First Half of VCR Aoba 600km -- Am I Still a Randonneur?

On the climb to Torii Toge ... after the rain stopped.

Having cleared Audax rides of 200, 200, 300, and 400kms this year -- the last on a second try -- I had only a 600km ride left to complete the basic "super randonneur" series for 2025. I have done the series most years since 2010, absent injury or pandemic, and it is often an official pre-requisite for joining 1000km, 1200km or longer events. Even if it is not a pre-requisite, it makes no sense for me to try such a longer event unless I can clear the series first.

I signed up for two 600km rides, not knowing whether I would be able to join or complete either. 

The first was a May 17-18 VCR (Velo Club Randonneurs) Aoba event, out from Inagi-shi through NW Tokyo and Saitama, then via Yamabushi Pass and Chichibu into Gunma, eventually over Torii Pass into Nagano, and more hills in Nagano, Yamanashi, Shizuoka, and back to the start. The profile was daunting. I figured it would be a very difficult challenge, probably more than I could manage within the time limit in my current condition, but I would try it anyway as I liked the course, especially the opportunity to ride through Naganohara, Tsumagoi, and over Torii Pass, plus the next climbs between Ueda and Matsumoto over the broad, high shoulder of the mountains that stretch south into Yatsugatake.

The course looked very difficult -- not any one part, but the sum of the parts. The 600km showed 8800 meters of elevation gain on RidewithGPS. And unlike some courses, from what I could see the major passes did not have tunnels at the top that cut the actual elevation gain to less than what was showing on RidewithGPS. Any 600km event with over 10,000 meters elevation is in a special category of "SR600" and given a 60 hour instead of a 40 hour time limit.  A typical 600km in Japan might have 6000 meters of climbing.  This was was in between, but shading toward an SR600, without any extra time allowed. I remembered doing a similarly tough course more than a decade ago, but this one looked even tougher, and I have not gotten faster in the past 10 years -- the opposite.

Anyway, the course looked very nice to ride, so I figured I would at least try to do the first half, and see if I could somehow manage. I would ride my new "Mugikusa Pass" lightweight climbing bike, and use a battery light instead of a dynamo -- everything to shave off a few grams of weight and save a few watts of power.  I knew that once I got to Fujimi, close to the Nagano/Yamanashi border ... I would have 100km of downhill/flat riding to Kofu then along the Fujikawa to the coast, then after a few bumps,  a second long flat stretch, then after an 850m climb to Hakone Pass, downhill and then relatively flat to the finish.  So I figured, if I could just get to Fujimi in decent shape, I could press onward. I booked a business hotel in Shiojiri, leaving the climb up Shiojiri Toge, between Shiojiri and Okaya, and the very gradual climb up to Fujimi Toge, for after some sleep, however short it would prove. I have done these climbs when exhausted and lacking sleep, and it just is not very efficient and takes forever!

Staff (left/rear), riders (right)

The start was at 6AM at Inagi, around 27km from my house. There were no good options.  I could go out the night before and stay in a business hotel, losing any chance of early sleep.  Or I could get to Shinagawa Station extremely early, rinko my bike, take the first train to Kawasaki (I think), then transfer to the Nanbu Line to Minami Tama, reassemble the bike, and ride a few minutes to the start. Or I could just ride from home and get in 27kms before the actual 600kms. I chose the last option.

As the ride approached, the weather forecast looked difficult, as if there would be rain the first day.  And the forecast did not improve.  When I woke up the rain had already started, so I rode in rain more than an hour to the start. At least the rain was not cold, nor hot. The temperature, around 16-17 celsius, was good for riding.

When I got to the start at Omaru Park ... there were 4 staff, including Minoda-san who I've ridden with, or more accurately behind, on many events, and only 5 riders. The sign-in sheet was full of "DNS" markings. More than 2/3 of riders who had been foolish enough to try this one had opted out. No women joined.

Five riders and one pre-ride by a staff member. 14 DNS/no shows.

They let us go a few minutes early, and I was second to depart, behind a faster rider. Despite him being faster, I kept catching him a traffic lights over the initial 15-20kms.  Finally, I got stuck waiting at a gated train crossing for what seemed like 5 minutes, and he was gone ahead for good.  

At the holy shrine water stop.

Yamabushi Pass

Leaving Chichibu City

Another rider soon passed me, and the other two did also as I rested at the "holy shrine" water stop just before ascending Yamabushi Pass. I played "leap frog" with all but the first rider through Chichibu and even onto the climb out of Takasaki around the west side of Mt. Haruna, passing them when they took a rest stop and vice versa.

Michi no eki on the Haruna climb to Osawa Toge

There were two climbs around Mt. Haruna. The first was long and grinding, and still wet, always wet, peaking at Osawa Toge. Then there was a downhill, and a second climb that ended at the mouth of a tunnel. We descended through the tunnel and popped out the bottom along the Agatsuma River, just above the Yamba Dam and near our checkpoint, Kawarayu Onsen station.

Big station, no customers

The Yamba Dam is one of Japan's most controversial infrastructure projects. Its reservoir fills the valley and destroyed a great deal of natural environment. Local opposition slowed the project for many decades, even as preparatory work went forward. After the DPJ took control of the government in 2009, the project was stopped mid-way. When the LDP regained power in late 2012, it restarted. Now it is done. 

The reservoir west of Yamba Dam

I must say that this entire area looks far nicer now that the dam is done. They have ploughed in infrastructure and money to make it a success.  A few minutes after the PC, I saw a bus ... drive straight into the reservoir, making a big splash but floating.  I laughed -- this was a classic tourist "hippo" (kaba) bus, the kind of gimmick a bureaucrat might come up with to attract visitors. It was too far away to know for sure, but I did not see any passengers. Likewise, Kawarayu Onsen's main facility looked pretty deserted. Perhaps not surprising, given the earlier rain.

Anyway, as I emerged from the tunnel and headed for the control point, another rider was just heading out of the control. I was at least close to 2 of the 4 other riders, I was sure. And somewhere while passing the tunnel, the rain had stopped, completely. The road was already dry along the Agatsuma River. Only 10 and a half hours from home, and 185kms of cycling in the rain, and it had finally stopped.  Within 30 minutes, I even saw some blue sky. 

Climbing gradually to Tsumagoi, with a few bumps

The ride through Naganohara then climbing up through Tsumagoi and all the way to Torii Toge (elev. 1400m) was the literal and figurative high point of this ride. It was the longest climb, and Tsumagoi looked lovely, less beaten down than when I was here in 2020. Again, lots of road construction then underway is now complete. And I guess there has been some spillover investment as Karuizawa has boomed. Still, the climb is not easy, and there are some steep parts that were difficult with over 200kms and 3000m elevation gain into my legs. The sun had set by the time I got to the top and crossed the Gunma/Nagano border.  

Sunset at Torii Pass - Gunma/Nagano Border

The descent into Sanadamachi and then Ueda was very familiar from when I stayed in that area for a month in 2020, an escape from the city and the summer heat when everything was shut down. I had done the Torii Pass climb/descent probably 10 times back then. But it had been almost five years since, and it was dark now, and I was now quite tired. Also, I had an unfamiliar front light.  I wanted to keep the light on a low/intermediate setting, so it would last through as much of the night as I needed.

If that climb through Tsumagoi had been the highlight of the ride, then riding Route 18 west of Ueda was the opposite. It was a slog. I stopped for some ramen at "Ramen Daigaku" along route 18 near Sakaki. I apologized that I could only eat half of the serving, telling them it was not the taste but rather my stomach and the fact that I was in the middle of a long ride. 

We had dropped from 1400 to 400 m elevation by now.  I crossed the Chikumagawa and continued to the next climb ... a relatively steep one from 400 to 800 m. I needed two short rests to make it to the top. It was getting late, 10PM by the time I started the descent. Very dark and quiet, except the lights in a tunnel along the top. The next stretch, through hilly Nagano countryside over to Akashina, looked very familiar. I am pretty sure I did this stretch on my very first 600k ride, in 2010, but I did not save that on  Strava or RidewithGPS.

Anyway, by the time I got to Akashina and turned left heading south up the valley toward Matsumoto and Shiojiri, it was well after 11PM, and there was a brisk headwind. 

It was warm, almost hot. I finally got to the hotel at Shiojiri, after 1AM, checked in, took a bath, and ... set my alarm so I could sleep for 4 hours and then get breakfast before leaving, far behind the schedule I would need to stay on track. I needed the sleep. The front desk clerk warned me that visiting school kids would fill the breakfast room early ... so I ended up sleeping later and just grabbing breakfast before it shut at 9AM.

At Shiojiri Pass crossing into Okaya

I rode over Shiojiri Pass ... It was hot and there was plenty of direct sunlight. Somehow I felt no faster than if I had continued the night before. I stopped for some soba in Chino.  ... and went to the train. 

It was hot, I was cooked, I did not feel like riding more, even up the gradual hill to Kobuchisawa. I needed to get back to Tokyo and did so, via train. The Chino train station was not convenient ... I ended up climbing a short nasty slope, then racing to try to catch, but just missing an express. Not recommended.

I had abandoned rather than riding on. Surely a real randonneur would have kept going ... at least over Fujimi Toge and downhill to Kofu, or to the Shizuoka Coast. And with this, I had DNF'ed a second brevet in 2025. 

But in truth I was fine with my ride. I had ridden 316km before checking in at my lodging, with 4200m of elevation gain, in just over 20 hours, half of that in the rain. My hands and thighs were chafed from the rain, but I had done much better in the warm rain this time than in the cold rain on February 1. I had seen a bit of new territory and plenty that I had not visited recently. And I had gotten over the climbs, even if somewhat slowly. So I look at the ride as great training rather than as a failure.