Championship Reflections

Someday in December, when JCRC will send me the champion jersey for 2008 and I will be the official recognized winner of the "2008 Road serise", I will definitely invite for a party, possibly at the Positivo shop and then close by. Until then, some reflections on the 2008 JCRC racing season:
For sure I had a lot of luck. Also persistence and power, but most of all luck. Out of the 14 JCRC races I have attended this year (counting the actual races, not the events), 10 have been hill climbs or similar elevation intensive races. And I am not a fast hill climber at all. But luckily some of the strongest contenders this year have given up in the midst of the season, or where promoted to C class. Like fourteen year old Nishimura - who continues to beat me at every single race.
And I was also lucky that the JCRC rules were in my favour. 60 points for attendance of a race and arriving at the goal without getting lapped. And in addition a maximum of 30 points depending on the race result. One could virtually secure championship by just attending. At one point I was at risk to be relegated to E class. That happens if one finishes three times in a row with a time 10% slower than the 10th place rider in a race. But miraculously after finishing 10% lower in the races at Gunma and Shuzenji, the next race (hill climb at Shiobara) was exempted from this rule and the race afterwards (again Gunma) as well. Finally I made the cut in Yokkaichi. But the most luck I had with the weather and that I didn't encountered any crash or mechanical problems. Weather conditions were good at almost all races, except for Hitachi-Naka and somewhat for Yokkaichi. My competitor and later friend Ishii crashed at Hitachi-Naka almost in front of me and I had to ride over the grass in order to get out of the danger zone. At the Tokyo race (not part of the JCRC series) also in the rain, a guy riding next to me on the inner side of a curve slipped and started to slide in my direction. Instead of cornering I rode straight and straight into the guiderails, barely managing to escape the crash as well as the rails. Is Saiko, at the last race, a rider crashed 30 meters in front of me during the finish sprint and again I was lucky that he felt on the left side and I could pass on the right. At the hill climb in Shiobara, I rode over a chestnut which punctured my back wheel tire. Luckily that happened only 200 meters away from the finish, so I was able to walk to the goal.

And I was lucky that I had no injuries, no colds, nothing. If anything, the JCRC series has told me something about the meaning of luck and that a tiny mishap can ruin the hard work of a complete season. This is not a single race where one can have a good result or not and then again try next year. This was my once in a lifetime chance to achieve something extraordinary in the field of sport and if I would make only one small mistake, I would have wasted my chance and never get a new one.

And this is actually the dark flip side of riding for championship series: I was very worried all the time. Worried that I will crash, get a cold, don't know the JCRC rules or simply do not race very well and that killed a lot of the fun associated with racing. At Saiko I thought that it might be too risky to ride along with the main group, and just cruise behind them at 30 km/hr in order just to finish and not to get lapped. Because this would have been enough to clinch the title. Just because I was worried, I would have given up to enjoy the race and sprint for victory. I did not in the end, but again I was lucky that I did not crash.

It is less fun to race when one has to race, in the rain or in races where one finished in last place, just because one needs to gather the points. This has been what I have learned this year and I have now much more respect for sportsmen and women who achieve their goals over a long season, be it bicycle riders, soccer teams or figure skaters. I will not try to repeat this again, one season of worries have been enough.
From a point of performance I am a miserable champion I guess. How where my results over the season?

1. Kawagoe : 30th place out of 38 riders in the goal. Got dropped in a flat course race. Early in the season I was in miserable shape.
   
   
2. Shuzenji : 25/25 Last place, of course at Shuzenji. Couldn't even keep the pace of the pacemaking motorcycle at the start.
   
   
3. Gunma : 37/37 Last place again. Was lucky that I didn't got lapped and disqualified.
   
   
4. NATS: 15/22 That was OK, however I also got dropped by the main group in this flat course race.
   
   
5. Miyakejima : 8/9 A lot of points for me because there were only 9 riders in D class. The 9th place was Stephen who I forced into this race. So basically last place again. The solo race the next day was cancelled due to a high poisonous gas concentrations.
   
   
6. Hitachi - Naka : 32/53. A little bit unlucky. First I needed to avoid a crash and temporarily lost contact with the main field, than I choose the wrong wheel to hang on (Alain), although that wheel normally finishes strong.
   
   
7. Gunma : 28/28 Last place again. But I was getting stronger; would have been lapped with my earlier Gunma performance.
   
   
8. Shuzenji : 47/48 Second last place. First indication of performance improvement!
   
   
9. Shiobara : 32/33 on the first day hill climb, 36/37 on the second day hill climb. Apart from the result, this was one of the best races this year.
   
   
10. Gunma : Disqualified. Got lapped shortly before the end of the 8th lap, despite being pulled by Tom.
    
    
11. Yokkaichi : 15/20. Could stay with the main field one lap on this hilly course, but not a second one. Was happy not to end in last place.
    
    
12. Saiko : 14/34. Best performance this year.

In summary, out of 13 races, I finished 8 times in last or second last place or got disqualified.I am not sure how others would judge this, but I think this is not a very champion like performance. My best finish was an 8th place in Miyakejima. Counting from the front, because I left only one ride behind me. Counting from the back, I was good in Saiko (20 riders behind me) and Hitachi Naka (21).
On the other hand I felt that I became stronger and stronger through the season, thanks to a lot of racing and long training rides. In Saiko I felt at the peak and I still had much power let at the finish.

I am really happy, relieved and whatever that everything is over. I am so tired as well. So what is in for next year?

If time allows, I would like to attend some of the races which are either fun to do or where I have at least a chance to make the podium:

• JCRC / ToJ Kawagoe in March, a 15 km point race
  
• Tokyo Tomin race in Oi Futo, a 21 km solo race
• JCRC / ToJ Hitachi Naka in June, a 30 km solo race
• JCRC / ToJ Saiko in November, a 20 km solo race

Then I would like to so some of the really challenging races in terms or elevation or distance:

• Fuji Hill Climb - 1.200 meters up with 5.000 riders
  
• Itoigawa Fast Run - 290 km, if we are allowed to start.
• Tour de Okinawa - 200 km solo race
  

I also enjoyed the endurance races, such as Tsukuba, Motegi, Fuji Speedway, Yokohama and Tokyo. Preferable in a team. And finally I would like to try some track racing. I hope that a lot of PE guys will join me next year as well.Much of the fun this season and much of the next season as well depends on the good composition and mutual support within the Positivo Espresso team. I am very proud that we have built up a team with very few constraints and rules on the one hand, but a lot of support from and to all riders. I always hated clubs, because one has to go drinking with club mates after the training and there is always this "Are you a member?" feeling which distinguish the good riders (team members) from the rest (not team members). There is so much time spend on club-activities and less time on the real purpose, the sport itself.

But Positivo Espresso is different, we have of course some hard core riders, some hard core bloggers and maybe some hard core drinkers, but in general we are open and inviting to new team members and try to integrate them. Sometimes I feel that this and that could improve and some things disappoint me, but all in all this is probably the best set-up I have ever been in. We recognize that all our members have their weak points: Juliane? Always late, or not there at all. David: Starts at 210% of his performance level when riding out, finishes at 21%. Tom? Demands too much from us non-hill climbers. Me? always too competitive, cannot loose. Jerome? Sleeps too long. And so on. But again, as a group compared with other groups we are doing very well.
This year was hard in particular, because many good riders left us. david went back to England; Marek moved on, first to Southeast Asia, later to Australia. Juliane will leave in December. Alain from NFCC who was a fabulous sportsman moved back to France. James and Ian from the Irish rovers went to Hong Kong and Singapore respectively. To loose such good riders and friends was hard. On the other hand, some new guys were joining us as well. James did a good job to encourage his friends to make even smaller trips out with us together, so did David. Laurent and Stephen joined us again. Jacques was another funny addition. Ludwig succumbed to the bike bug within record time. And Tom's daughter should be ready every day after conquering Wada.

So, in a way I guess we are all champions on our own and Positivo Espresso is therefore the team of the champs. I hope that I could make myself somehow understandable without being too melodramatic. I also do not want to write funny posts all the time.

Team Time Trial Performance at Saiko

sayonarA daviD, Zaijian Marek

On Friday last week the Positivo Espresso gather under the arks of the Yurakucho Yamanote Line. Older members might remember the place as the location of the black market after the war, where we tried to trade HED 4 wheels against bags of onigiris and vice versa.

We gather there because we wanted to say Sayonara, Goodbye, Zaijian und "Zisch ab Du Arsch" to some of the venerable and esteemed riders of our renowned club who will leave us in short time to head for foreign shores. david, who is heading the black market division of one of the financial giants of yesterdays, is heading to London, whereas Marek decided to continue to travel in Asia which, if we understood that correctly, boils down to visiting his new girlfriend in Shenzhen.

I think it is not appropriate here to list up all the achievements and memorable moments both riders presented to the club, I am sure that the whole storage capacity of Google would not be sufficient to capture only a fraction of their marvelous deeds. OK, let me start anyway:

David did many impressive things and I am not getting tired to tell everybody who likes to hear it or not, how he crossed THE ONLY RED LIGHT in the whole district of Okutama in front of the assembled police force and their voluntary helpers during the high season of traffic safety week. I still believe it requires a very rare combination of courage and fine character to engage on such splendid adventures. Obviously it does also require a complete lack of understanding of Japanese culture and basic etiquette combined with the inability to speak and understand the language.

Marek join us on many fine racing events, notably Motegi, provided that he made it out of bed in time. Almost all members of our club were waiting at one point for him during the early morning hours here or there. Marek was then still in his favourite drinking hole in Shibuya, where the beers were cheap and mates easy to made. I know, because I have been there as well.

He decided to leave the capitalistic shores of Japan to head back to a country full of the political system of his new defunct motherland .

For the last gathering Juliane and david have selected an exclusive restaurant with very good food and beer. But I should stop here and let the pictures speak for themselves. Those who were there know. Those who weren't will never be able to understand.

Juliane and Jerome revisiting their transalp roots.

david, Knotty and two beers.

Everybody started to engage in signing david's shirt. Here we see Ryoko doing her part.

spontaneously some by passers wanted to join. Like this guy.

Here we can see him scribbling right-wing paroles on the brand new shirt. We let him do this to contribute to international peace.

Please also note the tight trousers.

Here we see Marek forming the "O" for Ost-Deutschland (East-Germany), while mob is showing the "W" for West-Gemany and Ryoko make the "I" for Ireland. Stephen makes a smile for smiling.
Here we changed the signs. Marek is making his "I kill that asshole" face, which he does every time somebody is overtaking him on the bike.

We will miss you guys.

M back in T

I got the following mail from Marek:

"hallo michael.
wie gehts wie stehts !?
ich komme naechste woche wieder zurueck nach tokyo.
hoffe dass ich bald wieder ins geschehen eingreifen kann,
aber erst einmal muss ich sehen wie fit ich bin ,,,
habe seit 5 monaten nicht mehr auf dem rad gesessen ..."

So, Marek is back in town after cruising around in the Far East for almost five months. I am not sure if I should be envious of five months holidays in a row, but I would sure have loved to stay at some of the places he went to and see saw of the things he has seen.

Let's give him a big welcome. A very big welcome. A huge welcome ride. My suggestion would be the WTTIK welcome.
Or, Wada-Tawa-Tsuru-Imagawa-Kazahari. Short stop after that at the Maison Paul Jason.

The Positivo Espresso Jersey Design Contest + Entry No. 2.1 +

I have to admit that I can hardly think of any other thing any more than the Positivo Espresso design. I looked and the last version again and again and did some more changes:

• I checked some of the other WAVE ONE designs and found out that it does look good if you change the background color only in accordance with the different parts of the jerseys. So I made the dark grey area a little bit bigger, cutting over to the front.
• I showed the designs to Anna and she made the wonderful suggestion to arrange the flags like a ring on the edge of the sleeves. So I selected some other flags, including the Flemish lion rather than the Belgian flag for Tom, the Portland City Flag for David and the Moenchengladbach City flag for me instead of the seal of the pope.
• I put the Positivo Espresso Name higher on the front of the jersey, otherwise it might get compressed by an inflated bottom line.

Ok, we can have endless discussions about the background colors most likely.
But later please.

So after I did all this I thought, hey let's make some special versions for some prominent riders from the team which you can find below. Just by chance, with the yellow background, the cross is now matching perfectly the national flags of Belgium and (East) Germany.
Of course in case of Jerome, a completely different approach needed to be choosen.

Team Jersey Special Version : Marek

Otarumi TT & Attack of Suzugane Tour

David, Marek and me met at David`s house at 8 AM and left for Sekidobashi, where we met Tom. We went first to Otarumi Toge and than decided how to proceed. Tom was pushing us very hard against the headwind. For some reasons there were many firemen matsuri along the road, with one big one just before Hachioji.
When we were resting at the 7-Eleven at Takao we saw a group of mixed Japanese riders; we greeted the girls and tried to ignore the guys as good as we could. They went ahead but made a rest halfway where we overtook them. But they had some strong riders, including one of the girls and they overtook at least me again and perhaps also Marek...(Tom's comment...don't worry; it happened to me too 3 years ago and I was devastated. This young tiny lady with ponytail going up and down overtook me and no matter how hard I tried I could not stay in her wheel. It was the biggest affront to my pride I ever suffered in my life and from that day I swore to myself I would never ever let it happen again!)
Nevertheless I set a new personal best for the way up despite the traffic jam and a crazy bus driver who was trying to kill Marek and me backwards.
After the descent to Sagamiko Station we decided to split: Tom and Marek rode on in direction Otsuki and David and me went back over Otarumi Toge. I decided to push it again and was very much faster than my previous first try.
Now we had a good tailwind and constantly rode in the 35 - 40 km/h bracket home. After a break at the Y-Park 7-Eleven we continued our way home and were pushed by a newcomer who wanted to keep up with us but, because he didn`t know the pecularities of the Tamagawa track, almost crashed into one of the chainlinks on the closed portion of the road.
Shortly before Futagotamagawa David and me accelerated and he had no power left to stay with us.
My first trip of the year 2008, I am feeling well with the newly positioned saddle by Nagai-San. Let's see, if the weather is good tomorrow and I am feeling ok, perhaps I will go for another ride.
Don't know now what happened to Tom and Marek but I am sure we will read on either of their blogs later.
Tom: As we were making headway along a Koshukaido with very little traffic (for a change!), it occured to me that I had taken Marek to the Tawa & Tsuru touges (originally planned destination of today) last Summer so I proposed the Suzugane/Hinazuru touges instead. Marek always open to challenge as he is, liked the idea and off we were going at a real strong pace taking turns. A deja-vu was waiting for me...at almost exactly the same spot where Michael suffered his puncture last month, I heard Marek behind me using plenty of four-letter words. "It's your back tire, right?" My intuition was right but I had already noticed during our approach to Takao that Marek's tire was pretty much deflated...a typical case of スローパンク. We took turns pumping up the new inner tube after Marek removed a metal splinter that had penetrated the tire some time ago. Ate a few sandwiches at the 7/11 near Saruhashi and then we took the left turn towards Tsuru City for the attack of Suzugane...this whole area is pretty much virgin land for cyclists I guess...never encountered another cyclist on this Rd 159! Near the summit, a middle-aged couple who had just hiked to Suzugane's peak took our picture. Hinazuru touge was cleared in no time and we soon found ourselves zooming our way down Rd 35 direction Akiyamamura - almost one straight descent ending at the wide Katsuragawa river. I had no power left to try a reverse Otarumi TT and it wouldn't have made sense as we encountered a traffic jam on our way up...car accident. Parted with Marek nearby Y's shop on the Tamagawa. Marek has made a lot of progress since last Spring...super cadence! Keep it up and you'll be Positivo Espresso's champ Marek! What!? I just checked my stopwatch 17:57....I did break the record after all!! When asked by Michael, I had the previous time of the reverse Otarumi TT in my mind and with disappointment in my voice, I replied "just made it under 18 minutes..." I feel exalted right now....got to update the record!
Marek : What a ride ... thanks Tom for dragging me all the way (and for waiting) .. Apologies if I slowed you down. Please find my side of the story in my newly updated blog.

Giro de Hotaka

Last weekend, I met Michael & his family, Marek, Stephen & Ryoko at Hotaka. I was there with my “French team” to participate in the Day Two “Giro de Hotaka,” a 121km ride around Mount Hotaka in Gunma Pref. The size of this event (max. 300 riders), gorgeous surroundings and variety of the parcourse (more downhill than uphill) makes this event a very attractive & recommendable one to all Positivo Espresso riders!

One drawback as David pointed out correctly is the dangerous "touristy ride-cum-race" mixed format and this is what our friend Marek found out much to his frustration. Some guy touched Marek’s back wheel at the first downhill section at 40-50km/h, started to whobble and crashed! Marek, his wheel damaged beyond repair, was forced to sit out the rest of the race in the “broom wagon” trailing behind the last rider (which Marek told me was a pain to look at).

For some people including me, the event did not fully live up to its expectations. A lack of race marshals on major turns and intersections caused too much confusion. At the “Junction of Doom,” I led a pack of about 15 riders on the wrong road losing more than half an hour! Otherwise the organization was good…o-miyage maitake mushrooms, bananas & VAAMs at two aid stations, mushroom soup, a piece of apple & lunch box at the end of the race...

“Giro de Hotaka” + the short Hotaka Hillclimb on Day 1 is a two-day event I definitely want to participate in again next year. Hopefully there will be many of the Positivo Espresso riders going as well.

Here is map / elevation chart of this marvelous "Giro": http://www.ne.jp/asahi/bicycle/race/htkgiro/route.htm

mob: and here are the results : http://www.ne.jp/asahi/bicycle/race/result.htm

And I have some more pictures I wanted to add :

One showing Marek still optimistic before the start of the race. If only his speedmeter would have worked properly.

My family was also completely at the race and Anna our Aupair also joined. I hope that I can convert her during her 10 months stay in Japan into a cycling addict.

Should present her with the TREK bike from Tom.

TOM: If it's for Anna I'll fix you a special price!!

MOB : Did you see that Anna? Tom and me are getting serious here. I think you can do it, I mean you can still watch our kids, learn Japanese, go to HipHop dacing classes, enjoy nights out in Roppongi, Skype all your friends in Germany, get your friends to come to Japan, maintain your blog

ANNA: Ok, here is the deal: I'm looking for the kids, going to my Hip Hop classes, keep on stalking my family and friends in Germany (and get them to visit Japan), BUT: I'm quitting my Japanese class. Because I don't think that I need any Japanese skills during cycling... :)


Then there is a photo of Ryoko, actually taken when I wanted to take a photo of Stephen as he was assembling his bike before the race. But as he was bended over and showed bis back to me it turned out not to be a good photo at all. But just by chance Ryoko was also somehow on the photo and she looks here very mysterious like Bernard Albrecht from NEW ORDER on the famous cover of FACE magazine, designed by Neville Brody in the Eighties. Stephen and Ryoko are really nice people and as a couple very harmonious. I should be full of praise.