continued. I started the climb at precisely 5 PM and when I made it to the top it was already pitch dark. Strange noises in the Forrest, wild animals and "warumono" cracking through the underwood ... alone almost as scary as Sasago tunnel.Then down on the other side - very slowly in the dark and right into a big matsuri at Hadano. Luckily the famous bento capitol of the world was still open and I had an excellent Oknomiyaki for 240 Yen.

In the end it was a beautiful day. Or a beautiful night.
So what's next : Yokohama endurance race on Saturday !

S C A R Y T W O

Last night I dreamt that my father was checking my body temperature. I had a high fever and so I called Tom, who had taken a day off from work, to cancel the planned North side Ootoge ride. That was how I scared I was.

Of course I had no excuse not to come and to undertake a renewed approach on this monster of a climb in the middle of nowhere, with hornets big as A380s, bears on amphetamine and silent strangeling monkeys.

So I dressed up in complete Positivo Espresso wear, kissed my sleeping wife and children, put the files with the life insurance policies on my desk so that my wife would find them easily, deleted the history of my web browser and left for the station.

As usual Tom was riding out on his bike while I took the train and we met at Saruhashi Station. Then we proceeded quickly up the slopes in direction of Matsuhime Toge until we reached the picnic place and tunnel at elevation 650m that is the entry to Ootoge. Riding up as a pair is much less scarier than riding up alone. Although Tom was as usual in good form and went to ride in front which I thought was OK because then the bears wouldn't be so hungry when they met me and might be content with an arm or (worse) a leg.

Luckily we went up on a weekday, when the road is not that crowded by monkeys, snakes, deers and foxes driving with their families to the river in the valley. Also the trucks driven by bears, transporting food for the hibernation period up on themountains can be a real hassle.

And so Tom and me were completely alone.
We climbed up the first 600 meters until we reached the gate and we started to discuss how to proceed, left or right. Tom was in favor of going left, I was also in favor of going left because going right is definitely very scary; but the map mounted at the side of the road clearly indicated right. Then suddenly we heard a noise: No, not bears raping Japanese hiking groups or a swarm of hornet in low flying attack formation, but the sound of a car. A Tokyo Power (Tepco) 4WD was moving down the road in our direction and stopped at the gate. So we asked one of the guys where to go and they said that going right was impossible and that we should turn left. This used to be the right information at precisely the right moment, almost like a miracle. Thank you TEPCO. I will take care from now on to pay my electricity bills in time.

Then the rest of the climb was a piece of cake, only some 250 meter up with a splendid view on the mountains in less than 30 degree temperature before we reached the gate at the top of Ootoge. We had made it. By the way, there are no "semi" (cicada) up there so the noise environment is completely different than on the normal lower climbs.
We went down on the South side where the road is in much better shape and also much wider, also like a race track. But definitely is the North approach the more beautiful one.

After a lunch of cold Soba in a nice traditional restaurant close to Otsuki station (The type of restaurant where they have photos of the emperor in his car .. driving by) we continued on Route 20 and then climbed up Suzugane Toge and Hinazuru Toge following road 35 and 517 all the way to Hashimoto. As I said, Tom is really in good shape and he had to wait all the time for me, but it wasn't that long that he had grown a beard or so. I mean, this is the pleasure of riding out with friends one knows now for so long, such as Tom, David, Jerome and Ludwig.
As a final piece de la resistance we added a North Tsukui lake ride before coming to Hashimoto where I took the train home and Tom made a final run on the One Kan.

More than 200 km for Tom and slightly more than 100 km for me, but close to 3 km of climbing up for both of us in the sun made this a very exhausting and happy day.

Once home, I put the insurance files back in the shelve and called my father.

A more factual account of the day is written here.

Also Tom and me had the same idea, that we should make some investment to enjoy future trips by having something like this. I heard that every Belgian has one, it is like Takoyaki grilling pads in Osaka. As I have studied in Aachen, city borders touching Belgium, I might also be eligible to buy one.