I finally could avenge Yutaka & myself aborted attempt to reach Ashiya (had to stop before Otsu due to icy conditions) from Tokyo.
The only difference is that I started from Gifu & cycled back to Nagoya
I left Kawabe san house (my home stay family when I arrived in Japan) on saturday morning & litterally flew towards Biwako on route 21 (no interest at all) & stopped for a quick lunch + naked - forgot my underwear this time - bath in Biwako (you will probably remember Noto Hanto picture of myself coming out of the sea - as Ursula Andress did a few years ago in James Bond doctor No.-). The ride along Biwako was much longer than expected & traffic conditions were horrific. I started to enjoy (& suffer) when I rode on route 477 (north of Kyoto) towards Sanda. Had a brief dinner before climbing to Royu & reaching Ashiya.
Sunday was dedicated to resting & celebrating Beeren 25th anniversary (I will try to post some pictures as soon as available) with nearly all members (48 riders). After a couple of drinks, we talked about a Positivo Espresso / Beeren joint Tour des Pyrenees next year: Nishibe san, the honorable boss of Beeren, named me as general race director for this trip & asked me to plan this event after O Bon so that he can join it.
Since it was far too late to consider going back to Tomoko family home, I decided to stop at Yazaki san place (another Beeren member / 68 years old) for some more food & drinks.
I hit the road again (towards Nagoya) on Monday morning but wanted to try another road. Route 37 across Sasayama, 732 towards Kyoto & route 1 till Omi green road an alternative road which brought me to the other Suzuka Pass.
Cycled down to Yotsukaichi & Nagoya at an incredibly dangerous speed along 477 & route 1 (it took me an hour & 20 mn for 40 kms between Yotsukaichi & Nagoya in a congested traffic). As a whole it took me around 12 hours for 250 kms. Very nice journey but need to find a way between Nagoya & Biwako to skip route 1 which is a nightmare. As Davil L. suggested, I should have tried to head up toward the Japan sea...
Will keep you updated about Tour des Pyrenees but you could have a good hint about the route checking velopeloton home page.
Next week end
The good news is that Juliane is stuck in Tokyo. I would suggest organizing "a souvenir journey". Since Juliane did not bring any bicycle, it could be a good opportunity to use the tandem...
Hi Jerome:
ReplyDeleteTandem would be great, with Juliane in front and you in the rear? If that does not work for some reason, ... Juliane is welcome to use one of my bikes. I think the Giant TCR would work with seat adjusted down/forward.
Then again, she tried the Powercranks bike on Saturday and had no problem at all spinning the cranks for 5 or 10 minutes, so perhaps she wants to use that one?
Would Sunday work?
I am hoping to clean out my garage of some old bicycle parts by visiting the Sekidobashi free market, which I understand is held this coming Saturday morning. ... first I need to figure out what I have that I don't want and is worth selling/giving away.
Thanks for the heads-up David. I've got too much cycling -related stuff laying around the two rooms left vacant by my daughters and ought to set up my own small stand to give away/try to sell unneeded parts ! Depending on the weather I might be at Sekidobashi as well.
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