First Brevet of the 2025 Audax Year ... December 15, 2024?

For some years now, the “Audax year” has started on November 1 and finished on October 31. This I guess allows riders to meet qualification requirements (i.e. successfully ride shorter events) in time to register for grand randonées (i.e. 1000km or longer) events. Most famously, PBP is held in late August, but requires completion of 200, 300, 400, and 600km brevets by sometime in early June to perfect one’s registration.  This, and satisfying requirements for some earlier long events, can be a challenge for those of us who have jobs, families, and/or other hobbies, as well as for newly minted randonneurs.

Anyway, I did my first 200km ride of the new Audax year on Sunday, December 15, before my year-end Festive 500kms.  

Unusually for a winter 200km brevet, the ride went out the Akigawa and over Kobu Tunnel. The climb to Kobu can be ice-covered in winter,  especially on the north side of the mountain. At least the route would descend on the sunny south side where ice was unlikely.  And, of course, winter did not officially start for a few more days.

This brevet, sponsored by R-Tokyo, started at the large complex of athletic/park facilities in Todoroki, on the Kawasaki side of the Tamagawa.  I left home at 530AM and headed out Nakahara Kaido … so was around 5 minutes late to the start, still well within the 30-minute window, but arriving after all but one or two others were far ahead. 

So, I never saw the fastest riders in the event. 

Eventually, due in part to the many traffic signals on the first 15+ kms to Fuchu, I was able to catch and even pass a few groups of riders. 

Crossing the Tamagawa early in the course.

I saw more riders at the first checkpoint – a photo stop on the North Akigawa, just at the base of the climb to Tokisaka pass.  People were stripping a layer of clothing, preparing for the climb ahead.

Now came the hard part.  Sure, we had already reached 275 meters elevation and the ride up the valley was just more gradual climbing until the short (4-5kms) steeper ramp to Kobu Tunnel.  

Left turn to Kobu Tunnel

Finally on the sunny side of the hill

But the 55kms AFTER Kobu Tunnel would include pretty constant up-down sections (I counted 9 short climbs of 25-75 meters each). Then we were in a fairly vicious headwind, riding along a line of traffic, the next 15-20kms to the coast, then a bit more headwind along the coast toward the checkpoint/turn-around.  So this "middle" section of the event was by far the most difficult.

It was the section AFTER descending from Kobu Tunnel that was the hard part.

At the Shonan coastline

The final 65kms were easy, relatively. A bit of a tailwind along the coast, then rolling home via Yokohama.  The major challenge was … Sunday late-afternoon traffic.  

Kamakura Traffic!

Fuji from Zushi

Slog through southern Yokohama

And our route went through Minato Mirai, where the crowds of pedestrians were just incredible, nearly spilling out into the street as we rode by. More red lights. Long ones. Finally, the very-familiar ride along Rte 1 north from Yokohama, then a left turn just over the Tsurumi River and parallel to a train line past Shin-Kawasaki to finish at a random convenience store located South of Musashi Kosugi.  

More Yokohama traffic, on Route 16.

Minato Mirai -- I tried hard NOT to get people in the photo. The area behind me had thousands of them.

Sometimes a brevet “goal” does really seem like a random store, selected just because it clears the required distance but with no other redeeming qualities.  This was such a case. 

It was cold so I headed home, glad to finish the event without difficulty, and to ride some more in the hills than the typical winter brevet course and 225kms including the ride to/from the event.

I think it was the next time I visited Audax Japan’s home page that I saw an announcement that Audax is switching back to a calendar year from 2025. So this brevet would not count toward any 2025 achievements.  In the end, I am not really riding Audax for the “medals” and my planned long event this year does not require a specific SR 2/3/4/600 series for purposes of entry, so no problem there.

First Brevet of 2019

The Oregon Randonneur at Tateishi on the Miura Peninsula, looking toward Mt Fuji

Japan Audax local affiliates offer many 200km brevets in early January. They usually fill up, and this year (a PBP year) especially so, as everyone wants to get in a ride while off from work.

Last year, 2018, Jerome and I rode our first brevet on January 7 in Shizuoka, 200kms from Numazu to Fujieda and back, with a detour up Nihondaira. It was a very nice day and, despite some heavy traffic at places, a nice course.

In 2017 I did an AJ Tamagawa brevet from midnight on New Year's Eve, watched the first sunrise of the year along a beach on the Miura Peninsula, with a few other riders and thousands of visitors to the area. I was done and home before Noon on January 1.

This year, AJ Tamagawa, among others, is offering a "brevet week" of events -- it is possible to ride 200, 300, 400 and 600km events, complete the "SR" (super randonneur) series, and qualify to ride Paris-Brest-Paris, all during the first week of the year! Taiwan's audax group has a similar series, and one Japanese randonneur I know had already completed the SR series before I started my ride on Friday. Another, Ijichi-san, staff of AJ Tamagawa who is one of the core Audax riders (he rode Susan Otcenas' Seattle Intl Randonneurs' Cascade 1200 last year, as well as Maya Ide's Tohoku series over Golden Week), told me that he would do the full series this week -- but he already did the 200km on the pre-ride check (which counts under Audax rules).

But this idea of an SR series in the northern hemisphere in winter is, well, crazy. It is going overboard. It MAY work well this year, when the weather is good, but it is hard to plan a good 400km or 600km ride that will work in mid-winter, even in typically dry Kanto. Indeed, the AJ Tamagawa 600km will have probably 300 or even more (500?) traffic signals. So many stops. So much traffic ... to keep on a route near Tokyo and out of the mountains. One long boring slog. Worse, if the weather is cold. No, the first week of January is for riding during the day. A 200km is the perfect challenge.

The moon, Venus, riders, high rises, trees, and train station, all before first light.

The same view a few minutes later. Wave of riders at the ready!

Jerome missed the signup, and was unsuccessful in asking AJ Tamagawa to accept a last minute (late) entry. I think they just have too much on their plate to accommodate such requests while running a brevet week. So he rode out over Yabitsu Pass, and did meet us at the Oiso control. Mindful of the Audax rule that non-participants cannot provide any assistance to riders outside of controls, we rode the same course, but never close enough to draft. I gave him some directions ... but not vice versa. Still, with about 50 stops for traffic signals, and another control, we could chat enough.

Which bike to ride? I wanted to ride the Parlee ... but broke a cable and did not have time to replace it. The Ti Travel bike, Voyage Voyage, is disassembled for installation of a new group set. So I was happy to ride the Oregon Randonneur. I had not used it in months, so needed to lube the chain, pump the tires, and rode it the evening before to a fondue feast at Jerome's. It felt a bit sluggish. And on the ride out to dinner the rear fender was rubbing, and I got a flat tire on the way back home.

I switched out the wheels and tightened the rear fender ... and it was as good as new. Still I am not a fan of the Ultegra 6700 shifting -- far more sluggish than 6800 (or 6600, in my opinion). It turns out that the DT-Hugi hub on the rear wheel ... needs maintenance. The freehub was barely turning, as if the grease inside has gotten clogged with other material. So I I switched to other wheels. I was glad to have others to use for this ride -- the bike was a joy once I got it ready to go. (If anyone needs a spare wheel in a pinch ... I have them!).

Mt Fuji while crossing the Tamagawa on Route 1 (from the side walkway)

Anyway, I made it to the 6AM start with almost 15 minutes to spare ... only to be told that I was in the 630AM "wave". This was a bit disappointing since I knew that the traffic through yokohama would not get better as time passed, to say the least.

The course was kind of like a combination of my recent Miura ride (to the tip of Miura Peninsula), and my recent Shonan coast ride (the segment from Enoshima to Oiso where we had lunch). But this time I would take Route 1 through Yokohama and then Route 16 all the way to Yokosuka. I prefer my route from Christmas Eve, which skirts the harbor edge of Yokohama, goes through Minato Mirai and to Hakkeijima via the Sangyo-Doro. And I would prefer to avoid the coast road between Kamakura and Enoshima, where it is basically a parking lot. It is not fun to ride through a parking lot, even when the view is glorious and drivers don't pull over to the left and block your way.

On the parking lot/road between Kamakura and Enoshima.

I did not take many photos. Only one stop on the way between Yokosuka and Misaki-ko, none between Enoshima and Oiso -- both where I was taking photos last week with a far more dramatic sky.  These are from elsewhere -- Hayama area mostly.

Mt Fuji from south of Yokosuka

The Oregon Randonneur takes a different riding style than a modern carbon or titanium racing bike. It requires a kind of spinning style. It is a bit heavier, and the narrower steel tubing will flex a bit and absorb stomping. But it responds very well with a slightly lighter touch and a faster peddling cadence. And once it gets going ... it keeps going, fast.  The randonneur-style bars have comfortable, large/wide "drops". Then again, to move fast up the hills on this bike, I must get out of the saddle. It is almost like running up a hill on the peddles. Once I adjusted to this style of riding ... which took the first several hours ... the bike was fast and comfortable, and I could finish in a reasonable time, given the stop-and-go nature of this course and the relatively heavy traffic.

More from Tateishi

Sunset at Marukobashi ... almost done!

Even as I grumble about the traffic on this course, it was a great way to start my cycling year. I just need to keep it up to be ready for Tasmania next month and France in August.

Strava for the entire day is here.