Viviani wins!

The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road is the biggest one-day cycling race in the Southern hemisphere. This year was a bunch sprint finish, with the winner the great Italian sprinter, Elia Viviani.

Of course, Jerome and I remember him as a 22-yr old future star who appeared and dominated at the Track Party in Shuzenji when the velodrome there opened back in 2011.

Free camping and hot springs in japan

A useful resource. Found this link via a video and some comments posted on the Japan Cycling Navigator FB page. I am not sure how updated or accurate, but it looks extremely helpful for anyone trying to bikepack through Japan.  (I would probably save the weight of the tent and just reserve beds and onsen, ... but I suppose once in awhile a camping trip might be fun, not to mention inexpensive.)

Note that the list includes mostly free onsen, and an odd colleciton of non-free ones that show a $ sign and different icon. The list does not seem to include the numerous free "foot soaking" onsen (ashi-no-yu) one finds in onsen towns. And I think any good list needs to include hi-gaeru (day) onsen and "kenko-land" type facilities which can be quite modest in cost (or not), since those often have great facilities for napping or even in some cases allow overnight sleeping indoors without tent or sleeping bag.

New bottle cages

My old carbon Eline cages on the Sky Blue Parlee had both broken over the past few months, one in November and the other over the year-end. These super light cages served me well -- I have another two on the Ti Travel Bike that are still functional. They grip bottles well, and have lasted at least 5-6 years. They did not start service on the Parlee, but were transferred when I built it up.

I tried to epoxy them together, but that did not hold. So I stopped by Nalshima in Tachikawa yesterday to get replacements. I found some slightly heavier Eline cages there, with rubberized plastic surface, far cheaper (on closeout sale -- only one of each in stock). I replaced them in the parking lot outside the shop, did a "KonMari" -- thanked the old ones for their service and handed them to a Nalshima staff member who had come outside to ask if I needed tools ... and who even filled my water bottle. What service!

I also bought a nice Cateye rear light that goes well on a seat stay, uses traditional AAA batteries (I don't want another USB item to charge during rides, should last several nights on a single set of batteries on the "solid" instead of flashing setting, has an "auto" feature that should turn on when I ride in tunnels, and will replace others that have failed or are no longer reliable.

Some will say "what's this, the bottle cages do not match"! 
My answer: True, but my bottles do not match either, so if I keep them full, no one will notice. The price was too good to refuse. And one of them can double as a third "under downtube" bottle cage on the Ti bike in a pinch.

North Fork Akigawa in late January?

Bright sun, dark shadows. Akigawa Keikoku in Winter.

Sunday was a blustery sunny winter day in the Kanto (Tokyo) region. I was up fairly late on Saturday because of an event, so did not want to wake at 6AM to get out of the house by 6:40AM and to the Tokyo Cranks rendezvous at Futako Tamagawa. Instead I left home around 7:40AM and went direct to the Cranks' end-of-ride coffee location at the Seijo Gakuen Mae Starbucks. After coffee, conversation and a chocolate scone, Nils and I headed up the river.

It may be January ... but already Valentine's Day at Starbucks

"Have a good time"?!
I guess they wore out "have a nice day"?

We rode into a headwind, crossed the Tamagawa at Route 16, and headed out the Akigawa and the Mutsumibashi Kaido to Itsukaichi. This is mostly a flat ride, elevation gain only very gradual heading upriver and inland, so that after nearly 60 kms from my home, we were at just over 200 meters elevation at Musashi Itsukaichi. Nonetheless, the headwind made it hard work pretty much the entire way. We stopped at a 7-11 in front of the train station there and Nils headed back to town. I continued up the Akigawa and entered the Akigawa Gorge (秋川渓谷). I was thinking of going up the climb to Tokisaka Pass, and marveled that it was actually warm enough for me to be heading into the mountains in late January. By now it was after 11AM, and the sun was over the edge of the valley, so there was no danger of ice. I do not think I have ever ridden the Akigawa in late January.

This was once "Motojuku" or "Honjuku" ... now Tachibana bashi.
And Tomin no Mori is now "Forest of Tokyo Citizen"??

The Akigawa is almost dry, just a little flow of water.
Usually I photograph this view with lush greenery and plentiful water in the river ...

In the end, instead of doing the short steep climb to Tokisaka Pass, I just went up the Kita Akigawa (North Fork) to the end. It is maybe 12 kms from the Hinohara Village Office and the Tachibanabashi "T" intersection (the intersection formerly known as 本宿 - motojuku or honjuku) to the end of the main road up the North Fork, where it splits into three smaller roads. But this takes one from 275m elevation up to around 600m, as high as Tokisaka.

The bike pointed right, toward the Kobayashi House and its tiny "monorail"

From this sign, it appears there are some giant white toilets in this region.
Route 205 looks like Kazahari Rindo ... no cars past the mushroom center.

Only 3.9 kms to the Hinohara mushroom center ... and 350 -- 400 meters up? Not today.

Looking back down the North Fork route.

I did a further 1.5kms and 100m elevation up a narrow road (Route 67 on the map) to the parking area for visitors who hike to the Kobayashi House, a 重要文化財 (important cultural artifact) that is up on the mountainside here, from the 18th century. The trails all looked closed off, and the tiny "monorail" was obviously not running in winter.

At the parking lot for the Kobayashi House

I wanted to take the 3 minute hike to Amago Falls ... but the trail was blocked off for repairs.

I turned around and headed for home. My second snack stop was in Itsukaichi, at the Family Mart on Hinohara Kaido between the police station and the Tokura "last" 7-11. As I was leaving, in came Hara-san, an Audax regular. He said he was only 40kms into his ride, having come from Suginami-ku. At that point I was nearly 100kms in and my mind was focused on getting home, so we just exchanged a few words and I headed on. I quickly regretted not having asked him about his 2019 plans, PBP? Other events? But it was too late and I was not going back. 

Crosswind along the Tamagawa

There had been a headwind all the way up the river, and head/cross winds out to Itsukaichi. Fortunately, on the way home the wind was at my back (or side), and I made good time.

In the end, I was back home by 430PM, having done 154kms, with the 45-minute morning coffee stop and 3 other convenience store stops.  I never pushed into the red zone, but I did push and felt pretty strong the entire ride. Not bad. Not bad at all. Strava feed is here.

Please be safe out there.

At least the deer was able to run away ...

Long distance bug

I've got the long distance bug. Maybe it is just the lethargy of winter. Or maybe it is being a slow, heavy, aging roadie, so that the only cycling I can hope to do that impresses anyone is to just keep riding and riding when others quit? Maybe it is a memory of the joy of going under my own power to distant places, or of riding at night, with the stars visible, little or no traffic, in a world that seems welcoming and forgiving. Maybe it is the "Assynt" mode -- the drama of riding in inclement weather, pouring rain and gusting winds?

Anyway, whatever it is, I've got the bug. Paris-Brest-Paris awaits, again. Tasmania awaits, the 600 there perhaps as much or more of a challenge than PBP, coming after 200, 300 and 400km warmups, and lots of hills. But I have done PBP before. I checked that box on the bucket list. Yes, I want to go back. But I don't want to just go back. I want to think about the next big ride, for 2020, or even beyond.

Last week the bug had me watching a video about Lael Wilcox of Alaska, winner of many ultra-endurance events including the 4200 mile Trans Am Bike Race (unsupported race across the USA) and the Tour Divide (unsupported from Canada to Mexico in the Rocky Mountains. In the video she gets second place in a ride across Switzerland -- only 1000 kms but 30,000 meters elevation gain, the tough sections on trails where you need to push the mountain bike up. She doesn't look so tough ... but races against, and beats, the toughest guys.

This week it was the report of Michael Broadwith's 2018 record for an end-to-end ride of Great Britain.

Would I ever try one of these? RAAM as a team requires big financial resources, and does not have the challenge of a solo event. And RAAM solo is way too hard for me. I would need to gain a huge amount of speed and endurance to even consider it.

How about the Transcontinental? It is a race across Europe, from the Black Sea to Brest in France, you are free to choose your own route as long as you go through a limited number of controls (generally at the top of high passes). But it is already full up for 2019, and it is run from Friday 26th July 2019. And I'm already doing PBP -- which ALSO ends in Brest.

Maybe the Transpyrenees? This is much shorter, only 950 kms, 24,000 meters of elevation, with an absolutely extraordinary course that includes 30 mountain passes, and will be run for the first time from the 4th of October this year. That does not quite fit my work schedule.

Then again, there is another new race for 2019, Bike Non-stop. Very similar to the Trans Am, it is from Portland, Oregon to Washington D.C. -- two very familiar places for me! Only 3500 miles, it is shorter than Trans Am. The TransAm is a true ocean-to-ocean route, instead of city-to-city, and it takes perhaps more scenic touring roads, more national parks, and takes a bit longer. Bike Non-Stop would probably argue that its route is just as scenic. starts on May 26, 2019 (the same as my college reunion). The beauty about events like TransAm and Bike Non-stop is that unlike RAAM or Transalp, they do not have time cutoffs, so even slower, persistent riders can try them. And they are unsupported.

Okay, none of these events is consistent with my work schedule this year. But some future year ... riding across the USA is definitely on my bucket list, and I best not wait TOO long. Maybe I will do a Pactour ride across the USA ... including the support, the spartan (Motel 6 type) accommodations, and moving at a faster pace? They will do a Southern Transcontinental in September 2020 ... but it does not finish until October, long after my university's start date, and I would strongly prefer to ride a northern tier, because the South is so dangerous for cyclists.

Someday ... and okay, as I was watching a video about the Transcontinental, I noticed they were climbing the Bielerhöhe Pass ... ahh, we did that in Transalp 2009 and 2011, and the descent to the east down the Silvretta Strasse was so, so fast and untechnical and wonderful. Maybe I will do some cycling in Europe before PBP, just to get into the mountains!

*The photo at the top of this post is a screen shot of a portion of a photo from the TransAm bike race website. Lower resolution and only a part of it ... fair use? The closest I could come from my own is this one from Cascade 1200 or maybe some of these from Cycle Oregon (but too many cyclists in that event).

Shimano 6800 right brifter repair

A few weeks back, I was in the embarrassing situation of having several of my bicycles out of commission at the same time. Voyage Voyage (Ti Travel bike) had been disassembled for installation of SRAM Etap drivetrain; the Sky Blue Parlee's right shift cable had broken; by 2012 Canyon CF had gone onto the trainer for Powercranks ...

I first tried to fix the shifter cable, as that was the fastest to get back in service.  But when I tried to install the new cable, it seemed that there was still some cable and the cable head stuck inside, and the shifter would go more than one click toward the big cassette. I quickly removed the new cable (fortunately it was still removable and unblemished).

In the end, I removed the shifter from the bike, and ended up taking off all the visible screws and covers until I could find the problem. There was an inch-long piece of frayed cable still in place. Once that was removed, it was easy to put the parts back on. And now I know that I could have left alone the front portion of the component (I removed 5 screws in total) and done this with only a single screw removal -- the one that secures two plates on the bottom of the brifter near where it attaches to the handlebars. Unfortunately, I could not find a good youtube video for repair of THIS model of Shimano brifter.

The Shimano Dura Ace 9000 / Ultegra 6800 are reported to have a common issue with cables fraying and breaking in two ... but at least they are repairable, unlike some earlier generations of brifter!

The culprit.

Land's End to John o'Groat's

I just enjoyed watching this short (12 minute) Damon Peacock film about the 2018 attempt by Michael Broadwith to beat the record for riding the entire length of Great Britain from South to North (Land's End to John o'Groat's). Peacock has done similar short films about PBP, LEL and other events I have actually joined.

Broadwith beat the old record by more than 30 minutes, finishing the 1347.81kms (and 8,756 meters of elevation gain) in 43 hours 25 minutes and 13 seconds.  This included some stretches of heavy, cold English rain, and other stretches of what looks like extremely heavy -- even dangerous -- traffic. Vased on the Strava result that he spent only ONE HOUR in total off of the bicycle during the entire trip. Incredible. He seems to eat/drink lots of cans of cold tomato soup. Hydration, salt, some carbs, and it does not bother his stomach. I think tomato soups and sauces can sometimes be too acidic to recommend ... but cold soup is a very good idea to eat on the bike.

He set the UK 24 hour distance record 505.511 miles (or 816.760 kms) and made the Strava KOM on seven climbs during this effort.

The star of the film may be his wife, who led the support team. One key moment is at around 4:30 into the film -- one can hear a crying 8-month old daughter audible in the van.  At this point, soaking wet, cold, tired, Michael pulls over and asks for 5 minutes off the bike.

His wife's response: "Really? No. Why do you need a five-minute stop?"

He says that his hands are freezing, and she changes his gloves, opens and hands him a can of tomato soup, and quickly sends him on his way ... maybe a 3 minute stop?

Late in the ride he struggles with Shermer's Neck -- that syndrome when the neck muscles sometimes get so tired a rider can no longer hold up his or her head. The team try various solutions, including a neck brace offered by a local hospital en route ... but in the end Broadwith just props his head up with one hand, or rides upright balancing his head on his neck toward at the end of the saga. This is why you don't want to ride for 43 hours straight.


From End to End. from Damon Peacock on Vimeo.

A Road.cc report from last year can be found here.

His Strava recording is here. Note the strava profile bio: "The one with the legendary wife."
(and, in much smaller print below " ... the ever patient daughter and the amazing, amazing support crew.")

"No Photos!" Ride on Nishi Izu Celebrating Fukuzawa-sensei's Birthday

January 10 is the birthday of Yukichi Fukuzawa, founder of the university where I teach and the gentleman whose visage adorns the 10,000 yen banknote. So the university is closed on January 10. Happy Birthday, Yukichi!

I have time conflicts and cannot ride this weekend, so I decided to seize the opportunity of the local holiday, ignore the stacks of papers to grade and other work not yet done, and instead take a training ride with a bit of climbing. I hopped the shinkansen from Shinagawa for the 45-50 minute trip to Mishima at the NW corner of Izu Peninsula. It seems like every time I go here, I get bogged down taking photos of Mt. Fuji in the distance across the bay. It is irresistible. It happened to me when I rode this coastline before Christmas, and every time I can remember before. So I have plenty of photos of Mt. Fuji from this route. Do I really need more of these photos? No! I need to FOCUS on getting in shape for Tasmania and PBP.

So today I was determined -- minimize the photo stops, get in a quick ride, if possible a loop out along the coast to Toi Onsen, then Route 136 east over the pass (well, not the real pass, but the tunnel at 500m elevation that cuts through the line of mountains above west Izu's coast), and the long gradual descent to Shuzenji, and back North along the Kano River to Numazu/Mishima, and get back to Tokyo mid- or late-afternoon!

I did quite well, really, for awhile. I was able to resist any photos for the first 25+ out of nearly 110 kms, until I stopped to remove my top layer jacket. This was not even a photo stop, right? It was a stop to remove excess clothing before the climbs to come. Doesn't count! And the photo was, well, spectacular, but not up to par for this course. Too little variation between the color of the water and the sky -- just different shades of blue, yawn -- too little snow on Fuji, nothing interesting on the water. I won't even post it in large size. If you read this blog, you've seen it before.

Then another quick stop for a bathroom break on a side-spur of a road, where the clouds and trees merited a photo. Also not a real photo stop. But the sky and trees were getting a bit more interesting.

Then I lost it. I took some photos briefly on the hill above Osezaki. One quick photo stop.

Then another one looking back after the first climb. Wow. I thought Fuji would be gone, around the corner from here, but there it was ... and an interesting foreground too, the village of Ita (井田).

Then more photos just after Heda. Last June (broken crankarm ride) and in December, I had not made it to this hill just past Heda ... and the mountain is perfectly framed ... and surely this is the last view of Fuji I would get from along the coast. So just for old times sake ...

Then I climbed more, longer hills on the 15kms between Heda and Toi. I was pretty much alone. The only roadies I had seen were far north and heading home to Numazu. I saw at most ten moving vehicles on this entire 15km stretch, mostly locals in "kei" trucks. As I emerged on the South side of one of the tunnels, a blast of wind hit me. There were whitecaps below -- and the wind and waves were coming not from within a protected bay, but straight from the Pacific to the South.

I remembered Assynt, the Rapha image film of hard men riding in rough weather in northern Scotland under dark clouds, rain spitting at them as the entire branding campaign "jumped the shark". I could almost hear the deep sonorous Scottish accent announcing "the shipping forecast ... there are warnings of gales". Could I, here on the rugged west Izu coastline, be livin' the Rapha dream lifestyle?  I checked my clothing. No Rapha. And even worse, the pavement was dry, and the wind quieted as I descended. Disappointed, I continued on.

Sun reflected on the ocean through a break in the clouds

A few kms before the center of Toi, there is another small town, Odoi. As I passed and rounded a corner toward Travellers' Point (旅人岬), the wind hit -- full force!  I was standing up and on the bike and barely advancing on the pedals. There was an old lady walking at the side of the road, leaning steeply into the wind as she edged ahead slowly. .... and I edged past her on my bicycle. We silently acknowledged each other's efforts. Now that was more like it! And I remembered, yes, under my shoes, inside my "windblock" shoe liners, yes, I was wearing Rapha socks! Ahhhh.

Anyway, soon I was at Toi Onsen. I checked out the foot bath, the tourist info place (typically, they did not steer me toward any one restaurant, but just gave me a map and circled the places they thought were open). I ended up getting a rather basic and slightly expensive "mixed fry" teishoku lunch. This stop put me way behind schedule.

The climb was steeper than I remembered. The last time I did this climb was with Steve Ridgely back in April 2015 on the R Tokyo 400km brevet. That time it was already dark, and I was exhausted, so it seemed like a hard climb. This time it was mid-afternoon daylight, the road was dry, and there was even a tail wind at points. Yet, it was still a hard climb. 500 meters up over 8kms. There is some variation, with a few stretches in the 10% range and some nearly flat. Anyway,  it was good exercise.

Starker than in April 2015 when many trees on the hillside were flowering.

The east side of the hill is far more gradual.

I could enjoy a nice 13km descent to Baird Beer's brewery along the river just south of Shuzenji, where I stopped off to say hello to my friend from the Chicago alums group, Baird business manager John C. My plan for Olympic cycling involves the velodrome at Shuzenji and the Baird Beer brewery tap room, restaurant and campsite in the valley nearby. Further behind schedule.

Bike leaning

River and very blue sky without bike leaning

Then, inevitably, irresistibly, Mt. Fuji showed a different face, with different foreground, light, clouds, pastel instead of deep blue sky, ... and I took even more photos en route back to Mishima!

Finally, I hopped the train and was back in Tokyo just after 6PM.

Strava track available here (minus the first couple kms).

First Brevet of 2019

The Oregon Randonneur at Tateishi on the Miura Peninsula, looking toward Mt Fuji

Japan Audax local affiliates offer many 200km brevets in early January. They usually fill up, and this year (a PBP year) especially so, as everyone wants to get in a ride while off from work.

Last year, 2018, Jerome and I rode our first brevet on January 7 in Shizuoka, 200kms from Numazu to Fujieda and back, with a detour up Nihondaira. It was a very nice day and, despite some heavy traffic at places, a nice course.

In 2017 I did an AJ Tamagawa brevet from midnight on New Year's Eve, watched the first sunrise of the year along a beach on the Miura Peninsula, with a few other riders and thousands of visitors to the area. I was done and home before Noon on January 1.

This year, AJ Tamagawa, among others, is offering a "brevet week" of events -- it is possible to ride 200, 300, 400 and 600km events, complete the "SR" (super randonneur) series, and qualify to ride Paris-Brest-Paris, all during the first week of the year! Taiwan's audax group has a similar series, and one Japanese randonneur I know had already completed the SR series before I started my ride on Friday. Another, Ijichi-san, staff of AJ Tamagawa who is one of the core Audax riders (he rode Susan Otcenas' Seattle Intl Randonneurs' Cascade 1200 last year, as well as Maya Ide's Tohoku series over Golden Week), told me that he would do the full series this week -- but he already did the 200km on the pre-ride check (which counts under Audax rules).

But this idea of an SR series in the northern hemisphere in winter is, well, crazy. It is going overboard. It MAY work well this year, when the weather is good, but it is hard to plan a good 400km or 600km ride that will work in mid-winter, even in typically dry Kanto. Indeed, the AJ Tamagawa 600km will have probably 300 or even more (500?) traffic signals. So many stops. So much traffic ... to keep on a route near Tokyo and out of the mountains. One long boring slog. Worse, if the weather is cold. No, the first week of January is for riding during the day. A 200km is the perfect challenge.

The moon, Venus, riders, high rises, trees, and train station, all before first light.

The same view a few minutes later. Wave of riders at the ready!

Jerome missed the signup, and was unsuccessful in asking AJ Tamagawa to accept a last minute (late) entry. I think they just have too much on their plate to accommodate such requests while running a brevet week. So he rode out over Yabitsu Pass, and did meet us at the Oiso control. Mindful of the Audax rule that non-participants cannot provide any assistance to riders outside of controls, we rode the same course, but never close enough to draft. I gave him some directions ... but not vice versa. Still, with about 50 stops for traffic signals, and another control, we could chat enough.

Which bike to ride? I wanted to ride the Parlee ... but broke a cable and did not have time to replace it. The Ti Travel bike, Voyage Voyage, is disassembled for installation of a new group set. So I was happy to ride the Oregon Randonneur. I had not used it in months, so needed to lube the chain, pump the tires, and rode it the evening before to a fondue feast at Jerome's. It felt a bit sluggish. And on the ride out to dinner the rear fender was rubbing, and I got a flat tire on the way back home.

I switched out the wheels and tightened the rear fender ... and it was as good as new. Still I am not a fan of the Ultegra 6700 shifting -- far more sluggish than 6800 (or 6600, in my opinion). It turns out that the DT-Hugi hub on the rear wheel ... needs maintenance. The freehub was barely turning, as if the grease inside has gotten clogged with other material. So I I switched to other wheels. I was glad to have others to use for this ride -- the bike was a joy once I got it ready to go. (If anyone needs a spare wheel in a pinch ... I have them!).

Mt Fuji while crossing the Tamagawa on Route 1 (from the side walkway)

Anyway, I made it to the 6AM start with almost 15 minutes to spare ... only to be told that I was in the 630AM "wave". This was a bit disappointing since I knew that the traffic through yokohama would not get better as time passed, to say the least.

The course was kind of like a combination of my recent Miura ride (to the tip of Miura Peninsula), and my recent Shonan coast ride (the segment from Enoshima to Oiso where we had lunch). But this time I would take Route 1 through Yokohama and then Route 16 all the way to Yokosuka. I prefer my route from Christmas Eve, which skirts the harbor edge of Yokohama, goes through Minato Mirai and to Hakkeijima via the Sangyo-Doro. And I would prefer to avoid the coast road between Kamakura and Enoshima, where it is basically a parking lot. It is not fun to ride through a parking lot, even when the view is glorious and drivers don't pull over to the left and block your way.

On the parking lot/road between Kamakura and Enoshima.

I did not take many photos. Only one stop on the way between Yokosuka and Misaki-ko, none between Enoshima and Oiso -- both where I was taking photos last week with a far more dramatic sky.  These are from elsewhere -- Hayama area mostly.

Mt Fuji from south of Yokosuka

The Oregon Randonneur takes a different riding style than a modern carbon or titanium racing bike. It requires a kind of spinning style. It is a bit heavier, and the narrower steel tubing will flex a bit and absorb stomping. But it responds very well with a slightly lighter touch and a faster peddling cadence. And once it gets going ... it keeps going, fast.  The randonneur-style bars have comfortable, large/wide "drops". Then again, to move fast up the hills on this bike, I must get out of the saddle. It is almost like running up a hill on the peddles. Once I adjusted to this style of riding ... which took the first several hours ... the bike was fast and comfortable, and I could finish in a reasonable time, given the stop-and-go nature of this course and the relatively heavy traffic.

More from Tateishi

Sunset at Marukobashi ... almost done!

Even as I grumble about the traffic on this course, it was a great way to start my cycling year. I just need to keep it up to be ready for Tasmania next month and France in August.

Strava for the entire day is here.

Wintertime = Powercranks Time

If I am going to enjoy my somewhat more ambitious cycling calendar this year, I have got to get a really, really strong base. So for the first time in several years ... the Powercranks are going on a bike, and I am setting up the stationary trainer. Maybe I can ride outside this week ... but I know in the next few months there will be lots of days when I cannot or do not want to be riding outside.

Ever ride with an independent cam left and right crank? Powercranks is like doing one-leg exercises with BOTH legs, and with a brick tied to each foot. But one does get used to them. Heck, back in 2011, I even rode around Mt. Fuji on Powercranks once (from/to Kawaguchi-ko).And it is a lot of fun doing "dolphin kick" rotations as one climbs past other riders. And riding them on the streets one always gets a double take from road cyclists.

If you cannot read the logo, it says "for a good time, call POWERCRANKS"