Cervelo Farewell Rides

My new Canyon frameset left Koblenz, Germany on Friday the 16th.  It made it to Narita (via Shenzhen and United Parcel Service) on Thursday the 22nd, just before this 3-day weekend.  I hope it will actually get delivered early this coming week.

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Last weekend, on Sunday the 18th, Didier and I rode in muggy weather up Wada Pass via the Rindo approach.  On the climb, my first trip to Wada since before summer, I somehow got into my head that Wada Pass had an elevation of 600 meters, 210 meters higher than Otarumi ... but eventually as the road kept headed up, was forced to acknowledge that the top is 700 meters.  Of course, the Rindo approach we took goes another 40 meters or so higher to 740 meters elevation, before you approach the Pass descending along the spine of the ridge.

We returned via the "main" road down from the Pass - Jimba Kaido - and saw many Japanese riders suffering in the heat, struggling to turn over their cranks, or resting by the roadside having abandoned part way up the climb -- five years ago that would have been me!  And at one point, a car I had been stuck behind met 3 cars coming up the road on a narrow stretch -- instant gridlock that allowed me to pass and continue the climb without any traffic. ... No photos though.  Thanks Didier for a nice ride.
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Saturday September 24.  The Cervelo enjoys a well-deserved rest in dappled shade and a cool breeze, outside a courtyard restaurant on the hillside above the South shore of Sagami-ko.

Yesterday, Saturday the 24th, I rode with Fumiki, Tim, Thomas and Travis of TCC on their O-Toge time trial.  It was nice to enjoy a true Cat 1 climb and beautiful weather in the countryside on the 2007 Cervelo R3 SL.  I suspect I can count on one hand the remaining rides on this frame, which has served me so well these past 4 years.

A question for Positivistas everywhere:  if by obscure tradition some Japanese cycling clubs insist upon burying a punctured tire tube at the end of its useful life, what does one do with an older, slightly scratched up carbon frame?  Maybe touch up the scratches with paint and hang it on a wall?    Maybe sell it on Yahoo auctions ("rare XL (61cm virtual) size not sold at Japanese retailers, only crashed a few times, rarely raced, AS IS condition")?

Maybe apply the Transalp elevation profile decals again?  Add some other custom markings with my name such as:

"Paris-Brest-Fresnay sur Sarthe, 2011 Metric Millenium",
"Schwalbe TOUR Transalp Finisher, 2009 and 2011",
"Tokyo Itoigawa Fast Run, 2008 and 2011"
"Etape Acte 2, 2011, 1390th place",

or even the undeserved

"JCRC Class C Racer"?

Does it need some personalized high points to accompany the manufacturer's small "Paris Roubaix 2006, Fabian Cancellara" decal and the Positivo decal on the seat stays, or would that just clutter up an attractive design?

SHHHhhhh no talking we're training!!!

My morning actually started badly with the valve extended venting air from my SRAM wheels and I didn't release until after I had swapped out inner tubes. With 5 minutes to eat breakfast, switch my climbing cassette to my Ultegra wheels I set of with 50 minutes to cover the 25km from my house to Tamawagarabashi. 43.33 later I was at the meeting spot... with the blood up I was ready to train.


Once everyone was assembled we...... well ...I headed out... as people were still making idle chat as when I looked behind they were still at the bridge... ok i thought, there is a few of them and Jules and Clay will bridge the gap! Wrong.

Finally reaching the next stop at Takao 7-11 Steve and Fumiki were waiting for us and in true Positivo tradition the plan amongst the traditionalists was changed. (As a newbie I'm still not used to this riding style and maybe in another 10 years I would have learned to uphold this tradition)

With only Fumiki and me sticking to the original plan we headed out with Clay and Jules who had decided to climb O-Toge and would be with us along Route 20. With Clay setting the pace of the Delorean from “Back To the Future” we shot off up Otarumi, Clay taking the victory easily and leaving myself and Jules to fight for the scraps and on the second to last bend I launched my attack taking 2nd and completing the TT in 11:46, not enough to beat my record but still a fast time.

Jules and Clay pass two hikers on Otarumi

Fumiki was taken by surprise of the sudden race to the summit and failed to catch a wheel, he still came in very strong and the 4 of us descend Route 20 towards Sarunobashi where we would part company with Jules and Clay.



As it happened a few unlucky reds put a gap between us of around 200meters and we would only get a glimpse of the two now and again before finally losing them altogether in the twisting roads.

We made a very brief stop at to get water at Sarunobashi before heading up towards Matsuhime. Not wanting to get caught in the midday sun we attacked the mountain without remorse and I reached the summit at 11:06 – 116km in 4hour 11 minutes of riding time. Fumiki was going strong and with me shouting encouragement from the goal he put in a valiant and heroic sprint for the line.

Fumiki looking very composed after his final 100m sprint up Matsuhime!

A quick stop to take a photo as this was Fumiki’s first ever time to climb Matsuhime and we were off again. A very fast descent to the village where we used the farmers tap to refill our bottles and sprinted off towards Okutama.

We stopped here for Fumiki to get some Calorie Mate and some honeycomb that reminds me of seaside walks in Brighton and Southsea and to try and reach Hiroshi-san who wanted to know how we were doing as he intended to meet up with us.

Alas with no signal we decided to press on and we attacked Kazahari (Is that correct??) at 12:17....not so much fun in the heat of midday, I love this climb also and we both made good progress. We slowly started to drift apart and it became a solo battle between us and the mountain. I was feeling on form and was passing cyclists at a very good rate. I have no idea where this time trial finishes so all of my times have been at the Sasanogone Car Park (SP?) which is the first car park right after the Tomin no Mori rest area if you were to climb it from Motoshuku. I didn’t take this as a TT as I was starting to feel the burn but made it to the car park in 00:43:33.

There were a lot of bikers on the mountain and they were only riding half way up.... those that rode to the top were in for a surprise as the police were out in force with a drag net.... they must have made a pretty penny that day.

With Fumiki back in tow we headed to Tomin no Mori rest area to get some food... probably due to all the motor bike riders waiting for their tickets to be issued anything remotely nutritional was gone as was all the bottled water. Fumiki showed me the location of a tap and free water... Good Lad!

We descended the mountain and blasted through the country lanes, Fumiki is a lot more cautious than I on these narrow roads and we were separated until Hinohara Village Hall.

Once assembled again we blasted off down Route 7 towards Fussa and the Birugoya, Fumiki used the last of his energy to take a pull at the front and once on the Tamagawa we made another quick stop for liquids and to comment on just how hard we were going.

I pulled Fumiki along the Tamagawa and as we came to Y’s Road and the 7-11 we both looked at each other with that “I need food please stop” look. Finding a warm bit of concrete we both tried to replace the calories we had burnt and commented on the epic journey behind us the ridiculous pace we were setting.

We donned our helmets and mounted our steeds like war weary soldiers knowing that they had no choice but to push the attack and we headed out on the final stretch. We decided to use the road as the cycle path was busy and would not allow us to keep the 34-35kph pace we were setting and before long we had a Tama warrior sucking wheel.... I decided to have a little fun and make a sprint... even after 200km I was pumping away at 50+ kph just to have some fun with the guy.

We quickly reached the Tamagawara Bride were we posed for the second photo of the day and headed out for home.

211km behind us and Solo rides ahead, back at Tamawagara Bashi ready to Die.

I finally reached home smack bang at 5pm with a distance of 235.8km, 3,380 meters of climbing at a pace of 28.6kph, with a riding time of 8 hours 15 minutes.

Fumiki it was a pleasure riding with you, it truly was an epic ride and I hope you not in too much pain today!

Impressions from my Sayonara Ride

It is very strange to write in detail about one's own Sayonara ride while one is still in Japan. So I would like to make a few comments here and there only, post some pics and thank everybody who came along and send me off to the far shores of Germany. Still it is hard to write something which hasn't been written already a thousand times before. But you have given very much to me and I am very thankful for that.
So, we had a good time.

It started as a nice day in spring with the carp streamers high up in the sky. I met some of the PE guys at the Tamagawahara bridge and we rode off to Takao. On the way we passed a cyclist with an exchange frame on the back. Perhaps, I thought, we should re-start the TCC-thread about the proper content of a saddle bag and include "Exchange carbon frame" I thought before we realized that the bicycle free flea market was hold at Sekidobashi along the way. Just like cycling, the flea market has come a long way, from a hardly noticeable event to more than 100 people attending last Saturday - not bad at all.
We said goodbye to Dominic who was asked to attend a ballet recital of his daughter before she will be send to Borneo where she will live in the jungle with the Aborigines for two years; hence the need for ballet education which will come handy.And by chance I also saw Zenbiker along the way at the Asakawa. Or perhaps I understood something wrongly. My English is not very good, sometimes I mix up easy words such as "fencing" and "fanzine".

The ride was not really leisurely so far, but we took the peaks out most of the time. Suddenly I was alone with Fumiki and (Ko)shu, but we all arrived more or less arrived at the Takao 7-Eleven. Can you see where this picture was "photoshopped" to get rid of some unpleasant detail?

A huge crowd has arrived already and I was very much impressed by the turnout. Doing my round of shopping at the 7-Eleven, I noticed a small detail at the Weider Jelly Stand. It seems that nobody so far was interested in Vitamins, Proteins or Beauty, but everybody was preparing himself for a "leisurely" ride. More energy was much in demand.

We then rode on through Takao, the Showa cemetery (where I once almost met the emperor with the zipper of my trousers open) and along the Jimbakaido to the bus stop at the base of Wada Toge where we assembled the group for the first ever organized time trial of TCC and PE. There was some reluctance first and some riders choose to disappear before we could get started, but overall we manged this quite well and we had a lot of competitive results. James time was very impressive and so were those of James and Tim on their fixies.

Here are some photos which I took at the start of each rider and which documents the various pro starting techniques which are acceptable in Japan as per Japanese Cycling Rulebook paragraph 248 b):

The "Handle is piping hot" style. It is not allowed to touch the handle before the command to start and Tim also never did afterwards until reaching the top.The "Ground is piping hot "style: It is not allowed to touch the ground ever unless a flat tyre needs to be repaired. Which happens every 20 km.
Zen-like concentration paired with minimum wind resistance in standing position. Headtowel soaks up sweat from extreme concentration.The "I am gone already, cannot possibly wait for your finger to push the shutter" style executed by Yair.
The Scottish copy of the previously described Hiroshi-Zen starting style. The rucksack is filled with real look stone made out of polyester to increase the awe-factor. Note: More efficient when rucksack is open.
The "When speed is more important than direction" style.
This style is appropriate for rides from Tokyo to Nagoya or further as proven by Travis.
This is Kim starting - easy to mix up with Fumiki as both belong to the blue men group.
The bike starts to move at 40 km/hr immediately after releasing the brakes. The "American dragster race" style.
Sorry to say, Steve, but this style is not yet described in the rulebook.
Please note that as usual Mike lines up behind Sergey at the start so that his motivation to overtake him is amplified by a factor similar to the amount of Japanese government debts.
.... as we can see here.

Sorry, there are no photos of Thomas, Graham, Tom, James, Kim and me. Our huge group was then assembled at Wada pass when I finally made it up and much to my surprise everybody was sitting in front of the witch's tea house. The witch was nowhere to be seen. Really, I never have seen such a sight in my life at Wada. We then continued with a fast downhill and the cumbersome climb through the golf hills of Uenohara. Tom had selected this course to execute his final punishment on me and also in memory of Paul Jason who rode this precise course once.

Nobody was really in the mood to start another time trial up to Kobu Tunnel (OK, I was not in a mood to do so) but nevertheless once David gave the "Go!Go!Go!" sign everybody started to move up quickly. I was staying with Yair almost all of the time. Already a bunch of guys were waiting at the top when I arrived and the others came in one by one. Steve almost crashed while trying to raise his arms in victory salute. He barely could stay on the road and in order to calm down he went for a pee with fellow Englishman Michael. Which lasted for only a few seconds as the warning shout "Naomi is coming up!". Steve managed to zip-up and to play the innocent bystander while Michael couldn't manage to stop.Naomi nevertheless didn't noticed anything and showed Steve how to cross the finish line not only in style but also straight and paralell to the road. Also I would like to mention that she was also so kind to finish behind me, I guess some form of Sayonara-present. She overtook me once when riding up to Tomin-no-mori and that was when I set my personal best time. Amazingly after a while also the Fixies were arriving. They had the huge respect of everybody that they could do that extensive climbing on their bikes. Still I guess that everybody else thought that theyr were happy to posses 20 speed geared bikes. I like this photo of James with enchanced colors. The bike itself is rather not enhanced. Cool helmet color, by the way.

And then we went superfast down to Itsukiachi in nice duells giving no rest to the wicked. This also continued on the Mutsumibashi road to the Tamagawa, where Ludwig, James, Travis, Yair and me speeded along at 40 km/hr plus. And what did I get for all of this effort? One lousy T-shirt from Israel!No, I was joking, I think it was the perfect present for the day, Thanks Yair.
As this was my Sayonara ride I rode out the next day with Ludwig to Chichibu, but this is another story to be told another time.

L'hitraot.

Official Results of the 1. Omote Wada Time Trial

I will blog later about the wonderful ride yesterday, but I guess everybody is very curious about the time trial results. So I will post them first.

Place / Name / Time / Comment

1. ME 24.12 seconds
2. James 16:06 min
3. Mike 16:29 min
4. Alan 16:48 min
5. Fumiki 16:55 min
6. Sergey 17:10 min
Ludwig 17:10 min
7. Tom 17:36 min
8. Kim 17:47 min
9. Hiroshi 18:48 min
10. Keren 18:55 min
11. Travis 19:04 min
12. Thomas 19:35 min
13. MOB 20:55 min
14. Steve 21:17 min
15. Yair 21:32 min
16. James 23:22 min (Fixie!)
17. Graham 25:02 min
18. Tim 25:59 min (Fixie!)
19. Philipp 129 days 17 hrs 12:34 min (of no riding)

It was fun and one wonders why we haven't come up with the idea earlier. Also the results were quite impressive - we are a very competitive bunch. To bring them into perspective, please check with the PE blog Togebaka (to the right, #2, the TCC Hall of Fame [Wada Toge East] and the all time cyber cycling list. James winning time of 16:06 min would have placed him in 43rd position out of 457 entries.

I also found a nice uasage for the jewish M size jersey that was presented to me yesterday. I promptly dreamt last night about cycling in Palestine.

Tunnels, Ice and Snow

A little bit late perhaps, but I don't like to miss the chance to report about the ride of the splinter group on Saturday after saying Sayonara at the Doshi-Michi / Yabitsu Entry. Ice and snow will play an important role so as fallen trees.Well, while Jerome, James and Dominic were happily chatting and riding in direction Yabitsu, our social ride came to a sudden end when Ludwig, Fumiki and me continued on Doshi-Michi in direction Yamanakako. As usual Ludwig picked up the pace and Fumiki could easily follow him, while I was taking a more "legere" approach. Sometimes Ludwig stopped along the roadside to stretch his back or do the opposite with his bladder and so I could close up again.All around us was snow and there was a lot of water on the road, sometimes flowing downwards on the slopes which we were riding up, giving us the impression that we were very fast if compared to the asphalt surface.But soon we had climbed up to Yamabushi Toge, the last pass before Yamanako lake and then descended on the other side. Meanwhile the accumulated water on the road and the additional spray we have received from passing trucks and cars had completely soaked our socks, legs and behind with water. That felt pretty miserable but as hardcore cyclists our codex didn't allow us to show our feelings completely, so we continued in direction Kawaguchi Lake and Saiko.Saiko was very silent unlike the JCRC racing day in November when I usually go there. As this might have been the last time to see the lake, I went to our favourite hang-out at Cafe M and said good-bye to the owner. We then continued to the next smaller Fuji lake (I forgot the name) and then took road 706 to the North in direction Kofu. This leads to a long tunnel first and the approach to that was looking like the swamps of Louisiana. And then we had a classic Ludwig comment which I would like to preserve for the blog readers:

Ludwig : "These are the worse road conditions here"
Me (assuming that Ludwig knows the roads ahead) : "It will not get worse up there?"
Ludwig: "No idea, these are the worse road conditions SO FAR."

I can imagine the spin-off of these words for future club-rides. Imagine riding over Otarumi to Kobu Tunnel, Kazahari, Matsuhime, Dozaka and Yamabushi to Yamanakako while stating on the top of Otarumi:

Experienced PE rider: "This is the worse climb."
Newcomer (thinking): "Oh great, the worse is over."
Experienced PE rider: "Well,so far"
Newcomer (thinking): "..sigh..."

Of course it wasn't by far the worse to come, but before we come to that we experienced a beautiful downhill ride from the tunnel at elevation 900 to elevation 400: Wide, curvy roads, nice slopes, not too much traffic allowed us to ride in the most enjoyable 40 - 60 km/hr bracket.

Then we stopped and discussed whether it would make sense to continue on road 358 through the long tunnel to Kofu or climb up on old road 113 (in use before the construction of the tunnel) to 右左口峠 (Right-left-entry pass). Of course I opted for the Right-left-entry-pass as I was eager to add more passes to my list and I desperately wanted to paste some Positivo Espresso stickers on the top.

So we rode back the road a little bit, then entered road 113 and were immediately greeted by a barrier to discourage normal human beings. Behind the barrier were some fallen trees on the road. Again, this might be discouraging to normal riders but for me it is like that there is the ghost of the road standing next to the barrier with a megaphone in his hand shouting "Ride me, ride me". Or "Roads shouting: ride me ride me" (RSRMRM) in reference to a long forgotten Japanese punk rock group : Seagulls shouting: kiss her, kiss her" (SSKHKH).

I could convince Ludwig and Fumiki that these trees had not fallen down there by chance, but that they have been intentionally placed there by the locals to discourage powerful cyclist such us as. So I crossed over and was greeted by another barrier of trees (perhaps not intentionally placed) and then by another and finally the asphalt surface ended and then a small gravel path was all that was left.I was some 20 meters ahead as I was scouting for the way when Ludwig and Fumiki tried to convince me to give up. But I didn't budged so they rode back to the tunnel while I moved along. Meanwhile I still had 190 meter elevation to climb and the surface was now made of snow and ice and landslides. So I couldn't ride up but needed to walk most of the time. A terrible thought stroke me: "What, if this isn't the road up to right-left-entry-pass?" Because I had fully relied on Ludwigs guidance, we haven't seen any signboards at all. And while I was sneaking up through the snow, already with a pretty empty stomach I wondered if this was really a good idea.

In the end I made it up to the top (naturally, who else would write this stupid post?) and there was the signboard indicating that this would be right-left-entry-pass indeed. I made some photos and then I realized that I had just climbed up from the village 上九一色、the famous hideout of the Aum-Shinrikyo sect who launched the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. In this place they established their secret gas-factory which, if I remember correctly, was called DAI-7-SATIAN (Meditation place number 7). When working for Schindler, we used to call our headoffice DAI-8-SATIAN all the time in reference. Well, that was close and despite standing freezing with wet socks and trousers plus empty stomach on top of a lonely hill in the middle of nowhere I was glad to have escaped such sinister place.

Now going down, would be a breeze I thought. Well, it is not easy to ride through the snow. In particular if you are going down and the snow and dirt clogs the brakes so even if you pull the levers fully to the handle the braking effect is virtually none. Well, I know know there is a reason for v-brakes on MTBs.
I ignored that however most of the time and before long I had a flat tire and when I checked more closely I also had lost a spoke somewhere (no idea where).
So in view of the road conditions I decided not to repair the tube as I had only one exchange tube, but walk down until I meet a decent road and then exchange the tube. This was again an endless walk through ice and snow. Sometimes footprints were on the trail, but as bears do not wear sneakers, I assume that they were made by human beings.

Finally I found the road, repaired the tube and rode for about a kilometer before finding a 7-Eleven and filling up with food and drinks. Ludwig and Fumiki have long arrived at the station in Kofu and were on their way home. They were so kind to call me from the station. After a seemingly long and boring ride free of obstacles through Kofu (I was by now so used to fallen trees and gravel road that a ride on a straight and flat four lane semi-highway seeming extremely boring) I finally arrived 2 hours later than them and took the express train home as well.

It was a very adventurous trip and I am happy to report that I have survived. Please don't tell my family about it and my apologies to Ludwig and Fumiki for my stupid insistence to go up that road.

Of course on the following Wednesday I made something similar stupid, but this will be the subject of another post.

THE BARA BARA RIDE

from right to left : Deej, Clay, Yair, Jules, two unrelated riders, Setsuko (perhaps)
No Davids in sight. Also no slot machines.

When we planned to organize a classic ride on Sunday, we didn't know that this would draw the biggest group in team history. And for some reason it comprised of only one David, actually the original one, now with beard. And, of course it became an undisciplined, unorganized "recovery" ride in the typical fashion of our team.

I woke up early in the morning still with very heavy knees as a result of the 200 km trip the day before with Ludwig where we circumferenced the Hakone mountains. Already on the way to the meeting point at the Tamagawa I noticed that I could barely ride 30 km/hr in the flat, neither force my heart rate to go over 155 BPM. But not to worry, as this was an official Positivo Espresso "recovery ride". So I expected some fast pace along the Tamagawa until everybody burned out and then a leisurely ride up to Otarumi and Tsukui.
Well I arrived on time at Tamagawahara bridge and already a large crowd has gathered, not only the usual Positivo suspects such as David, Jerome, Dominic (David), Bryon, Yair, James (David) and Michael on his Cervelo with new Shimano Di-3 (this is an upgrade from Di-2 which includes a small electrical assistance motor, invisble to the human eyes), but also Fumiki and his friends "Ko" and "Sho" (together they ride under the name 故障) and Deej and Jules from the TCC. I was tempted to collect participation fees and ride home (150 Yen for PE members, 15 million Yen for first timers) as a free and rich man.

And while I was talking with Fumiki as he casually mentioned "Everybody's riding already" and I turned my head just to see our group taking the first bend at the horizon. So we had to hurry up and chase behind the peloton. It was impossible to catch up as everybody in the front group pedalled as fast as they could and there was a strong headwind that we had to overcome. Finally at the bridge after Sekidobashi we caught up but at this point we have lost already Bryon and either Ko or Sho, not sure. The tempo was just murderous for me and I was looking forward to the point where everybody would relax; this was supposed to be a "recovery" ride.

We then rode the usual road along the Asagawa where we encountered a dispatchment of stormtroopers or perhaps baseball kids and where we left a mildly negative impression on the local population. Little girls were graping there teddy bears tightly and small boys looked up to there mothers, saying "Mama, when I am big I want to become a foreign bicycle rider." "Rather I will set fire to the house and kill the whole family."

We somehow made it to the Takao 7-Eleven where we re-grouped and linked up with Tom, Hiroshi, Nishibe and Clay from TCC. To the neutral outside observer we must have looked like a very fast group thanks to the strong additions from other teams.

I spoke with Jules and he asked me "Are you the guy with scars all over your leg?" How did he know? Where my lovely deadhead-diapers lurking out from the bib trousers? But I agree, scars on the legs are even cooler than shaved legs. And they hurt more. But the part of my body that hurts the most was my behind, as I did more than 400 km of cycle riding the last five days. I will refrain from posting pictures here.

Then we started the Otarumi TT and even before the official starting point Tom, James, Deej, Clay, Hiroshi, Fumiki and Jules went off like rockets while I stayed with Nishibe, Yair and David in a second group, followed by Dominic, Ko, Michael, Jerome.

On the top of Otarumi we took a group shot to document this historic event (more riders then average blogviews per day in 2008).

From there on we continued downhill and then took the classic turn to Tsukui lake. All of this still at very high speeds. Things became a little chaotic. I guess all of us took the left turn at the Circle K that leads to the Tsukui North road, but then not all of us went along the North side and definitely many lost track when we rode into Hashimoto. David proposed to ride his favourite backroad shortcut and I was hanging on for dear life, as I had no idea where I was and in case I got lost, it would have taken me days to find the way back to Onekan.

Somehow we managed to re-group at the Starbucks 7-Eleven at Onekan, but in the process we had lost Tom, Michael and Dominic who rode home on their own.

Deej, Clay and Jules started first on the Onekan, followed by Jerome, me and the rest of the pack. Just a few hundred meters behind the tunnel we saw Deej who was screwed. No, I don't mean that he was bonking, I mean, to be precise, that his tire got screwed by a app. 20 mm wooden screw, NiCr plated, judging from the look, probably made in China. After making sure that he was OK and had everything he needs for repair we continued along the Onekan and at one point I met David and Fumiki again while finally continuing leisurely with James along the Tsurumigawa home. Fumiki said that he enjoyed the ride-out but that he would now ride into the mountains to do some more serious things.

At least the last 20 km or so I had the feeling of a "recovery" ride.
So I guess it is time to propose two or three things here to "avoid confusion in the market place" (the most favourite quote by Japanese business executives when a company/competitor starts to do things differently than before):

RENAME THE POSITIVO ESPRESSO TEAM INTO POSITIVO ESPRESSO TEST TEAM

Well, the Cervelo Test Team is called so because in addition to racing, it also fulfils the role of testing the Cervelo bikes under severe conditions. We do not belong to a bicycler maker (well, Prolite, perhaps), and therefore we are not testing any bikes. But we constantly test the well being, patience, nerves and physical composure of all team members and therefore we rightfully deserve the name "test team".

DEFINE "RECOVERY RIDE"

Recovery Ride - As opposed to the common understanding of a recovery ride in standard cycling, a Positivo Espresso recovery ride is defined by the fact that most of the riders attending, will be recovered sooner or later from the roads by firefighters, ambulances or archaeologists eventually ("Hm, high BMI index and DuraAce 7800 group set - probably an investment banker from the early 21st century I would guess."). The average speed will be ridiculous high and climbs can be long and painful. However, regardless of distance and elevation, a recovery ride must include a statement in the official announcement that it will be finished in the early hours of the afternoon.

RIDE ORGANISATION

Again, if it comes to organisation of rides and freedom of individual members to do what they please, Positivo Espresso is second only to Bakunin. I understand that some of us are not happy with this and I can understand their point of view. On the other hand, the quest to get our unorganized, undisciplined team changed, i.e. to ride organized, perhaps even in a paceline (!) and stay together has been undertaken by many brave souls and not led to any success so far. I also feel that I am lacking the divine powers to change this. So perhaps it is more important to change expectations. An organized rides, in Positivo Espresso fashions means, that we meet in a somewhat organized fashion.

Sunday Feb 21st Classic Ride

I am thinking about doing the classic Ebisu - Tamagawa - Otarumi (Takao) - Tsukui North Lake - Tank Road -Onekan - Tamagawa - Ebisu ride this Sunday.

07:00 000 km Start Ebisu
07:30 010 km Meeting Point 1 : David House
08:00 020 km Meeting Point 2 : Tamagawaharabridge [Fumiki, James and me will join here]
09:15 048 km Rest Stop : Takao 7-Eleven
10:00 056 km Finish Climb HC Otarumi Time Trial
11:00 083 km Rest Stop 7-Eleven
12:00 103 km Split at Tamagawaharabashi
12:30 113 km Split at David House
13:00 123 km End at Ebisu

So 123 km loop from Ebisu, 103 km loop from Davids house and about 119 km loop from Yokohama roughly. 650m elevation up. Not sure about times before Tamagawaharabashi, I guess James, Michael and Dominic know much better how much time is required.

As this is the classic Sunday ride, I entered it at Mapmyride here.
Please let me know who is it interested to join.

The Cycling Tokyo Gaikan [外環]

We skipped the Izu tour scheduled for Saturday due to the poor weather and instead opted for a ride in the flat floodlands of Tokyo today.

I left the house at 6:11 AM when it was still bitter cold and dark. I guess my Ciclo HAC4 cycling computer cannot display temperatures less than 0 degrees although manufacturer specs are indicating up to minus 19 degrees. But it certainly felt less than 0 and it reminded me to check up one of the blogs I haven't checked for along while: Up in Alaska.

I choose my toasty Assos Fugu jacket plus the new Gore winter gloves with double inner linings. Moreover, due to the heavy rain and snowfall on Saturday, the road was still wet and there were icy spots .... everywhere.I rode carefully to the Rendezvous Spot at Tamagawahara Bashi when I saw some riders coming from the opposite direction. Later, when home, I learned from Toms blog that it was him and his Vlaams buddies on the way to Miura Hanto. Our ride would have been a nice one for Tom as well, I felt afterwards a little bit sorry that we didn't invited him to join us.
I met Fumiki, the Japanese rider who helped me out with my flat tire on the way down from Kobu Tunnel some weeks ago and Ludwig on time and we made good speed along the Tamagawa despite the ice. We were double careful in the corners and one time we had to move on the grass as the full width of the road was ice on top of some water poodles. But we managed well. The mountains of Okutama looked spectacular today, all in white and even mount Fuji was partly visible in the back. After a first stop in Ome we continued along some roads through Irima until we made it to the cycling path along Irimakawa. And after another break we were then on the Arakawa cycling path. Meanwhile it had become rather warm and I was sweating in my Fugu jacket and gloves.

The water accumulated on the ground was suddenly subjected to some sun radiation and we could observe some interesting phenomena. It is also interesting what happens long the rivers close to the metropolises of Japan. In Europe we would see a path along a river as an opportunity to cycle, hike, or walk or get out with the dog. Nothing more. In Japan the floodland along the rivers and the pathes on its dykes serve much more purposes. It is the only accumulated mass of land that is wide enough to do different kinds of sports, free of the obstructions of space and noise that are limiting human activities in the cities. Too theoretical? Well, let me give you some examples of what I have seen today:

• A whole parking place full of people in front of their cars practicing on rock drum kits
• A Japanese traditional Taiko drumming group setting up their equipment for rehearsal.
• A paraglider in the sky above Irimakawa (or perhaps Arakawa)
• Many, many baseballs games
• Many, many gateball games
• A unicycle relay race along the Arakawa

And probably I would have seen even more, but hey, sometimes I have to keep my eyes on the road. Ludwig basically went in front for the first large stretch, but I felt pretty good later and we always managed to go with 30 - 36 km/hr along the river.Now there were many people out enjoying the cold but clear day. At one point a small child just crossed the bike bath running between our three bikes and I have no idea how she made it through. It was a very close call and I am really glad that nothing happened.

Within no time we reached the estuary of the Arakawa where we took another break and made some memorial photos. I wrote it many times, but I just love to ride with my bike and experience different landscapes in one ride, notably mountains and the sea, and, in addition today, winter and spring scenery.
Despite going fast, Fumiki was able to hang on with us. Well he is still only 27 years old and perhaps we should groom him for the 2011 JCRC D class championship.Ludwig parted at Tokyo station to make his way home via Shibuya while Fumiki and me crossed the Ginza area (Sunday! Valentines Day!) and continued from Shinbashi to Shinagawa. There is this hill leading up between Sengakuji and Shinagawa to the Takanawa Fire station called Katsurazaka and as it has been on my commuting ride I have gone up there almost a hundred times. I challenged Fumiki to race against me and ... he won. Easily.

We then parted after Marukobashi in the area where my favourite cycle shop (Sekine Jitensha) is located in Kawasaki. It is run by an old man, I guess about 116 years old who has once repaired the track bike of Saigo Takamori when he was rebelling against Tokyo.

Half an hour later I was finally home.

One of the rare trips which didn't called for usage of the bike bag. More than 9 hours out today, total 180 km. Could have made less breaks but otherwise a very pleasant ride. Thanks Ludwig and Fumiki.