No Festive 500 - Festive 2017!

This year for the first time in quite awhile I am not joining the Rapha "Festive 500" challenge.

Of course, as always the timing (December 24 to 31) does not match Japanese New Year vacation, which usually starts on December 29 or so and goes until January 4 or 5, details depending on the calendar.  Rapha really needs a Japanese version of this, an "oshogatsu (New Year's) challenge".

More important, my sons are visiting Tokyo from the U.S. this week, and so it is not the most convenient time to disappear onto the bicycle.  Instead, we went (without bicycle) to Nagano for two days, and even drove part of the Venus Line (around Kirigamine, up above 1700 meters elevation) with a light snow pack on the road. Most of the places we went by car the two days I knew well from traveling by bicycle at a different time of year.

Nagano welcomed us!

From Kirigamine - was here during SR600 Fuji by bicycle during warmer weather.

Shirakaba-ko  ... usually come here by bicycle

Hot spring hot water at one of the Suwa Taisha shrines

And unlike last year, when I took a monumental ride on December 31 to get in over 500kms for the week, this year I really need to rest on December 31.

Why?  I signed up for the first brevet of 2017, which will be held from that Midnight on New Year's Eve (12:01AM, or maybe 12:00AM and a few seconds on January 1, 2017.

This is a 200 km event sponsored by Tamagawa Audax, with a start at Futako Tamagawa, within a few kms of my house.  We will ride SW through Kanagawa, get to the coast around Ninomiya/Oiso area, then loop counter-clockwise along the Shonan coast and Miura Peninsula.  If all goes well I should see the first sun rise from the coast line, and finish my first brevet of 2017 on the morning of January 1.

Unless there are events scheduled in Australia or New Zealand, the first finisher of this Tamagawa event might be the first finisher of ANY Audax ride in the world for 2017.  There really ought to be a special prize for that -- there seems to be for just about everything else in Audax.

Anyway, just because I am not joining the Festive 500 does not mean I am not riding at all this week. I did get out on Saturday with the Tokyo Cranks, go for Yomiuri-land loops Sunday and Monday, as well as a ride this morning (67 kms) out the Tamagawa, then Onekan/Tank Road and back, and hope I will be able to do another morning ride tomorrow. The weather has been dry most days at least.  So maybe I can end up with a Festive 300 and a good start to 2017? 

Santa Claus garb? Worn on 12/24 and 12/25

Tamagawa on 12/29

Solar project at end of the Tank Road on 12/29

Rapha Brevet Collection?

Randonneuring, Audax, Brevets.

These words bring to mind activity that historically has been near the low end of the cycling style spectrum.

I can remember the first time I saw a group of randonneurs on a brevet in Japan. I had just climbed up the South side of Yamanakako on Route 138 and was on the early part of the descent toward Gotemba on a very long hill. I saw a ragged line of cyclists grinding up the hill on the other side of the road, stretched out in small groups and singles. Their bikes were covered with odd stuff - large seat bags, congested cockpits full of lights, oversized GPS units, etc. Not the clean lines of a stylish road bike.  And no Rapha clothing, nor Assos.  Odd shaped bikes - some road, some mountain, some folding, all looking a bit grimy.

From a road cyclist's perspective (not to mention a non-cyclist's perspective), a randonneur is a bit of an odd duck. Someone who rides in the dark, in the wet, and on a heavier, slower bike. The mental image is of an eccentric Brit (imagine an old Monty Python skit) standing at a crossing in the middle of some fields, fumbling with a compass, cue sheet and light in the dark.

This is all changing, gradually.

Of course, there are plenty of beautiful bikes on Audax events, though a beautiful Audax bike is likely to have a Brooks leather saddle and gorgeous steel frame rather than being a light carbon speed machine.  Even a few beautiful people (?).  And yes, there is Rapha clothing, and some Assos, Q36.5, and other stylish gear.  The mythology of Audax -- the ultra long distances under sometime extreme conditions -- has found a broader fanbase in recent years. with Rapha features on PBP etc showing that it is an acceptable part of the Rapha mood video-defined, "genuine" hard man cyclist lifestyle. And if the comparison is Audax touring vs. "fully loaded" touring vs. mountain bike touring, then Audax is fast, sleek and stylish!

The latest proof?  This Rapha advertisement that was linked to an email in my inbox this morning.

No, as the accompanying mood-setting video shows, these folks are not actually riding an Audax event.  Just riding trails and roughing it in the South Tyrol / Dolomites to explore the area around the Messmer Mountains Museum, where we stayed on the pavement during the Giro delle Dolomiti last year.

I want to go back.