A Lovely March 20 -- 200km ride in Chiba ... by AJ Tamagawa

I've done AJ Chiba rides that never entered Chiba. I've done an Audax Nihonbashi SR600 in Fukushima (and a corner of Yamagata), nowhere near Nihonbashi.  So I guess it should not have surprised me that AJ Tamagawa had a brevet course that is nowhere near the Tamagawa river, and instead goes back and forth across Chiba!

The course looked like a perfect 200km for late Winter/early Spring. And the start was near Funabashi Station, just over the border from Tokyo into Chiba. This was an easy train ride from Shinagawa, not too far from my house. It was as if the event had been designed for people coming from Tokyo! ... as most of the Tamagawa regulars would be doing. This event was listed as the Tamagawa group's Audax Japan 20th anniversary celebratory brevet. I guess all the local clubs are supposed to designate one of their rides this year for such treatment. And I think this course was good enough to merit the distinction.

For a start that was easy to get to, there was a trade-off of some urban riding the first and last 30 kms, until well past the center of Chiba City.  Some of this was nice, open, along Tokyo Bay past Makihari. In the morning there was almost no traffic. But on the way back it was not pleasant, alongside zooming cars in the dark. I guess if I had one criticism of the course ... I might suggest they push the start further along the same train line, to somewhere near Chiba Station. They could eliminate 2/3 of the slogging and replace it with more countryside and coastline! 

This brevet, similar to the 300km in Izu last month, had a pancake flat start and finish, and a very hilly middle. In this case, the first and last 35kms was almost flat (a few gentle rollers for part of the return, but nearly flat), and the middle 130km had around 2300 meters of elevation gain.

The course profile: Flat at both ends. 2300m of elevation gain in the middle section.

Bike check

A lovely morning -- cold but it would warm up soon!

I rode out solidly in the middle of the pack (with my start group -- 20 minutes after the first wave).  

Early in the ride.

On the bigger climbs outbound, a number of smaller, lighter riders passed me, but I was still making decent time.  I kept my stops relatively short -- just a convenience store, not a sit-down meal with others, at Kamogawa, even though some riders I had been leap-frogging with mentioned that they were going for a Chinese restaurant. 

Somewhere along the reservoirs around Katakura Dam and Kameyama Dam, after the biggest climbs of the outbound leg ... but still heading up before a final descent into Kamogawa.

Leaving Kamogawa, we climbed up prefectural route 81 to Seichoji Temple -- the same climb as Jerome and I did in our "thunder snow" Chiba 200km in January 2024. 

On the coast near Kamogawa.

On the climb out of Kamogawa

But this route had an additional 500+ meters of elevation gain compared to the "thunder snow" brevet, much of it in the second half.  Instead of taking the most direct route back north, our route zigged toward the East over lots of nasty shorter climbs, eventually going to a hilltop PC called "Miharashi Terrace", then another control point in Mobara, and only then cut back toward the NW.  

Spectacular view from Miharashi Terrace

Proof of passage.

This was not the "nasty" part of the climb up.

Miharashi Terrace had a very nasty entrance climb from the main road. I walked part of it.  From there, we were riding pretty much into a headwind as we approached the Mobara checkpoint, slogging on the flat sections.

Then we finally turned NW and the wind was mostly at our backs. By the time I was up the last climb after Mobara, around 100m elevation gain, I could feel the goal approaching, almost taste it. The goal may have been 30kms away, but no more climbs, and a tailwind. 

We took a fast small road alongside, sometimes in between, various golf courses, gradually descending.  Then once we got closer to Chiba City, from Midori-ku west we took a limited access road that also was fast, below grade in some stretches but with room for bicycles.  I felt strong at the end ...  the feeling itself exhilarating after my 400k DNF and 300k slogs in recent months. 

My time was not fast -- nearly an hour slower than the "thunder snow" brevet 14 months earlier, but still under 12 hours.  The extra 500+ meters of climbing and additional urban slogging at lights explained the time. That, plus I had done only one other ride in March that exceeded 150kms, and none with over 1000 meters of elevation gain. Finishing strong made it feel like a fast ride, at least.

To get my proof-of-completion time stamped receipt, I waited what seemed like at least 5 minutes as a part-time worker slowly checked out someone buying a week of groceries at the convenience store.

I chatted with the AJ Tamagawa leader upon my arrival at the goal ... embarrassed that I don't remember his name as he is always extremely friendly and encourages me to do more of their rides (which was a natural a decade ago when I lived near their start in Futako Tamagawa, less so now). The staff gave me a "stamp card" to fill in for the Audax Japan 20th anniversary event ... which I promptly lost so will not complete, despite other rides that would "qualify" for stamps. ... there goes my chance of a door prize.

Anyway, this ride was everything I could expect in a late-winter brevet in Kanto, and Chiba has some wonderful riding country for this time of year, once you get away from the congestion near Tokyo!

After dawdling at the finish, I got back to Funabashi Station, rinko'ed my bike, and hopped the 20:04 train that got to Shinagawa 33 minutes later.

300km from Kamakura to Minami Izu and Back

Sunrise on the southeastern Izu coastline

After a trip to visit family in the USA, I was back in Tokyo and ready to ride -- to get "revenge" for my 400km DNF in the cold hard rain and dark of February 1.  The 300km Kanagawa Audax ride from Kamakura to Minami Izu and back was my chance to do so. 

I had done this ride some years earlier, in November 2021. My outbound leg then was at a blistering pace, one of the fastest of the group. I rested at the Shimoda foot bath near Sakamoto Ryoma's statue, and took the return more slowly ... but still finished in a decent time. I liked the 8PM start also -- it allowed us to complete 3/4 of the ride before there was significant traffic. And even in late November, the temperature never dipped below 10 degrees C, the sunrise was spectacular, and I finished just as the rain started.

Three years later ... was a bit of a different experience. 

First, February in Japan is a LOT colder than November, with late February/early March being the coldest and wettest part of winter. This time Strava tells me it was 3 degrees C at the start, and it surely dipped near 0 C before dawn and hovered in that range until after sunrise. And with the wind Strava tells me it "felt like" -5 degrees C even when it was 3 degrees.  Anyway, it was really cold. Cold, even with good winter gear while riding, definitely very cold while stopped. This time, unlike February 1, the rain did not come until an hour or two before the end. It was a hard, cold shower passing through, and it was already dark outside with cars racing down the coast road between Odawara and Kamakura.  But I was not about to let it deter me when I was so close to the goal.

Second, this time the ride had an 11PM start, rather than 8PM.  So I was already tired shortly after the ride started.  11PM is not as good for me as an 8PM start ... and with leaving home by train, getting to Kamakura, etc.,  it was not as if I could just sleep early and then ride.  And a 3-hour later start also meant that we had traffic on the entire return trip. 

(In June, I will try a 600km brevet that has a 2AM start. I will stay at an onsen about an hour away, sleep from 7-12 or so, then ride to the start and go. I hope that will be enough sleep. I hope I will not feel as tired then as I did on the Izu ride!)

The organizers had shifted the ride to February in order to try and time it perfectly to catch the Kawazu sakura, which usually bloom in late February, 4, 5, or 6 weeks before the "yoshino" sakura in Tokyo.  We did see plenty of early blooming sakura in southern Izu, as well as some spectacular na-no-hana (rapeseed), ... but the sakura along the river in Kawazu, the very definition of Kawazu sakura, were not out yet. 

Anyway, the ride still had lovely coastline and a memorable sunrise as well as the early flowering plants. And anywhere inland would have been even colder.

I took some photos after the sun came up, but was tuckered out by the cold. I was determined to finish, and I had decent gear to keep warm enough while riding, but I felt as if I was using a lot of energy just to keep my body moving. And did I mention that this ride has hills?  Over 3000 meters of climbing on the middle 200kms; flat the first and last 50kms.  No single climb was higher than 100m elevation gain, but the climbs seem endless.  Izu is for climbers.

All those little 50, 75, and 100 meter climbs ... add up to over 3000 meters elev gain.

On the return trip, we were riding along a line of Sunday traffic ... sitting traffic ... all the way from Ito-shi to Odawara. I felt sorry for the drivers, and the passengers.

As on the February 1st ride, I had some stomach issues while riding. I ate too much or the wrong food at a convenience store stop? Or did not wait long enough before getting back on the bike? Or the cold had me in such extreme fatigue that I could not manage to eat what I used to be able to?  I used to have stomach problems around 5-6 hours into a long, multi-day randonee, but they would be temporary and after a few hours I would feel fine ... and continue to be able to eat and ride, eat and ride, for the next several days. I'm not sure any more.

And I often have feet issues after hours in the saddle. This time they were minor, resolved by getting off the bike and resting briefly a few times.  The RAMAX performed just fine. No bike issues, no tire issues. 

All-in-all a successful outing, even if much slower than in 2021. I made it, despite the cold, despite the climbing, my stomach, my feet, and the nasty cold rain for the final hour or two. I just rolled it in and checked in with 20 minutes to spare.

At the start .. reflectives!

Sunrise soon!

Inatori -- Izu is quite built-up here, south of Itoh/Izu-Kogen!
This almost looked to me as if I were in the Mediterranean

Finally approaching Kawazu!

Nanohana in Minami Izu, a few kilometers from the turnaround.
You can see a photo stage set up to the right side.

Last time, in 2021, I had Shimoda's Ryoma-san all to myself. ... 

A line all the way up to Manazuru Station ...

Not fun to ride alongside this endless line
 ... but I felt sorry for the drivers who did not even have that choice.

A detour to the restroom at Odawara Castle-west parking lot.
This castle and its grounds and moat never disappoint.

Done and dusted.

Winter Oikaze 400km Brevet ... DNF After the End of the Winter Dry Season

I remembered last year seeing some Audax friends post about doing a winter Kanagawa Audax 400km "Oikaze" (tailwind) ride from the Nagoya area back to Kamakura. This year, I resolved to join it myself. The course looked not overly challenging, it stayed out of the mountains (essential for a winter course in Japan), it offered a mid-day (1PM) start so that no hotel was required and I (and many others) could travel from Tokyo the day of the event. And I needed the training before some February travel. So I signed up.

Winter along the Pacific Coast of Japan can offer some excellent cycling. All through December and into January, we get lots of dry, cool/cold weather, as we are in the "rain shadow" with storms hitting the Japan Sea Coast and dumping snow on the NW side of the islands. Weather only starts to turn ugly usually for February into early/mid March.  Late March/early April are hit-or-miss, but at least as by April the typical temperatures are far warmer, even at night, on a mountain pass somewhere. February is the coldest month, and a lot wetter, in my recollection, than January. So a February 1 brevet is a real roll of the dice.

The weather on Saturday morning February 1 this year was very nice. It was still sunny when I got to the check-in at Mikawa Anjo, the first shinkansen stop on the Tokyo side of Nagoya, SE of the city center (so we would not need to slog through as much urban area as a true Nagoya start). 

At the check-in where familiar Kanagawa Audax members - Maya Ide and Honda-san. Also there was Izumi Kurabayashi (that is her unmarried name ... she was a regular Audax staffer in Kanto, but got married and moved to Nagoya more than a decade ago). And there was some familiar riders as well -- including Tom Yahagi. 

Izumi and Maya at the reception

Honda-san gives the briefing

Tom Yahagi, super randonneur

It looked overall like a fast group for Audax ... it was

It was already cloudy by the time we actually started to ride, and rain was forecast for sometime that evening.  It was just a question of how much rain, when, and how cold. 

Well, I made decent time to Lake Hamanako and then Hamamatsu, around 95kms in, just as it got dark. Still dry, still not too cold. 

Approaching the Route Inn on the west side of Hamanakako where Jerome and I stopped on a 600k a few years back ... in torrential rain.

At Lake Inohana ... connects to Hamanakako

Local roads in the area around Toyokawa in SE Aichi

Plenty of old roads along coastal areas here. Lots of history. 

Not a tailwind, as promised, but also not headwind. I was riding with another Audax member, but he ducked into a pre-identified tiny local restaurant for an unagi dinner. I rode maybe another hour making, I felt, excellent time through the area close to the coast east of Hamamatsu. Jerome and I had slogged through here on a 600km event a few years ago, in Thursday rush hour traffic. This was much better -- deserted roads at 8PM on a Saturday evening. And still only a hint of drizzle, not enough to put on rain pants or even my rain shell. 

Soon that changed and the rain fell, light at first, and not too cold.  I put on rain pants and continued, but my average speed was slipping. My rain pants were sliding down my butt as I rode and I would need to hoist them again every 15 minutes or so. By the time I got past Hamaoka with its massive nuclear plant and into Fujieda area. It was late in the evening. And raining still.  

I climbed the hill between Fujieda-shi and Shizuoka-shi, and after a few mis-course turns finally got back on the correct side road to the check point, which was the major mid-course setup by the organizers.  The checkpoint was a kind of camp site, with some covered picnic table ... I think a kind of gazebo and some rain tarps, and they had prepared a massive amount of food for riders. A large number of potential participants had reported "DNS" due to the weather forecast so they were urging us to take as much as we could.  Tanaka-san, former head of Japan Audax and compadre of Honda-san and Maya-san, was there and said hello. 

My stomach was bothering me, but I ate as much ton-jiru (pork soup - carrots, other vegetables, miso etc.) as I could manage, rested a few minutes, and headed on down the hill.  There were riders arriving and leaving in significant numbers and I felt as if I was very much in the "middle of the pack", at least not one of the very last stragglers.  I knew this route and how the GPS course would guide us to cross Route 1 at a non-obvious intersection, then and cut down a side road that came out on the western side of Shizuoka City ... I led some other riders who were a bit confused in the dark and wet. Eventually I caught one rider who had an annoyingly, painfully bright, flashing rear light that got even brighter when he came to a stop light.  I told him his light was not good for riding in groups or at an event like this (banned by Audax, actually) ... and eventually we separated.  Another couple familiar zigs and zags, and we were onto the "Strawberry Line".  I got a bit of a second wind and pushed through to Shimizu. 

At one point I made a mistake in the course ... and went up onto an elevated section of road in Shimizu that I am 95% sure is prohibited for bicycles.  Oops.  Too late to go back now, so I took the next exit, but that was well over a kilometer along!  By now it was after midnight and there were no cars at all the entire way, so I figured it was a "no harm/no foul" mis-course, a tree. It was raining harder now, and getting colder.  

I continued along the familiar roads to Okitsu. I had been planning to power-through the night and maybe find a place for some cat-naps, but with the rain and cold, and stomach bothering me, exhausted, I really needed an indoor rest.  I had done 230km, with an early afternoon start, so felt as if I had made enough progress to deserve a rest.

In the cold rain, every move was a "major production" -- it took forever just to get out of my rain garb and get into the Kenko Land, go up to the locker room, leave my rain/outer wear, go to 2nd or 3rd floor and find a place to lie down in the "TV room", full of men sleeping in reclining chairs. Most of these were not Audax riders, so I tried to put my valuables in a bag next to me as I slept.  I stayed in the chair for maybe 2 hours, but could not have slept more than 30 minutes. This was not helping. So I got up, went to the lockers to collect my wet gear, and checked out. Not a moment to lose.

As I headed down to try to push onward, I saw Tom Yahagi, to my surprise. I thought he would be WAY ahead by now.  He said there were reports of snow/sleet at the climb/tunnel entrance of our route over Izu. The rain was harder now, and was a LOT colder.  Really nasty stuff. This was a real winter storm. Tom was gone in a flash, and I was still putting on my rain gear minutes later. 

Back on the bike, I made slow progress toward Fuji City.  My gloves were soaked, my core was very damp, and there was a headwind. My stomach had not fully recovered. The only food I could find was at convenience stores ... no place to eat inside, so consumed out front trying unsuccessfully to get a bit of shelter from rain and wind.

The forecast was for continued rain and headwind most of the way back to Tokyo, including very nasty headwinds on the east side of Izu.

I needed to get back to Tokyo to prepare for a trip the following day.  I was not at all sure I could make it within the time limit if I continued, and I was pretty sure that, even if I did, I would be totally wiped out by the effort and pretty much struggle to even pack and do the few required things before my trip. 

So I decided to ride to Numazu then make a decision on whether to continue.  At Numazu, still wet, and cold, and tired, now in the morning light but behind schedule ... I veered left and headed uphill toward the shinkansen station at Mishima.

I can manage cold, or I can manage rain, but the combination of hard, cold rain is not fun at all on a bicycle.  My gloves, jacket, and stomach were not quite up to the task. The headwind added insult to injury, especially for a brevet named the "tailwind" ride!  And knowing that I needed to accomplish in the 24 hours AFTER I got home ... it was the right choice. A decade ago, I might have powered through this one, but I am older, and wiser, and not as strong today.