Golden Week Takenoko Ride to Akiyama via Wada, Suzugane, and Hinazuru Passes

Extra large takenoko -- MacGyver'ed to the seat tube.

I did not ride that much over Golden Week, using the time to recuperate a bit from doing the full 200, 300, 400, 600 km series of brevets over the preceding month, and with other commitments on top of a normal class schedule at my university.

On Saturday, April 30, I rode the rebuilt Voyage Voyage to Chichibu with Jerome, Peter J, and Peter's friend Daniel. After a 90+ minute soba lunch stop, the three of them headed for Shigasaka Pass and a long loop and evening return. I went a bit further, but then turned around and headed for Honjo Waseda and the shinkansen back to Tokyo. 

It was a very nice day all around, including the solo ride. You can see the photos and ride route on Strava. 167kms in all. I left home 25 minutes late after some last minute bicycle tweaks, and pushed hard to catch the others (including a Strava "PR" and 60/2200 all-time on the oft-traveled 5km stretch of Setagaya Dori west of Sangenjaya), met Jerome first at the end of the Tamagawa path in Fuchu, and Peter and Daniel at Oume. 

As I neared the end of the ride, I even got to race a steam locomotive full of tourists at Nagatoro.

It was easy to keep up with the train on Voyage Voyage along a flat roadway. Eventually, after taking this video, I raced ahead. But of course, I knew that eventually the train would win the race. I thought of the ballad of John Henry, who competed with a steam drill at pounding railroad ties to lay new track, and died with his hammer in his hand. But which version of the song? Johnny Cash? Paul Robeson? Bruce Springsteen? BB King, narrated by Denzel? Harry Belafonte? Mississippi John Hurt? Pete Seeger (folk / labor activist)? Leadbelly (blues)? Billy Strings (bluegrass)? It is an American classic.

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The other 100km+ ride was on Friday, May 6, on the RAMAX. This was a Golden Week ride, but a few minutes after leaving home, I realized that it was no longer Golden Week! Friday was a workday and everyone was back at it. The early roads were full of trucks in town hauling massive pieces of buildings to construction sites ... but empty of vacationers in the countryside! Of course, Monday also had been a workday ... but had been nothing like this. Apparently many companies had taken Monday off, but all were back at work on Friday. Schools also seemed back in session -- not just my university but elementary school students heading on their commutes before 7AM.

A headwind slowed me, and was a few minutes late to meet Peter J at our regular starting point along the Tamagawa just northwest of Komae. We called Jerome. He was still in bed, having ridden several days mid-week, and was not coming along. Peter J said he would head out with me and then, as planned turn around so as not to push an iffy knee too much. We decided to head for Wada Pass via Daigo Rindo.

The last time I went up here, the road was partially washed away in places. Now it has all been restored with nice new asphalt. It is still a rindo, however, with moss, plenty of leaves and some rocks. I like to go up Wada this way (no traffic at all), but prefer other routes down. Peter J climbed with me to 500m elevation, then turned back for the trip home. I pressed on to the top (~740m elevation) and then down to the pass (~700m elevation). I did not climb quickly, but at least I did the entire climb without a foot down. The descent down the west side (Ura Wada) was exhilarating, as usual.  The RAMAX was "fun to ride" going both up and down.

No GW traffic on the rindo climb to Wada!

RAMAX at Wada Pass -- the classic photo spot

Koi Nobori on Ura Wada

I then faced a difficult issue. Where to go next? Kobu Tunnel? Or Tsuru Pass? Or Bijotani? Or head south to Route 76 and Doshi? In the end, I decided to head toward Uenohara and further west from there. Maybe I would go over Sasago Pass? Or I could try one of the climbs south of Sarubashi area that I had never done. Now that I was alone, I was aiming for a most-of-day ride, home before dinner. 

I decided to try Suzugane Pass, a route I had somehow never taken in all these years! I could see on my smartphone that after cresting the pass and descending to the south, I would need to then do the shorter climb to the tunnel at Hinazuru Pass and down through Akiyama in order to return toward Tokyo. This was a lovely route. The only real traffic after leaving Tokyo was on Route 20 between Uenohara and Sarubashi, and that was far lighter than normal. The weather was perfect. 

Looking back at Uenohara from Route 20

At Suzugane Pass

Maglev track descends valley, Hazy Fuji in the background

Looking back downhill and downstream, toward Tsuru

Once in Akiyama, I stopped at Tsuruya, better known to expat cyclists as "the manju place in Akiyama."  I ordered a Miso Manju. 150 yen ($1.15). It was , served with vegetables and green tea. I could digest fully while riding as the descent continued for at least the next 8-10kms.  There were flatter sections and -10% ramps--reminding me how hard this little valley is to climb up in the other direction especially on a hot day. I passed one tunnel entrance on my left that led back to Uenohara. ... I don't remember ever having taken that either. But I kept going down the valley. At the bottom, instead of climbing up the South rim of the valley to meet Route 76, as I have always done in the past, I continued on a road that would loop around to the North, eventually meeting the route I would have taken if I had gone through the tunnel ... in time to go through another tunnel and onto a descent to Uenohara. 

Tsuruya, The Manju Shop

Always lovely flowers here, and little/no traffic.

Vegetable and tea make the manju go down, make the manju go down

GW traffic on Route 35 in Akiyama

We used to call this spot "The Vending Machines" in Akiyama.
Now it is just another "Happy Drink Shop".

 

Beautiful Akiyama

Along the way, I came across an unmanned roadside vegetable stand. The only offering was takenoko -- bamboo shoots. 3 huge shoots, priced at 300 or 400 yen. Takenoko is my wife's favorite Spring delicacy ... so I wanted to take one home and see if I could learn to cook it. But I had not brought a rucksack, and the huge shoots were too big for my jersey pockets or my underseat bag.

One of the shoots, the thinnest of the three, looked as if it might fit inverted into my bottle cage. I deposited 300 yen in the coin box, and put the takenoko in the bottle cage, moving the empty water bottle to my rear jersey pocket. The inverted takenoko fit the bottle cage, but I realized it was so top heavy and large that it would flop around and fall out. But wait, I had some zip ties, for exactly this purpose -- to secure items to the bicycle! Two daisy-chained zip ties worked to secure the stalk, and I could ride, with only a modest rub of the takenoko against the inside of each leg.

By the time I approached Uenohara, I realized that I would seriously chafe my legs if I went too much further, ... so I decided to get a snack and hop the train. My timing was not great ... after I rinkoed the RAMAX and got to the ticket gate, I could see the next train was not for 35 minutes. I bought and drank a cold beer. Only 125 kms for the day, but real climbing up Wada (with its long 13-15% grades), Suzugane, and a shorter climb to Hinazuru Tunnel meant that I did get a decent workout. You can see the statistics and route here on Strava.

I bought the middle one.

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Bike and Takenoko, leaning.

Thank you!

The lower 2/3 of the takenoko was wrapped in plastic, but it was quite a sight for the other passengers at the back of the local Chuo Line train. The first few minutes of the journey, it kept falling over on the floor of the train. Eventually, one man who had boarded with me at Uenohara reached in his briefcase and handed me a large paper shopping bag. I could fit almost the entire stalk into the bag, and thanked him. One of the hikers across the aisle handed me a smaller plastic bag that I could use to cover the top of the stalk that still protruded from the bag. I thanked her also. Everyone in the back of the last train car felt better about me and my takenoko. The "wa" had been restored.

The next day, I got some "nuka" (ground up rice bran) at our local supermarket, and boiled the takenoko with nuka in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes to remove the "aku" bitterness. I could then slice the edible parts of the plant into pieces for grilling in a skillet. Grilling was the easy part, with some olive oil. They were served with salt to taste. The slices tasted pretty good, and my wife seemed happy with the saga.

Boiled and ready to grill

Grilled with olive oil and salted

3[5]0 km Brevet around Mt. Fuji with Special Guest

What should have been a (relatively) easy 300 km Brevet turned into a real challenge as a result of weather.  No, it did not rain for the entire 300 kms.  No it was not sub-zero C.  But the weather was different, and worse, than forecast, and much colder and somewhat wetter than one would expect in mid-April.

350 kms including travel to and from the start point.  3000+ meters climbing, of course.

The forecast showed 10-30% chance of light rain most of the scheduled ride time along the course, with temperatures generally in the high single to mid-double digits.  Cool, but not cold.  Maybe a little wet, but not most of the time.  Almost ideal conditions!  And we would pass the coldest part of the course, high on Mt. Fuji, mid morning, keeping warm by climbing for several hours.  So I decided to get by with less than "mid-winter toasty gear", and less than "rain-storm wet weather" gear.  I just slipped a blade fender on the rear of the Ti Travel bike.

Special guest MOB joined for the last half of the ride after going to Fuji-shi, Shizuoka by train the night before.  We made sure he rode well ahead or behind me so as not to violate the Audax rules on assistance from non-participant riders.  I hope they will recognize my sincere effort to obey the rules -- mostly by being sure to climb hundreds of meters behind MOB -- and still credit me with completing the ride while trying to interest a famous foreign cycling blogger in the Japanese brevet scene.

The ride started and finished at the Konno Seisakusho (Cherubim) shop and factory in Machida.  Inside briefing due to the spitting drops of rain outside.

I hope to add some photos from MOB later, but for now let me report that it rained most of the first half of the ride, and the almost one-hour descent from Gotemba to Numazu in rain and 0~2 degree C weather was a real survival challenge.  It reminded me of Rainy Pass on Cascade 1200, minus the headwind.  With water coming up off the road and no front fender, my feet were soaked within the first hour or the event, despite shoe covers.  I was glad to have at least decent "Sealskins" gloves (almost waterproof ... much better than the "Sealskins" socks).  I held on desperately, resisting the temptation to hop in at a convenience store for soup or coffee, knowing I would only need to return to the wet descent and would be just as cold again after a few minutes.  I finally rested and warmed up at a family restaurant in Numazu, the bottom of the hill.

Pavement just starting to dampen 45 minutes before the start ... 

Umbrellas coming out ...

The other major challenge was the climb from Shibakawa up over the west side of Mt. Fuji, past Asagiri Kogen on local route 71.  From sea level to 1120+ meters.  At the top it was dry, but very cold and windy.  The roadside temperature showed 3 degrees ... a few hundred meters elevation lower on the mountainside.  MOB and I pulled in at a "Gusto" restaurant between Saiko and Kawaguchiko on Route 139 for a late breakfast.

The climb up Hinazuru Pass was shorter and the top was lower than I remembered, and the descent to/past Akiyama Onsen delightful.  Then the route took a detour down memory lane by heading south on Kanagawa Route 76, then lower Doshimichi, before joining the mid-Sunday afternoon traffic on the way back through Kanagawa to Machida.

Many more, and much nicer, photos by MOB here and here.
An example, the climb through Asagiri Kogen:

P.S. Joe Wein's report and much nicer photos are in the here in the TCC April thread.

Plenty of new discoveries on the way to Kofu

Work during the first week of the New Year kept me busier than hoped, including a three-day business trip to Singapore. At least I was able to travel in the new business class of Singapore Airlines, their new Airbus 380, which features real flat beds. If only the return trip over night had been a bit longer and less bumpy... Not sure how fit I would be after this exhausting week, I decided it was safer to venture out on my own yesterday.

The goal was to discover as many new roads as possible, starting from home. And I got plenty of that.

I continued on Setagaya Dori beyond where I usually get onto the Tamasai, continuing basically always straight towards Machida, eventually ending up in Aikawa, the first rural town, lying at the foot of Miyagase Lake. We always approach Miyagase Lake from the north, passing it on its western side to climb up to Yabitsu - or vice versa. This time, I wanted to see what it looked like from the east.

On the way up to the dam, I passed a nice farm.

There were nice views from the dam, including of the rest area where we normally stop on the western shore, and of the Tanzawa range behind it. The mountains were lighly covered with snow above 1,000 meters.

I left for Doshimichi, but instead of going up the new road that we always take, I cycled through the old road leading through the surprisingly large village of Aonehara, and ending just beyond the new Seven-Eleven, which became my first pit stop.

I continued on Doshimichi until Nohara, where I turned onto the Nohara Rindo leading up to Gando Toge, which Tom had mentioned recently on his blog. It was a nice climb in the warming sun from 450m to 800m, with great views of the Doshi valley below and Fuji-san.

At Gando Toge, I encountered a group of mountain bikers who had just reached the top from the other side and sounded completely exhausted. There was another, obviously much slower, group a few hundred altitude meters below. (These were the only cyclists I saw all day outside urban areas!) If I'm not mistaken, this was the same group of people I had seen earlier in the morning putting their MTBs into vans in front of the Bex Isoya bike shop on Setagaya Dori. If only they knew how I had got to the same spot!

The rindo down was as steep as it had been going up on the other end. No wonder the MTB riders had suffered - probably not the "little bit of up and down" that their shop had promised to them...

I could have continued straight all the way down this valley until reaching the kendo running through Akiyama valley. Instead, I decided to explore another rindo branching off to the west, about two thirds down the descent. This Kanami Rindo led me another 150m up to a Kanami Tunnel at 620m, just below Kanami Toge. It offered nice views of the Akiyama valley.

I continued the same rindo for another few kilometers until it led to the kendo going up the Akiyama valley. From there I was again on familiar territory, going up to Hinazuru tunnel and down the other side.

Instead of continuing straight to route 139 (or going through Suzugane), I branched off to the south, up another hill of 100m or so to take a short-cut to route 139 running south. After my second pit-stop at a Seven-Eleven just before hitting route 139, I braved the strong wind blowing against me and the endless chain of cars passing me to battle my way up to Kawaguchiko. I passed by the lake on its western end and climbed up to Saiko, where I wanted to circumvent the lake against clock-wise direction, on its northern shore - i.e. against the direction of the races (and all training) there.

This turned out to be not such a wise desire as there was quite some snow left on all those stretches of the road which the winter sun did not easily reach. Being used to cycle on snow from my childhood days, I rode through all the snow and ice patches, but with such thin tyres without any kind of profile, it stopped being fun after doing this every few hundred meters for another few hundred meters, and basically continuously once in the forest and heading up to route 139.

Back on route 139, the road was clear and I reached Shojiko with its great views of Fuji-san quite quickly.

I then passed through the Shojiko Tunnel from where it was a fast downhill from 950m to 500m. Instead of continuing along the same kokudo straight to Kofu, I branched off into the Ashigawa valley, which basically runs parallel to the lakes I had just passed. It was completely free of traffic, and I had a large road all by myself leading up to the Torizaka Tunnel at 1,020m, just below a pass of the same name.

On the other side, I had stunning views of Kofu and the Yatsudake range behind it. From there, it was a very fast downhill into Kofu. At some point, I hit 70km/h, but could have gone even faster had it not been for a fear of hitting snowy and icy patches which existed here and there.

181km with 2,300m of climbing, and plenty of new discoveries, at freezing temperatures (mostly 2 to 7 degrees).

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/jp/kanto/556126312804023332

The North Approach - Twice

Perfect weather today: no clouds, very clear air. Fuji-san was dominating the scenery wherever I went. And koyo added for more spectacular scenery, at least below 1,000 meters.

Today was the day to go high, and to try out two north approaches which were new to me: Wada (completely new - Tom has blogged about it, so have TCC folks), and Otoge (have done it only from the other side).

The newly discovered north approach of Wada Toge is nice. Especially the lower part with the farm houses is very picturesque. Quite wet though after all the rain and on the fallen leaves, this can be treacherous. It meant I had to stay in the saddle whenever going over wet leaves, to avoid slipping.

I then headed via the old Koshukaido to Sarubashi, and from there climbed up to Otoge, which was in places in similar conditions as the north approach to Wada, though much, much longer... Very nice views of the distant mountains, including Matsuhime Toge. But no more koyo above 1,000 meters.

I then took Akiyama Kaido and various backroads to Hashimoto where it became too dark to ride on. 200km and 3,000 meters of climbing. Mapmyride will no longer show my newly imported routes (old ones still work), so no GPS trail for now.

Nice coincidence to meet Tom, Nishibe-san and David at Sekidobashi (see also Tom's blog) - if only David had worn our uniform!

I also wore a long jersey on top of the short one, which proved just right for today's weather: starting at 14 degrees from home, 9 degrees on the ascent to Wada, 20 degrees in Sarubashi, 12 degrees on top of Otoge - you get the picture...

Can anyone remember such a stunning view from just below Wada Toge?

Koyo on the descent from Otoge, somewhere below 1,000 meters.

Firemen everywhere in the villages, hunters everywhere in the mountains. Fortunately nobody threatened me unlike David - see Tom's blog.

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.

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.

Tour de West

The town of Ituskaichi froze in awe. Older people remembered a day in September. 1945, when an large US army convoy drove through the town, but since then this has been the biggest gathering of foreigners ever. TCC, Yokota USAF-CC, Half-Fast and Positivo Espresso had called for a mass climbing of Kazahari.

I met James aka "FarEast" and his beautiful Pinarello FP3 bike at Nakayama station and together we took the train for Hachioji. So we had enough time to talk about the important things in life: war in Iraq and Afghanistan, global warming, hunger crisis in Africa and upper house elections in Japan. Actually the only thing I can now remember from the conversation , in which we most certainly came to precise solution for each of the mentioned problems, was that I should spend 10 times the amount of a very good Shimano DuraAce bottom bracket to buy something which, unlike me, has ceramic balls inside.

It took us only 30 minutes to ride from Hachioji to Itsukaichi, overtaking red traffic lights and orange clad "You can" riders.

When we arrived at Itsukaichi station there were already about 10 riders present but more and more came. I chatted here and there and got to know many of the riders which used to hide on the TCC forum behind names such as "Chazzer", "Eloy","Morlock", "Alan Willi" and "Shimano Sora". Many nice people.

The Positivo Espresso team was able to muster three riders, Tom, me and Thomas, how, against payment of a handsome fee, had come in full Positivo Espresso wear.
I think the new jerseys are very well looking, also the bright orange color prevents car drivers from simply ignoring the PE rider. Another, not intended side effect is, that the color scheme offers a irresistiable attraction to butterflies who are mistaken us for beautiful flowers and try to copulate with the jersey or something. Sorry, I don't remember all the details that my father told me, when I was thirteen years old.

The problem with large group rodes is, that it takes so long to organize things and it is so nice to chat with everyone; it took us more than half an hour to get started, but once we were, the tempo was quite fast from the beginning. In the front were the very fast riders and I was in a second group of the "fast looking" riders.

In no time we were at the Motojuku T junction, the official Positivo Espresso Togebaka TT start point and I accelerated even more to ride up to Tomin no Mori as fast as I could. It took me only 18 minutes the reach the Y junction and that is quite fast; there a group of 5 to 6 riders was waiting to regroup. I shouted some excuse like "I think I forgot my wallet at the top" and off I went taking the first climb at full speed (13 km/hr or so). My devilish plan was to be first on the top, not waiting for anybody else as all the polite and social riders were waiting for the slower ones at the Y junction.

Unfortunately my very good plan folded within 3 minutes when Alan, Sergey, Tom and some other riders overtook me as they had plans on their own. And were very much faster than me.

So I ploughed my way up getting overtaken by David and later by Naomi. But at least I could stay within visible sight of Tom. Then Sergey overtook me on the last one hundred meters. I don't know why I was so stupid to give already everything on the first climb, but to set a new togebaka record is always a good motivation. Barely I managed to stay below 1:03 hrs. It's a long way to go under the hour, but with more training and better (cooler) weather, it should become possible in autumn. Anyway on the top I felt like Floyd Landis on the climb the day before he drank his wonder beer.
Long break at Tomin no Mori, more riders arrived but by far not all. Out of the original group of 30 - 40 riders, I met perhaps less than 20 back at Tomin.

Perfect summer weatehr. Hot, humid and blue skies, all performing draging factors.

This was also the end of the "How manly are you?" competition, the remaining elevation to Kazahari Toge I took at a much slower speed. Tom and Thomas had agreed that we continue to Matsuhime and return via road 35, instead of joining the party people and close the day already at noon with a heavy dosage of beer, soba and yakiniku.

The descent was fast as usual, but when I came to the T junction (Matsuhime pain left - Party right), there was nobody there. I thought that they would went ahead already to Matsuhime so I speeded up on the road to Kosuge. I was tempted to take the shortcut, but this is against unwritten Positivo Espresso rules. I arrived at Kosuge - nobody there. I tried to call Tom and Thomas on the phone, but they didn't answered. So what to do?

OK, I thought let's stick to the very original plan and climb over Matsuhime, then try O-toge and take a train home from Otsuki and I started to climb up.

And there, where the shortcut joins the Matsuhime climb again, where Tom and Philip waiting - what a nice surprise. They had seen me going ahead at the Okutama T junction (thanks to the bright orange of the PE jersey and the clouds of butterflies around it) and went ahead to catch me. When they came to the junction, they were wondering if I had passed already or if I would still come. But rightly considering my poor performance they waited - and there I was.


Together we started the climb up to Matsuhime in the heat. We rode together for the first 30 meters, then Philip and Tom went ahead and I only saw them again on the top. So, the second had climb of the day was done.

A fast decent with an empty stomach led us directly to the gates of a big supermarket close to Sarubashi, where we went on a shopping spree in the bakery section. I bought two much and had to carry a piece of applecake in my back pocket for the remains of the ride. When I unpacked it four hours later it looked more than baby food.

Anyway, we started the third hard climb of the day which was Suzugane, taking us from road 20 to road 35. Also this one we climbed in no time, although some tectonic movements in the last two months must have made it much longer, higher and steeper - this was not the Suzugane I remembered, crossied with Ludwig in the snow during this winter.

Then we had to climb over Hinazuru, which was a much shorter climb and somehow, despite the heat, I also felt that some power come back and it became easier to climb than going up Matsuhime.

Philip had his wedding anniversary this very day and was desperately trying to get back home before 6 PM. So we rode down the road from Hinzuru as fast as we could until we came to the crossing with road 76 {If required I can act as a witness to state that he was giving his best effort to be back in time}.

There we had a discussion about the fastest way home. Tom was opting for Otarumi and Hachioji, Philip was in favor of riding to Hashimoto. In the end Tom rode alone over Oatarumi and Philip and me continue on route 76 over Makino Toge. Looking now at the map it is very well possible that this was the shortest way, but it also included some serious climbs over Makino Toge. I was slowly running out of power and I started to curse this climbs.

But finally we had made it into Hashimoto and after a short break at a 7-Eleven (Philip, already in full compliance with Positivo Espresso rules), I showed him the way to the One-Kan express road so that he could find his way on his own to the Tamagawa.

I was really worried that he would not make it back and time. And also he was getting faster by the minute, either because just like Jerome he is such rider that he develops more strength during long rides, or simply because of panic and fear in view of his wife's reaction when arriving late.

I really hope he made it in time. And if he made it, I wonder if he would be able to enjoy the evening, or if after all the exhaustions of the day, his body would simply by an empty hull, waiting to be refilled with meaning and power.

Also I became faster at the latter part of this ride; most likely the reason is very simple: Having lost all fear of my wife a long time ago, I go on this long rides and dehydrate to the biggest extend possible. Yesterday I lost 4 kg of body weight AFTER I drank and ate at home and compared the weight before and after the ride. So getting lighter means less weight to carry up the mountains, which it turn makes my performance better. I should consider also to cut off some riding-irrelevant body parts to make it even better.

Anyway, I drove back to Hashimoto station and took the train home where my body hull arrived at 7 PM and was unable to contribute in a meaningful way to family life.

Later in the evening I watched the second last stage of the Tour de France 2009 up on Mt. Vendoux. Contador crossed the finish line and I felt asleep immediately. Woke up late the next morning, still not fully recovered and with no wish to ride a bicycle for the rest of the day.

Blogging is therapy.

[Stole some pics from the TCC site, please let me know if not OK]