Riding the Rindos of Odawara from Cycling Gypsy Cafe

A closed rindo above Odawara!

RAMAX was a joy to ride on mountain/forest.gravel roads.

Last Saturday morning, I was in the Odawara vicinity and had my RAMAX adventure/gravel bike with me. Finally, a chance to try the RAMAX on some mountain/forest roads!

Looking down to the NE from the agriculture/forest border region above Odawara

Looking down to the South toward Sagami Bay

Since moving to a neighborhood not far from Shinagawa Station five years ago, the fastest way to get quickly to some lovely rides is to hop the shinkansen from Shinagawa to Odawara (26 minutes, ~3100 yen) or Mishima (35-40 minutes, ~4500 yen).  Going to Odawara, I am in the countryside and on a climb within 15 minutes of leaving Odawara Station, instead of the 2 hours it takes from my home to, say, Takao. So far, trips to Odawara have involved climbing west up the old road (kyu-do) through Hakone to Lake Ashinoko, and on from there, or perhaps starting by going northwest around the hills and then climbing up toward Ashigara Pass from the east.  

But in recent years I have noticed lots of cyclists posting Strava rides on the network of forest roads between Odawara and Ashigara. And I knew that Michael Rice, who I’ve ridden with long ago on Tokyo-Itoigawa, among other events back in the glory days of TCC, had opened the Cycling Gypsy Café in Odawara some years back, though I had never made it there. You can see details here in an article from one of the Japanese cycling magazines about the café and Chapter 2 Bikes, which they are selling. Or you can see another article here, or a blog post here or here, and info about rental bikes here, or Gypsy’s Instagram feed here. (Mike is one of the hosts of NHK World’s “Bike Around Japan” show … from which some readers may know him.)  He has been posting some of his rides in the hills nearby on Strava, including a regular “grand fondo” he hosts for other riders, as well as shorter “test rides” he takes with potential Chapter 2 bike customers.

Anyway, I decided to stop by the Cycling Gypsy Café to say hello, before doing a ride based loosely on one of Mike’s Strava tracks. I met Mike and Glen (“Gypsy”), chatted a bit, then headed out. There were people waiting to test ride one of the Chapter 2 bikes.  The café is located within walking distance of the shinkansen station, and at a jumping off point for rides in the hills, and had a nice breeze on a hot morning. I could understand why he picked this place.

Mikey Rice -- Fully recovered from Gravel Unbound 2022

Glen "Gypsy" showing her strength ... and the bike's lightness .. at the same time.

The roads above Odawara were lovely. After climbing 15 minutes or so, mostly on quiet back roads, I got to the long “virtually no traffic” section of the ride. I continued and eventually hit the network of forest roads (“rindo”). I kept coming to large signs by the road that warned against “unauthorized” vehicles. They had a long list of exceptions, including 地元関係医者—someone local or connected with someone local. I did ride one rindo that actually had closed gates at each end and, according to the signage, was 8.9km long. But the rest were open with only the signs to protect them. I guess the idea is that people not use these roads as a short cut to avoid traffic jams on the main road from Hakone Yumoto up to Gora.

Closed road ... unless you fit in one of the many exceptions. These signs were all over!

There was even a Salvador Dali "melting" version of the closed road sign.

It was nice in the forest riding in dappled sunlight at around 500m elevation … but it was beastly hot on any climbs where there was exposure to the sun. I had taken 1.7 liters of water, topped off at Gypsy Café, and was running low already when I could not have been more than 40% of the distance I wanted to travel up to Ashinoko via upper Ashigara. At one point I missed a left turn (Mike had said the route generally “keeps left” to continue climbing the top of the ridge).  For some time I continued on the level. Then, as my bicycle started to point down, I got off and checked location. It looked as if I could continue along the side of the hill, gradually descending, then eventually I would point straight down toward the flat lands. 

I did so, got to the bottom of the hill, turned right to head back toward central Odawara, … made a couple short detours that involved really nasty little hills, and was back at the Gypsy Café in time for a nice vegan curry (*with cheese) lunch.  By now it was the hottest part of midday, but the veranda at the café was still cool enough to relax and enjoy lunch outside. 

Spectacular paint job on this Chapter 2 bike

Chapter 2's gravel bike. No, it's not made of wood, just brown paint.

Cycling Cafe Gypsy is a great place to hang out, even on a hot day!

Delicious vegan curry.

My GPS somehow cut off mid-ride, but I could not have gone more than 40-45kms. It was a hot day and a very hilly course, so that was enough. I look forward to more, longer, cooler rides out of Odawara soon, once the peak summer heat has passed.

One Last Ride on the RAMAX before Departure for Cascade 1400

We decided to head out on take the route of a recent 600km brevet that went out of town to the NW, then along the edge of the mountains in Saitama, and eventually through Takasaki, Maebashi, Shibukawa, and eventually into Niigata and down to Echigo Yuzawa.  If the weather held, we might get to a connecting route to Nagano -- Iiyama, then Nagano-shi, or even further, before heading back the following day, as both of us had commitments on Sunday afternoon.

Saitama rest stop

The Akagi Ice Factory -- where Gari-Gari-kun ice treats are made. 

Finally, Takasaki!

We made decent if not spectacular time (averaging 23.5kph moving speed for the day), grabbed an early lunch at Takasaki, then headed along as the road slowly, slowly turns up and eventually begins a grindingly long climb. 

Between Shibukawa and Numata

On the lower stretches of the Route 17 climb - water everywhere!

After a few raindrops leaving Tokyo, the weather stayed essentially dry until we got to the real climb toward Mikuni Pass (between Gunma and Niigata, not one of the other "Mikuni" Passes in Japan). At Akaya Lake, we could see that the weather was closing in and thunderstorms were approaching.

Looking back down the hill from Lake Akaya, our U-turn location

Coming soon - thunderstorm!

We headed back down the hill .. and up another nasty short hill ... to Jomo Kogen Station where we could hop a shinkansen home.  Jerome made it before the rain started.  I had trailed him on the last climb, and at the top paused to get out my phone and check that I would take the most direct route to the station. ... The heavens opened up when I was about 750m from the station, and the cooling rain felt wonderful.

We did not quite make it to Echigo Yuzawa ... we were easily within an hour of the tunnel that leads to Niigata and a fast descent past Naeba and to Yuzawa. But would have been a wild, wet, and dark descent in the thunderstorm if we had tried. And we certainly did not get to Iiyama. But it was a decent 200km day ride, my first trip up Route 17 from Shibukawa toward Mikuni in quite a few years.

Finally a dynamo light on the RAMAX -- the last ingredient for long rides.
The fork is not drilled for a rim brake so I attached the light at the back of the fork and used the attachment hardware creatively. Seems to work.

There is little clearance between the light hardware and the tire. Would not work with any larger tire. Eventually I will need to find a better solution.

New Wheels Day - Joining the All-Road Bike Revolution

The RAMAX has proven a fast and comfortable bike for long day rides. So far, the longest trip has been the 300km Beef Line/Green Furusato Line brevet in Ibaraki.  I have not yet ridden it on 400km or longer rides because of the lack of a front wheel with dynamo hub that fits with the 12mm thru axle and disk brake specification.  For a 400km or longer ride, I don't want to worry about battery life for my front light. Problem now solved!

On Friday, a beautiful new set of handmade GS Astuto EV36+ wheels arrived. 

The carbon rims are WIDE, 32mm outer width, and 36mm deep. For comparison, my typical Velocity A23 or H Plus Sons Archetype rim, which once were considered "wide" rims, similar to the early HED Belgium rims, have a 23mm outer width. The GS Astuto EV36+ are more like the Miche Graff Route wheels ridden by the winner of last week's Gravel Unbound, Ivar Slik. as he went 200 miles (322 kms) on a variety of surfaces at an average speed of 34.4 kph. They are a similar hookless carbon rim, 36mm deep, 30-32mm outside width. Even the current Zipp 303 Firecrest tubeless rim, which has a definite "road" racing heritage, now has a 30mm outer width.

Since the EV36+ rims are carbon, hookless and disk-brake specific, they can be both very light and strong. Indeed, the box they arrived in felt ... as if it were empty!

Hookless rims are lighter weight and easier to manufacture than hooked ones. They should only be used with a compatible tubeless setup and at lower pressures than a typical road bike. Given the width, of course, they must always be used with larger width tires that are designed for lower pressure. (The tires should be 30mm wide or greater to fit the EV36+ rims.) Hookless rims will help drive the high end of the cycling market toward the conclusions Jan Heine of Bicycle Quarterly/Rene Herse has been preaching the past decade in numerous Bicycle Quarterly articles and his book, The All-Road Bike Revolution: wide supple tires run at lower pressures are as fast or faster, and a lot more comfortable, than narrower tires run at higher pressures.

The RAMAX finally as it was intended--An all-road adventure bicycle.

Both front and rear wheels have 24 Sapim CX-Ray spokes. CX Rays are the best spokes by far, in my experience.  They combine strength, light weight, and aerodynamics. Unbeatable. Not cheap, but worth every penny. I used to break spokes regularly. When I switched to building (and in this case, having built for me wheels with CX Rays ... the problem pretty much went away. For an aluminum clincher rim, I would hesitate to use a 24-spoke rear wheel, even with CX-Rays, but for these wide, deep and stiff rims, with fatter tires running a lower pressure, a 24-spoke setup should be fine even for challenging, off-road conditions.

The rear hub is an OEM/private label model made for GS Astuto, and the front is an SP Dynamo PL-7. The hubs are for Centerlock disk brake rotors -- Tim Smith tells me that the Centerlock design, a Shimano standard, is better, and I now agree. It is a lot easier to put the Centerlock rotors on (and take them off) and to get them in exactly the right position than with the 6-bolt style I am accustomed to using. And indeed, the weight of the dynamo hub for Centerlock is 10g lower than the corresponding 6-bolt style from SP Dynamo.

The PL-7 is SP Dynamo's newest model, released just before the pandemic. It is about the same weight as the SV-8 models I have used in the past, but offers more power output at the same speed. It is noticeably lighter than SP Dynamo's previous disk-brake specific versions, but it looks and feels just as solid. The hub is designed for the now-common 12mm thru axle specification, which offers the possibility of a stronger axle than a 9mm QR. (Some hubs can be converted between QR and 12mm thru axle by changing the end caps, but most older hubs cannot).

For tires, one of Tim's suggestions was the IRC Boken Plus 700x32mm version. It is a gravel bike tire with a slick middle strip so that it can go fast on tarmac as well as handling rough or muddy surfaces. IRC is a Japanese brand that is not as widely known as some European tires (Conti, Vittoria, Michelin, et al), but IRC was one of the early adopters of road tubeless technology. IRC stands for Inoue Rubber Corporation -- headquartered in Nagoya and with production facilities in Sendai as well as in SE Asia). The Boken Plus has gotten some good reviews so I was happy to try them.  They feel as if the side walls are relatively supple -- crucial to making a tire fast. And IRC has a lot of experience with tubeless -- these hold air extremely well and, Tim reports, set up very easily.

Matched with the wide EV36+ rim, the tires actually measure at 35.5mm width -- and seem to have a large air volume similar to the 700x36 Challenge Gravel Grinder tires that were on the loaner wheels when I first got the RAMAX.  So while, for gravel tires, they are near the "narrow" end of the spectrum, for me they are huge. I inflated them to 55psi or 3.8 bars of pressure. I will try 45-50psi or even lower for rough surfaced roads. But years of riding at higher pressure has gotten me stuck in my ways, and it will take awhile to change the prejudice that a tire needs to be "hard" to the feel to be fast. 

I took my first long ride with the new wheels on Saturday -- 200 kms entirely on tarmac. The ride feel was comfortable and smooth as silk. My overall moving speed for the day, 23.5 kph, was about what I would have expected for a 200km ride with ~1500m of elevation gain, a long gradual uphill grind and much less downhill, in humid weather.  If I struggled at times, it had more to do with the humidity and that farewell party for a friend that I attended the night before than it did the wheels. Indeed, the wheelset is so light that even with the heavier gravel tires they do not feel heavy or sluggish -- a feeling that has turned me off of gravel tires in the past. Even with the gravel wheels, the bike still climbs well, and it descends like a dream on tarmac. What once might have been a kind of "white knuckle" descent at high speed at the end of the ride, was very relaxed though my top speed seemed no different.

I look forward to many years of riding with this wheelset.  Tim is already suggesting that I might want to try them with a pair of super supple, lighter Rene Herse tires at some point ...but for the time being the Boken Plus will do just fine.

Quick Onekan, RAMAX Among the Hydrangeas 紫陽花

 

Pre-rainy Season Spin on the RAMAX

This morning I woke early, as the light streamed in at shortly after 4AM. Tokyo really would do better if it could switch to daylight savings time for summer ... but apparently the elderly connect the idea to the post-WWII occupation, when it was briefly introduced. And salary-men do not like it, as they cannot imagine that they would leave the office before the sun sets. 

Anyway, I took a short spin on the RAMAX to/from and up/down the Tamagawa, home by 940AM to start my work day. Whenever I felt myself exceeding 75% effort, I pulled back. Just 2hr 30min of exercise on the bike. I tried to follow the advice that most of us train too hard most of the time and take it easy. I should do this 3-4 mornings a week.

The RAMAX really is just a bit easier to accelerate, easier to climb out of the saddle on, and just a bit more comfortable, than Voyage Voyage. There really has been a major evolution in Ti frame design with the ability to use "hydroformed" titanium tubing! I love it. 

Cold Wet Training Ride to Miura

Wet RAMAX leaning in Yokohama

Last weekend I rode the 200km Nishi Izu brevet. The 3 weekends before that I did rides over Nokogiri, Yanagisawa, and Mitsumine. The next 3 weekends are, with any luck (please, no more Covid-19 countermeasure cancellations, please), 400km, 300km, and 600km brevets I will do with Jerome.

So this weekend I could relax a bit, I thought. On Saturday I swam first thing in the morning and had music practice in the evening, so no ride. Sunday (today) I would get out on the RAMAX. Jerome, Peter J. and I made a plan to try Tsuru Pass and Matsuhime -- similar to a ride we did last October.  

But it was not to be. 

Tamagawa at Marukobashi

Wet pavement

Jerome with his 24x7 lighting - powered by SP Dynamo

The weather was on what the Japanese TV weather forecasters call a "kudarizaka" 下り坂. ... a downhill slope. Cyclists generelly enjoy downhill slopes -- they make it a lot faster and easier to go forward than a climb, but when used to describe the weather they are not a good thing. When I checked on Saturday night, it looked as if there would be rain in the afternoon Sunday, and the morning might involve a few drops here and there. 

Things looked worse when I woke on Sunday. There was a text from Peter J. that it was going to be raining all day west of town, and he was going back to bed. The pavement was damp and a few drops were falling, and the temperature (around 6C or 42F) was more like February than April for Tokyo. I also would have gone back to bed, but I am training for Cascade 1400, and that means riding sometimes even in less-than-ideal conditions.

I took a few minutes to check the weather forecasts all around Kanto. It seemed as if the best hope for a dry day would be to ride in Chiba or Ibaraki -- East of Tokyo. But there is no good way to get there quickly by bike from Tokyo. A train ride?  Then I had an idea. If we headed south toward Miura, a typical winter course, we might hop the ferry from Kurihama to the Boso Peninsula of Chiba and ride there, if the weather forecast held.

Jerome agreed to the change of plan, I left home at 630AM, and we met at Marukobashi at 7AM just as it started to rain. We checked the forecast again. Now it seemed as if there would be rain off and on everywhere, including Chiba. So the ferry would not be worth the extra time and effort, and might mean getting stranded in the cold and wet. We decided to just head down toward Miura and go as long as we felt okay.

At the south end of Yamashita Park

Sakura viewed over the top of a building (public toilet) in Yamashita Park.

Through Yokohama we climbed the slope and took the lovely hilltop road through Yamate, including a stop for the (very industrial) view. 

View from the hilltop park. This was probably a lovely vista 150 years ago.

After descending the south end of the hill/ridge and rejoining a quieter road parallel to Route 16, as we rode along in light rain, we saw a motor scooter accident on the opposite lane. The scooter must have locked brakes as it tried to slow and turn ... and the person riding fell with the scooter coming on top ... at slow speed. A pedestrian ran out to help lift the scooter. As we came up then crossed over, the rider, freed from the scooter, stood up ... but could not put any weight on the right leg. I could see a large hole in the right pants leg around the knee. Ouch. 

We could tell that it was a police scooter (with a white box on the rear for carrying paperwork to write up interview reports and issue citations that was labeled "POLICE"). But it was only as we got within a few meters that we realized the motorist was a police woman. We suggested she should stay seated and rest a bit before trying any sudden moves, and warned that often it takes an hour or two or even longer to know whether you are actually injured from this kind of fall (as a cyclist, I know it all too well).

Within another minute, a man and woman ran up with work clothes and caps that identified them as with the Yokohama Fire Department and asked what happened and whether she was okay.  She said that her brake had locked up. Then soon after came someone in a black dress uniform who must have been the local fire station chief.  He asked her if she wanted to report it as a traffic accident or not, as no one else had been involved. She said clearly "yes, I will report it."

As the authorities seemed to have everything under control, we headed on our way.  But I could not help but feel badly for the police woman. And not because she might have suffered leg or other injuries that would take time to recover. I felt badly for her because I could only imagine what a one-scooter accident might do to her service record. I had images of her being assigned to the reception desk or file room at her police station, for the next decade or so, whereas before she had been heading toward the detective squad. I worried that gender discrimination in Japan might make this a bigger black mark on her record than deserved. Then again, at least she did not need to worry about being terminated -- no regular employee in Japan does. 

When I used to commute into town down Meguro Dori, at the crossing in front of the Meguro Post Office, there was always a uniformed Tokyu Bus employee standing with a flag warning motorists to keep out of the Bus Lane (7AM-930AM).  I noticed that the SAME employee had this duty for many years. And last week on a morning spin as I came in Meguro Dori ... I saw that he was still on bus lane flag duty, though another five years have passed!  What did he do to deserve this? Maybe he never passed the test that allows him to drive a bus? Or a couple of fender benders early in his career as a driver? Some other failure? Or maybe something that made his boss really angry?  I hope he likes working outside. Anyway, I could not help think of him after the police woman's accident.

In the end, we got to Yokosuka and into a Gusto family restaurant before the rain got too hard. The forecast, again wrong, suggested that if we had breakfast, we might get another 3-4 hours of riding with a respite from the rain. We emerged 45 minutes later ... to more rain. It cannot be helped ... "Sho ga nai" ... the Japanese phrase.

South of Yokosuka -- last time I got out my iphone while riding. Rain got harder from here.

Finally, rinko'ed for the train from Kamakura

We did a ride around Miura in the cold rain, aided by a tailwind heading south,  fighting a headwind, and alongside heavy traffic, on the way back to Kamakura. As we pulled in to Kamakura Station after the wet, cold slog, Jerome said "I love cycling ... but maybe not to this extent." Then we enjoyed a wet bike-bagging experience, a cold train ride home, and, in my case at least, a hot bath.  I hope I will see the benefits of the past five weeks' training in the upcoming brevets!

The RAMAX performed well again. The Shimano disc brakes and Di-2 groupset, coupled with Panaracer Gravel King 700x28 tires, are trouble-free and offer a great deal of confidence in the rain.

116km of wet and windy fun!

Nishi Izu 200km brevet on the RAMAX. Sakura paradise ... then rain, wind, and dark. And climbs.

A quick rest at Dogashima while heading south. The RAMAX rests.

Vista south of Matsuzaki, just before Ishibu Tanada viewpoint

In foul weather after Heda, looking down at Ita, on the return leg.

After a cancelled/postponed 300km brevet last weekend, on Saturday I finally got my first "points on the board" toward qualifying for Cascade1400 with a 200km brevet. The event was held by AJ Nishi Tokyo, whose rides usually start from Machida, at or near the Cherubim (hand made bicycle) shop. 

This 200km event was highlighted online months ago by Joe Wein, who regularly rides Nishi Tokyo events, who loves Nishi Izu, and who has done a similar event several times before. When I checked in before the start, I told the organizers I was very happy to ride a 200km brevet on a course that I LOVE to ride, even if there is not a brevet. I would rank this as one of the best road cycling routes IN THE WORLD and one that rivals iconic locations such as Cap Formentor or Sa Calobra on Mallorca, or passes like the Stelvio or Galibier in the Alps. I have ridden this coastline North to South many times. But I never have tried the full coastline North to South, then South to North, in a single day. 

I was expecting a crowd ... but there were only a handful of people at the start area when I exited the north side of Mishima Station. There were 2 ride choices -- a route that went south along the western spine/ridge of Izu (the "Daruma-san") route because it went via Mt Daruma -- and the Matsuzaki route, that went along the coast in both directions. I had chosen the Matsuzaki route because it had a later 8AM start time. The Daruma-san route had been listed initially with a 7AM start, too early to arrive by train from Tokyo, though I saw now it had been switched to a 730AM start.

The organizers had capped the two routes at 20 riders each. And at least half of those registered had reported "DNS" (did not start). Indeed, the weather forecast showed rain was expected from mid-day and get heavier and heavier. The tenki.jp website did not look too ominous -- only "weak rain" until evening. But the Apple iphone weather site suggested we might get rain as early as mid-morning. The TV weather report on Friday night warned of typhoon-like wind gusts and heavy rain across all of Japan (though the worst of it seemed on the Sea of Japan coastline), with two low pressure systems moving from west to east and bringing potentially severe weather. I guess people were scared off. 

Anyway, I arrived around 730am after the Daruma-san riders had left. Only 6 (or so) riders were at the briefing for the Matsuzaki ride. One, Yo Okumura, was one of the organizers, who I have ridden with before. Joe Wein was there as well, with his Elephant NFE. They let us start early -- the briefing done and all riders signed in or reporting DNF. 

I really appreciated even 10-15 minutes early start, given the weather forecast for later in the day. And I knew that this would be one of the hardest 200km brevets I had done, if not THE hardest. (The other one that comes to mind was also a Nishi Tokyo 200 -- in October 2014, up around Mt. Fuji. The typical Audax 200 in Japan I have done is in January ... around the Miura Peninsula, or to Atami and back, or from Numazu west along the Shizuoka Coast -- all with no more than 1000-1500m of elevation gain. 

On Saturday, we would never exceed 300m elevation, but were going up and down constantly, and my Wahoo GPS recorded nearly 2900m elevation gain by the end. (Strava "adjusted" data showed just over 2700m climbing. When uploaded to ridewithgps, the summary shows 3027m elevation gain. The ridewithgps "route", which does not reflect tunnels, shows over 4500m climbing. Thank you, tunnels!) 

Indeed, a Spring 2015 R-Tokyo 400km brevet that went from Tokyo to Minami Izu (arriving on the Nishi Izu coast at Toi and leaving at Matsuzaki to ascend Jaishi Pass, and returning the same way), was as close as I have ever gotten to hitting the 27hr time limit for a 400km brevet. 

On the path along the Kamogawa

On the path along the Kamogawa (2)

On the path along the Kamogawa (3)

We reach the coastline at San-no-ura

I liked the route the organizers had chosen leading from Mishima station to the Kamogawa and its cycling path. There is no perfect way through Mishima and western Numazu to the Izu coast, but this was a pretty good one, especially the first few kms from the station. I will use it again. We started with nice weather -- cool, cloudy, but still dry.  Four of us started together and I tried to push ahead. Joe caught me at a couple traffic signals along the way and we rode together some, until I pushed ahead as we got to the cycling path. I know that Joe usually starts out slower than me and does not push quite as much, and this day in particular I wanted to bank a lot of time early in the ride.  The RAMAX is well-balanced for a TT style solo effort, and I could make good time with fresh legs over the first segment. It also gives me plenty of confidence on the descents. 

The route left the cycling path to cross the Kamogawa and cut East to pass near a historical iron furnace from the 1860s, then continued South up the valley to Shuzenji. The checkpoint opened at 8:42AM, and I relaxed the last few kms as I saw that otherwise I might arrive before it opened. I got there at 8:43AM and my receipt shows 8:46AM. I was leaving at 8:52AM as Joe and another rider (Hirano-san) were pulling in. 

No Fuji today

Imagine the rest of the mountain ... or don't need to imagine. 

Riding under a canopy of flowering sakura trees!

The climbing starts ... at Osezaki

The route crossed the river again and looped back North to Izunokuni then climbed a short (~75m elev) slope to the West, through a tunnel, and down to the coastline at San-no-ura. From here we followed the coast all the way South to Matsuzaki. From San-no-Ura, after 10~15kms of mostly flat riding, the route climbs above Osezaki and then goes up and down along the hill before descending into Heda. From Heda it climbs again, with more up and down high on the hill, until it descends into Toi Onsen. From Toi Onsen there is a flat stretch of 3-4kms, then a more gradual but long uphill, then a swift descent with some tunnels down to Nishi Izu-shi. In between Nishi Izu and Matsuzaki, there are more tunnels and all the up and down is quite short. 

More sakura between Heda and Toi

Toi Onsen

RAMAX leaning, just south of Toi

The entire way it seemed there were sakura along the road, there was little traffic (especially Shizuoka Rte 17 north of Toi Onsen ... a bit more as always on National Rte 136 south of Toi), the temperature was ideal, and I felt as if I had better stamina than even a few weeks ago, the result of a hard one-day ride each weekend, supplemented by a few shorter mid-week morning rides. 

This route was all familiar territory for me, until the area South from Matsuzaki. We headed up the familiar road for Jaishi Pass, but quickly turned off and took a parallel local lane past the Iwashina School, a building from 1880 that blends western and Japanese elements in what was, at the time, a novel design, and that symbolizes Japanese architecture's westernization.

Then we crossed the road to Jaishi and headed up a hill on a mountain road. This road was steep at times, but led through some very nice countryside. Eventually, there was a lovely vista, and then a parking area with an observation deck and a signboard -- looking down at the Ishibu Tanada tiered rice patties. This was our 108km turn-around checkpoint -- a photo of the signboard with brevet card.

Flowering trees and yellow rapeseed outside of Matsuzaki

Iwashina School

Near the Ishibu Tanada

Matsuzaki Coastline, on the return.

Lots of these or similar sculptures at intervals 

After a short descent, the route turned right onto Rte 136. The descent continued ... and brought back memories of climbing this hill in the other direction long ago. You get to it just as your fatigue tops out, legs in pain with lactic acid. There was an AJ Nishi Tokyo rider resting at a bridge at the bottom of this hill. He said he had come via the Daruma-san course -- even more climbing. We leapfrogged each other a few times. (I saw only one other audax rider, who passed me on the big hill before the Heda checkpoint, where we met a second time. He also had done the Daruma-san course. He was at the finish as well.

But to get back to Matsuzaki, there were more short ups and downs, and ups and downs. The view was spectacular, but my legs were not. In Matsuzaki I stopped at a Family Mart to get a nama-pasta ... but the relevant shelf was bare. I guess their afternoon delivery had not yet arrived. Not to worry, I found what I was looking for at another Family Mart within five minutes to the North. The food and short rest was what I needed.

I could count on my hands the number of rain drops that fell on me before the Ishibu Tanada checkpoint. There the raindrops started to fall in earnest. I put on my thin Endura rain shell for the descent. In Matsuzaki while stopped to eat, I added my shoe covers. Later on I unfurled my "Rain Legs" rain chaps. Then I switched to my warmer, water proof (err, resistant) gloves. What had been a "light rain" had, by Toi, become a "steady rain".  After Heda, I would call it even a "hard rain" -- certainly as I approached the finish. There was water in the road, puddles in places. As it got dark, I saw a big frog sitting in the road, in my headlight's beam.  Ten minutes later, there was a medium-sized frog, hopping left to right.  And later, a small frog hopping energetically. There was even what looked like a little sand crab sliding across the road.  On the descent into Heda, there were even some pretty violent wind gusts ... just as the TV weather had predicted. I had images of the recent pro peletion crash during the Strade Bianca where a cross-wind gust had taken down one rider, sending all those behind him flying. Fortunately, the wind quieted a bit for the next section.

Ashi no yu (foot bath) at Toi Onsen. 

Tourist info at Toi Onen

RAMAX leaning. Up a hill just North of Toi

The nearly two hours from Heda were just a long wet slog. I felt okay, no serious fatigue or specific aches or pains. As I entered Mishima I started to bonk a bit, so pulled off where there was an awning to offer a bit of a shield from the rain, to eat an onigiri from my back pocket. Before I knew it, I was at the goal. Soaked through, I bought a nice bath towel at the 7/11 where I needed to get my last proof of passage, and then dried off a bit at the Toyoko Inn in front of the station where the organizers were checking us in. 

How many finished? I don't know, but I guess not that many. There were a few riders packing bikes in rinko bags when I got to the Toyoko Inn, including the rider from the Heda checkpoint. Okumura-san was there, with suspiciously dry cycling clothes. He told me he had just ridden part of the route and DNFed before the rain hit. Joe reported Sunday that he and Hirano-san missed the time cut off by a few minutes in Heda, and slogged back to Mishima in the dark and wet. Did anyone else complete the Matsuzaki course other than me? I'm not sure. Indeed, this is a hard 200km. But it was just what I needed, following my last two weekend hard rides of Yanagisawa Pass and Mitsumine Shrine. If I can keep this up, I will be ready for Cascade1400.