Bastille Day Ride

We got an early start -- almost as early as planned (630AM), and made it out of the central Tokyo heat island before the temperature exceeded 30 degrees C.  Then after some riding in the Akigawa, Itsukaichi and Jerome Hill areas, including roads not previously taken ... we ended up near the Positivo Espresso Oume/Ikusabatake training facility.  

Hidden roads near Oume

The training facility was closed, so after buying food at the local PE-approved super market, Jerome and I went down by the river, where families with kids were picnicking, relaxing and watching rafters and kayakers come through, at the end of their upper-Tamagawa runs.  

At the picnic area, Ikusabatake.

The kids, mostly under the age of 10, all seemed to be enjoying the water, while parents mostly watched from the edge.  Jerome and I, of course, went and joined the kids, spending a very nice 20-30 minutes cooling down.  My first experience swimming in the Tamagawa, if memory serves.

This break was just enough of a cool down so that we decided to climb over the Tsuru Tsuru onsen hill -- 400+ meters of elevation gain, in addition to the short steep climb just to get back to Yoshino Kaido. 

The climb was steep, the weather now getting very hot and the air thick, but we did our best.  In fact, I think on the upper portion, as we neared the pass, a hiker must have surreptitiously recorded us and posted it to Youtube.  

I can only think that watching us must have been what inspired Chris Froome to attack with such gusto near the top of Mont Ventoux, as he obviously mimicked our super-high-cadence climbing attacks.

We descended the other side safely and were back in Tokyo a few minutes after 3PM, having ridden back in 34-35 degree C, sticky, miserable weather.

Cut hillside above Tsuru Tsuru Onsen.