Impressive

Can somebody remember a more cycle-intense Positivo Espresso weekend, than the one which has just passed? I must say that I am mighty impresses by the achievements of Sunday.

James is hanging out in Kyushu with the guys from WSA I know only to well. It seems that they are covering kilometer after kilometer will reducing the wildlife in wild dinner courses.

David, Jerome and Ludwig made some pretty impressive rides with many kilometers and elevation meters, supporting Tom to achieve eternal stardom in the Itoigawa race. He came in sixth overall according to his blog, which is very, very, very impressive. I am also happy that he survived the madness in the tunnels between Hakuba and Itoigawa.

Tom [left] taking a sharp turn down from Otarumi.

In the meantime I finished on Sunday morning in forth place of the 2A race in the Tour of Japan Tokyo stage. Well actually not me, but my alter ego Thomas Flindt who raced instead of me and even told the organizers that he is not me. But they didn't change the name anyway. I am lucky that this race does not promote me to C class ranking.

And in the afternoon I finished even better with the TCC Team of Phil, Alan and Naomi: 10th place overall and 2nd place in the mixed category at the Bike Navi Hitachi Naka 7 hour endurance race. Wow - cool guys. At least I was the investing hand behind the team's success.

Hm, I should really do more rides on the hometrainer to fulfill future expectations. But it is just too boring. I am totally envious of what you have done, guys.

Thanks also to Ryoko and Stephen who faced a sport challenge of a different kind; attending my marketing lecture at the ICU for hours. You were too kind.

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.

Tokyo Nariki Hill Climb Race Report

Rain. The sound of rain. Rain. I turned around and tried to fall asleep one more time. But unmistakenkly it was already after dawn and pouring outside. I stood up and looked out of the window, mist was covering the slopes of the nearby hills. As usual, when staying with the Coadies, I was involved in some serious drinking the night before and I didn't felt too well. I could still remember saying "No way" when Stephen offered me another glas of wine, however I also remember that the glass in my hand was nevertheless moving in direction of an open bottle. Why am I wearing this ridiculous pajama?

Tom has arrived already, he just came back recently from his trip to Belgium and is still jet lagged. He tried to beat the rain, but couldn't and is now relaxing on a mat downstairs in the house. It is Sunday, 7 AM in the morning in Ikusabata, close to Ome, and three hours before the Tokyo hill climb race, where the winner can collect a handsome price money of 100.000 Yen.

Finally everybody is up and Ryoko is providing us generously with coffee and a good breakfast. Still, with the exception of Tom, we do not look like a bunch of hungry young riders on the way to collect a fortune, but more like a group of middle-aged salarymen the next morning after a company party. Anyway, we grow accustom to the fact that we will race today.

It is drizzling when we leave the house. Somehow Juliane cannot get the shoes out of her speedplay cleats and it takes some time to somehow fix that problem. We give the cleats a good lube with the only lubricant we have: sunscreen. Not needed today. Stephen is nowhere to be found so we continue to ride to the race. First we go over the hills between the Route 411 and Nariki Kawa, not so easy if this is the first thing to do in the morning on a bike. Amazingly we see some other riders and they have are walking up the hill. Is this the competition?

We arrive at the registration, get some goodies and take cover under in some kind of barn. Julianes, davids and my bike are arranged in a pattern which is called in German "ein flotter Dreier" and where there is unfortunately no equivalent English word which can describe all the wit, beauty and deep meaning of this expression. In any case, we have hope that in some days we will see small Italian race bikes with 20 inch wheels coming out from this. I think that perhaps I should do some warm up, but I really don't feel like this. I look at all the other riders and bikes around me. It is just amazing, there is not a single "bad" bike, famous brands only, a lot of carbon, expessive wheel sets everywhere. 90% of the riders are looking young, slim and if they could beat me everytime at any race. But I know that it is not like that. I will overtake a lot of these guys on there fancy bikes with their 60 kg body weight and I will be overtaken by 50 year old chubby guys on mountain bikes. There is really no relation between the price of a bike, the look of the rider and the chances he has in a race.
Finally Stephen arrives as well. I never asked him where he has been so long and as I am getting excited close to the start of the race I don't need to know. I give up the plan to start in my Chinese silk pajamas and collect a price for best dressed rider.

There are some other foreign riders arround, all in all perhaps 15, so this is most likely the largest number of foreigner riders I have seen at one event. Tom starts a conversation and I later join briefly. Astroman looks pretty fit, he should be able to make a good finish.

We move to the start area and then we see Jacques, Stephan and Kenichi from the NFCC team. They have choosen this day for a club tour to Shomaru Toge and for some reason they are now at the start. Jacques recognizes me and comes up. I ask him if he would like to race, at this point I would gladly give him my Sekken, but he doesn't get the joke. But he is one of the most funny guys I know and immediately everybody arround him is laughing and relaxing.

About 400 riders have assembled at the start area and are now taking off in groups of 50 riders. Later I find out that more than 80 riders have not showed up [Hello Knotty], most likely because of the very poor weather. But then, the temperature is between 20 and 25 degrees and that's better than to race in the heat. Now it is getting exciting. But before coming to the race, some information about the race itself. I don't write what I thought the race would be like, but what I learned AFTER the race about it:

The original plan nevertheless, called for two runs of 5 km each on the same road. The first run was supposed to be leisurely and one has to make it to the top in less than 45 minutes. The second run then was supposed to be the real race. However because of the poor weather, the first run was cancelled and the first and only run was the real race.

The road runs up next to the Narikigawa. It is a typical paved mountain road, about 2 to 3 meters wide and 4.14 km long. The elevation difference is 383 meters, that comes to an average gradient of 9.3%. One has to take care because there are many metal drains on the road [Hello david] and some slopes are much steeper than the average, my guess what be up to 15 - 18%. Once out of the saddle one has to balance properly, so that the back wheel is not loosing traction. Or, if staying seated, one has to take care that the front wheel still touches the ground.

To cut a long story short, it is basically a copy of the Wada Toge +10%. Fast guys can do it in 15 minutes. I checked the Wada Hill Climb Time Trial website: Fast guys can do Wada in 13:39 min.
Precisely 10% difference. Tom's best time for Wada is so far 18:18 min, thus Nariki should be 20:08 min. My best Wada time is 21:56 min, I should aim at 24:08 min.

The groups are taking off now. david and Stephen are already gone, Tom is one group behind me, Juliane another one. Off we go, there are maybe 30 riders in my group. The first part of the race is not too steep, along the river and some houses. I can keep a good pace and I move up, taken over some of the riders. Thanks to the good training by Alain, I am not afraid of getting into physical contact with the others any longer, so I rechlessly overtake. But after 500 meter there is the first steep climb and I fell back. From there onwards it is a succesion of very steep climbs followed by steep climbs. But the steep climbs offer some room to relax. I loose contact with the fast guys from my main group and my heart rate goes off to 170+. Now the first riders from the previous group come in sight, mainly mountain bikes. They are suffering. And now I am getting overtaken by the first riders from the group behind me - oh they are fast. Yoshinori in his Belgium jersey is the first one. But he is way ahead of the other guys in his group. There is a second guy coming and Tom is then right behind him. I shout: "You are in third place" and he answers "I know" and keeps sprinting after the second guy. Astroman overtakes some time later.

I have now given up any hope to go fast and go into survival mode. I am used to this, after the excitment of the start, the next 10 - 15 minutes are the hardest one. However, I overtake some more riders from the previous groups and even some of my own group. There is a guy in a Yellow Alphahawk jersey how groans loudly all the time. I screen my memory, but I do not recognize his face from the Japanese AV's I have seen in my life. I am down to 10 km/hr and still HR 170 but I am managing one steep slopes and one hairneedle curve after another. Sometimes my back wheel is slipping on the ground but so far no critical situations.

More steep slopes and more hair needles. My cadence is going down and I am more and more relying on brute power than on spin. I feel like giving up, but somehow I manage to stay focused. A mountainbike on 1:1 gear ratio is passing by, the rider spinning like hell. I catch up on him again and see some riders who have gotten off their bikes and moving them up the hill. No way, that I will do the same thing I think and move on.

I have now covered about 350 meter of climbing and I mistakenly think that there are 150 meters still in front of me. Behind me, I can hear #396, Ueda-san, aka the rider in the yellow Alpha Hawk jersey. It seems that he is now experiencing his seventh orgasm of the race. He overtakes me, I think let him go, or come, I will catch him later when he has his cigarette after.

But now there is a group of people standing on a corner, one foreigner is shouting: "Only one more bend". I can't believe it, I thought the race would be longer. So I asked stupidely "Really?" and he is answering postive and I think OK, I go into sprint mode. I quickly take up speed, but Ueda-san is already too far away. Obviously he has done his research and mapped a good strategy. I can still overtake one more mountain bike rider from my group (#374) and which substantially improves the result from 269th to 268th place out of 403 attendants. The time is 25:16 min which is less than I have expected (after making the Wada calculations after the race, without the calculations I was aiming for less than 30 minutes).

Stephen has come in slightly earlier, so I did not manage to make 2 minutes time on him. he finishes in 318th place with 27:05 min. Tom is already there since a long time, he has made 2nd place in his starting group and overall 77th with 19:37 min; clearly better than his Wada benchmark. He should try to set a new Wada Toge Baka record. david is also hanging arround, waiting for Juliane to come. He has finished in 24:35 min, 245th place. He also seems to be 36 years old, according to the result list.

We are waiting for Juliane. There she is. Amazing. I mean, how good she looks after such a hard race. Oh yes, and she also felt good, she says, she could have even gone faster but was also unsure about where the goal would be. So she finishes overall #206 in 23:10 min, but more important, in 2nd place of the women category. Unfortunately the second place does not receive 100.00 Yen, but zero. david is looking happy as well. The expected outcome, Tom clearly better than everybody else, and Juliane, david, me and Stephen very close together. I don't know the TCC riders so well, but Astroman made finished with 20:07 min in 90th place. Most impressive is Dennis, who managed an incredible 36th place with 18:15 min.
So we hang a little bit around at the goal area and I speak with some of the other riders. There are some Cervelo bikes and some nice guys from a club in Kamakura. I am happy that this race is over and given the fact that I am not a hill climber, I am also satisfied with my result. I guess I would have made first place, not in my age, but in my weight group (> 100 kg with bike, I have some pretty big water bottles). The general atmosphere on top of the mountain is not really inviting but it is easy to speak with many riders. Water melon pieces are handed out. Juliane has just eaten one and as this is organic, 100% natural stuff I think it is absolutely politically correct to throw this over one's shoulder into the scrubs. She does it, turns around and the next thing I see is a hailstorm of water melon pieces flying in the same directions. Obviously some other riders had the same problem and looked for directions. Japan.
We then move down to the start area are the last riders have arrived. The winner had a time of 15:01 min, and there were only two riders with times over 45 minutes, so the cut is very generous indeed. The complete results are here.

We don't wait for the ceremony and the free potatoes to be handed out. Potatoes for Germans, really, I could think of nothing more practical. So we go again over the hills and head back to the house in Ikusabata, where the house warming party is already in full swing.

There are a lot of nice people and a lot of good food. Dennis shows up and clearly, he is not only a very skilled rider and generous person, but also the best dressed guy I have ever seen at a after race party.Apparently he have picked up his new line of clothing during a recent trip to Equador. I am not 100% sure if I should believe this, but the combination with davids trousers on the left would have been even more vivid and colorful.

We are in good mood but after all the suffering it is time to go home. It is however raining hard. Later I see in the news that this has been a very rainy day for the Kanto area. But again, we were lucky that we didn't had to race in the heat.

All in all a very nice racing day to remember. A special thanks to Ryoko and Stephen for organizing the entry to the races for all of us and providing us with food and shelter.

Race Schedule

I would like to give some information about some of the interesting upcoming races and perhaps some of the Positivo Espresso riders are interested to join? After all we had a very good performance at the Itoigawa Fast Run last weekend.

TSUKUBA 8 HOURS ENDURANCE RACE ON JULY 19th

A classic. The first race I ever attended, together with Juliane and Veloz in 2003. Eight hours as a team on a pretty flat, fast 2 km car racing track. If the weather is good lots of fun and camping and so. Alain Raposo, Olivier Brosse (both from NFCC) and me have tentatively registered as a 3 men team but we can expand at any time.
Please join us. Even today my son remembers the cheer leaders there.

SHUZENJI 5 HOURS ENDURANCE RACE ON JULY 25th

Again a classic. Unforgettable performance by Arndt, david and me in 2006, topped by an even better performance of david, David, Tom and me in 2007. First Team trophy for Positivo Espresso. Don't you feel the urge to defend it?

TOUR DE MIYAKOJIMA ON JULY 5/6

The race we have been waiting for: 100km or 100 miles, as you like on the beautiful island of Miyakojima. The most beautiful beaches I have been to. Great traffic free roads and can be easily reached within 4 hours from Haneda airport. Ok, it is expensive, but this is a top event.

TOKYO HILL CLIMB ON AUGUST 17TH

Ryoko has informed me about this one. Is just around the corner and would be perfect for all of us - provided we are in Tokyo during August.

Anyway, please let me know, I will help you with the organisation and everything.

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.