Otarumi Loop Send Off for the Crank Addicts Tokyo RAAM Team

Crank Addicts Tokyo -- 4 person Team RAAM entrants, ready to go, loaded for bear

Several of us joined with the Crank Addicts Tokyo 4-person team for a quick morning ride on a fairly straightforward Otarumi Loop as they continue their "taper" ahead of RAAM.

What is RAAM?  

Daniel, Jamie and Graham round a corner on the Tama-Sai 

Chris, Craig, Jacob and then Daniel

They passed down Komazawa Dori around 630AM and I hopped on the train, riding the Renovo.

103 kms at over 28kph average.  Not bad.

Yes, I had a bit of a complex about riding with these guys. What about?  Well, they are not slow endurance riders.  They are all at least ten (and as much as 20) years younger than me, they train with power meters and heart rate monitors, and ride fast bikes.  Higher VO2 max, higher power/weight ratios.  Jamie rides Lightweight Obermayer wheels (I do not have a set ... but at least I've met Obermayer, at the start of Transalp).  Chris was on a Canyon Ultimate SLX (just take my Canyon Shark, an Ultimate SL, and add an extra "X" -- shave some more grams off of the frame and add at least an equivalent number of dollars to the price tag).  And they have been training for RAAM, where they will take shifts riding very fast, trying to get across the U.S.A. in around 6.5 days.  You get the idea.

The last time I rode any really long distance with Jamie was back in maybe 2010 on a Kanagawa Audax brevet that required us to climb up Doshi Michi to Yamanaka-ko, then down past Gotemba to Numazu, then do a big fish-hook around Nishi-Izu, Shimoda and end up in Ito.  No way I could keep up with Jamie and his friend on Doshi Michi ... though I did finally catch and pass hem after they stopped for a lunch at a Britain-themed pension near Yamanaka-ko, while I pressed on.  Speed vs endurance.

The Renovo with its purple heart inlay

So I was delighted first of all just to be able to keep up with them today, and second to be able to do some pulls and help them keep the pace up.

On the Takao-to-Otarumi climb, I actually paced/pulled the group for the middle third of the climb, and made it to the top within a minute of the leaders, Chris, Jamie and Craig.

Too much selfie. ... I need to work on my iPhone moving photo technique

Based on Strava feeds, not only did I make a "Personal Record" for the 7.6km climb, but Chris did as well just under a minute ahead, and Graham and Jacob, 11 and 40 seconds behind me.  Good stuff ... and I did it on the Renovo!  More on the way back, when we managed some of the fastest recorded times on a 4 kilometer stretch of Yaen-Kaido, searing heat as we headed home.

Beautiful day!

Almost at the Tamabidai-mae crossing -- the one in Machida, not Setagaya.

Then, disaster nearly struck.  Almost back at the Tamagawa, the police almost caused a major accident/incident.  How so?  Well, just by their presence.

We were blazing along and came to a traffic signal just as it turned from yellow to red.  Craig (or was it Chris?) was in the lead, and noticed out of the corner of his eye 2 police cars and 2 police motor scooters were waiting at the intersection on the cross street and about to turn onto our street.  So instead of the usual "I thought it was still a yellow light" Japanese driver technique, he slammed on his brakes.  Chris (or was it Craig?) almost crashed into him, narrowly edging to his side as he also slammed on brakes, rear wheel rising off the ground.  I was fortunately just a witness, a few meters back and further out into the street, with enough time to stop.  Jamie decided the most "natural" progression to avoid the stopped riders was to swerve a bit and turn left at the light.

The rest of us waited politely as the police caravan came past.  As our light turned green again, we started up and I jumped into the lead, turned left at the next signal to follow the route I would always take back to the Tamagawa, and expected others to follow.  When I looked back a few minutes later ... no one.  So I rode to where I rejoined the "main route" and waited.  After a minute or two, the police caravan passed -- so I knew that at least the other riders could not have gone ahead of me if they had stayed on the main road.  Nothing.  It seems they waited longer, thinking I would return.  In any event, after a few minutes I went on and finished the ride alone ... and can see from the Strava feeds that they must have been only a few minutes back.

The ride back home alone ... in glorious weather.

RAAM has nice team/rider tracking on its website, so we will look forward to seeing them cross the U.S.A. starting on June 20.

Kazahari Rindo with Graham

Today I had the honor of initiating Graham into the joys of climbing Kazahari Rindo.  It was a beautiful day, if a bit hot.  Graham's reaction at the top, I think he said something like "that was a bit too much".  By the time he uploaded his ride GPS track to Strava it had become "Madness, Insanity, Lunacy."  Actually, I think he said this as well as the top.

"Madness, Insanity, Lunacy!"

Yes, it really is 2.0 on the MOB Wada Toge scale, or 0.54 on the DGL Mortirolo ("rolling death"?) scale.  Not an easy climb.

Graham climbs, just past the Kinoko Center as we enter the rindo portion.

The rindo ... cannot be as steep as what we just came up, right?
Well, at least there are some sections that offer a short breather.

View from around 1050-1060 meters elevation.
Still some nasty stretches ahead to climb the last 75 meters elevation or so!

The return down the usual route via Tomin no Mori was fast and uneventful, ... except Graham seemed a bit exhausted while ordering lunch at the Tomin no Mori rest area, becoming flummoxed at concepts such as no cold sansai-udon.  And he got even more confused when told that I (who had been ahead in line) had gotten the last rice dish.  Been there.

I met and rode on much of the descent with a Japanese cyclist visiting from Aichi, who said he had parked his car in Oume and come over Kazahari from Okutama-ko, and meeting and chatting at the top with a Brit named Ian, who said he lives in Komazawa (North side of 246) and rides out on Sunday mornings with the "Tokyo Cranks".

Near the mouth of the Akigawa

Same

Everywhere azaleas this time of year.  From my neighborhood to Itsukaichi.

Photo from the end of the main route up the Kita Akigawa.  Two women cyclists (one quite elderly) 

Photo taken by the elderly woman cyclist.

Today's ride.  154 kms and either 3600 or 1600 meters, depending on whose GPS you believe.

Basically just one big hill ... 

Personal Records All Around!

Today another classic P.E. ride -- the Reverse Paul Jason.  The first time on this course since the visit last fall of P.E. Europe women's champion Juliane P.  This is a good training ride - about 140 kms, with 1350~1400m of elevation, split among the Akigawa climb to Kobu Tunnel, the Uenohara golf course hills, and the steep almost 450m climb up the west side of Wada Pass.

Elated, having just shaved an entire SIX seconds off my personal best for the north side climb to Kobu Tunnel.  All four of us had PRs on this climb, AND on the Ura Wada climb!

Doug, Alexander, Graham, Pete and I headed out shortly after 7:30AM. After a bit of a warm up with me pulling in front, Pete W. moved to the head of our group and the pace quickened, noticeably, all the way to Itsukaichi.  I averaged just about 30kph for the first 40 kilometers of the trip.  Graham seemed to be suffering early ... but I knew he would not fade.  Pete, who had already done other rides this week, said farewell at Itsukaichi, having ridden us into the ground even before we entered the hills.

Doug, who is now a much stronger rider than Alexander, Graham or me, kept going with us.  Doug is now training for, and seems quite looking forward to, TCC's official "king of the mountains" ride, scheduled for June 30 -- a ride that includes the always painful (and sometimes very hot) Mikuni Toge, and ends at the top of Matsuhime Toge!

Alexander, who claimed not to have been riding at all (at least not outside of town) since he our Matsuhime trip over 2 months ago, did confess to some hiking.  And when we got to the top of Wada, he recognized it from a recent hike over Jimba-san.   When I rode with him in April, I thought -- this is someone who, once he gets back in cycling shape, I will NEVER beat to the top of a climb.  I guess he rode himself back into shape today, since I did manage to get up the climb to Kobu Tunnel ahead of him, but he was stronger from there on out.  And I think he will be stronger, from here on out.  His physique reminds me a bit of Ludwig/Manfred ... so I would call Alexander "Ludwig II", except that Ludwig II was the mad Bavarian king with the wild castle MOB visited last year, and Alexander appears the very model of sanity.

After last week's post on GPS-based cycling social networks, we wanted to put in a good effort on the main two climbs of the day.  We rested a bit at the bottom of the climb to Kobu, and then were off.  I could still see Doug rounding the corner ahead of me as we were more than half way up the climb, so I knew I was putting in a good effort -- pushing the needle up to, but not way into, the red zone.  And sure enough, on Ridewith GPS I shaved 6 seconds off my time -- from 11:42 to 11:36.   The deviously placed Strava segment goes further ... all the way to an endpoint in the area between the first and second tunnels (need to remember this -- a great chance to win the KOM points after the other riders think the climb is already over).  I seem to have set a new PR for that longer segment as well.  Strava also shows that Graham's ride today set his PR there.  And Doug's time will definitely be a PR ... when he uploads the GPS data.  Likewise for Alexander, ... should he choose to join Strava and/or RidewithGPS.

The descent was uneventful, the golf course hills nasty, brutish and short, as usual and the foliage everywhere was overgrown -- stretching out over the roads, obscuring views around corners that were clear only a few months ago.

A rest at the Daily Yamazaki in Route 522, then another brief one to collect ourselves before the west approach climb to Wada.  This climb, as well, resulted in a PR for each of us.  My time of 33:23 shaved 1:07 off my former best climb there, 34:30, December 18, 2010.

Hot Graham at Wada

I am sure that without the brief rests at the bottom of these segments, I could not have beaten my previous times.  Maybe I'll go back on some beautiful fall day, take the train out to Fujino, put on my lighter climbing wheels, and really try to gun it up Wada?

Needless to say, we were pretty tired by the top of Wada -- at least Graham and I were.  I was running on empty during the ride back into town.  I ended up losing over 3kgs (water) weight over the course of the ride, despite drinking 1800mls between the start and Itsukaichi, somewhat more than that again on the remainder of the ride, plus yogurt drink, coffee drink, etc.  I need to focus on acclimatizing to and beating the heat, and staying hydrated.  I did eat various items of  food with salt (including a salted hard boiled egg), had a banana (potassium), and some "gratin" to get a bit of energy on the way back.  But I did not take Nuun tablets this time for my water bottles -- last week I brought them, and blamed them, rightly or wrongly for my not drinking enough liquid.  Need to find a better solution.

Refueling stop.

Anyway, that was my last hard training before Cascade 1200.  Now I let my legs recover and try to get enough sleep most nights over the next 12 days.

UPDATE:  Doug reports that his time up the west approach of Wada was 27:28.  Very fast.  But, unfortunately, his Garmin data is not downloading for some reason, so his time will not make it onto Strava or RidewithGPS.   I guess he might as well have stayed home.

Social Riding ... Overkill?

On Sunday, I headed out on my first normal weekend ride in some time.

The weekend before, visitors in town, then looking back down the calendar, Tokyo-Itoigawa, the weekend before that, recovery, and before that, Tohoku Brevets, Ishigakijima, Yatsugatake, Tateyama, etc.  So I have not really had any normal weekend rides since the trip over Matsuhime on April 1.

Since I did not plan ahead, and ended up leaving home well after 9:30AM, I rode alone.  Still, I was determined to make this a "social" ride.  Alone, but social.  "Social" in the sense of socially networked.

I made sure that my Garmin GPS was fully charged and switched on as I left home.  This is my ride to Tomin no Mori and back -- 148 kms and including the classic hill climb up to 1000 meters:

Or here:

I use two GPS online services, RidewithGPS and Strava.  I gave up on Garmin Connect when they switched from Google maps to Bing's vomit-colored yellow, difficult-to-read maps at one point -- though they seem to have improved since.  And Mapmyride ... had some annoying features for its free (non-premium) users and the site did not function nearly as quickly for me as RidewithGPS.  Strava ... might have captured my loyalty, except they initially limited the number of rides per month that a non-premium user could upload, so there was no way to "catch up" and load a set of historical rides.

Also, RidewithGPS has the best explanations I have seen online for how to upload to a Garmin Edge 705 or Garmin Edge 800 micro SD card the free OSM maps available at various sites -- tricky, and crucial if you need a map for a region where you do not have (and do not want to pay a lot of money for) a Garmin basemap.  They also make it extremely easy to draw your own tracks for a future ride.  And they help you to download your own or others' rides and tracks, give you information on which type of file (tcx and gpx) to select, and how to upload/use those on your Garmin device, for which purpose.  So they are doing the "customer service" that Garmin really should provide.

Strava is much more polished, has more money behind it -- maybe real venture capital funding, etc.  Ride with GPS seems to be two guys (maybe just one?) in Oregon.  When you have question, you get a personal response from Cullen.  So long ago I decided I would use RidewithGPS, and it is the only service where I signed up for "Premium" (paid) features.

Still, I now find that I really need to upload my rides to Strava as well, since it has become a social network, and if record a ride using GPS, and don't upload the results, it is as if I did not ride it at all.

This has the feeling of back when Facebook first became popular a number of years back.  If people were in a group of friends that reported happenings on Facebook, you were pretty much compelled to do so as well if you wanted to stay in touch.  Now, I'm following over 20 Tokyo-based cyclists on Strava, and 20 or more are following me.  Plus I am following Taylor Phinney (BMC) and Ted King (Liquigas).

Some of the folks I follow record EVERY ride, even daily commutes, by GPS.  Every day I get an email telling me who rode where: that M. rode to 9.8 work and set a personal record on a 500 meter stretch of a road, or that G. rode home from the swimming pool.  And of course the email also notes that Tom rode 250 kms and set the "KOM" on more passes in the mountains of NW Saitama.

The feature that drives all of this "social" (but not truly social) behavior is Strava's segment feature.  You can define a "segment" from any of your rides, and then track your times (and others') on that particular stretch of road.  And you will unwittingly ride others' defined segments and get a notice after the fact that, even when you did not realize that you were being "compared".  Ride with GPS has added a similar feature, though they have fewer users in Japan at this point, so it is less of a network effect.

As Graham noted the absurdity of all this to me a few months back, one of the defined segments is along Komazawa Dori, from the traffic signal at Nakameguro/Yamate Dori up the hill toward Yutenji.  This 650 meter stretch, with 20 meters of elevation gain, is now to be raced at maximum speed (?).  Actually, there are four traffic signals along this stretch, and plenty of traffic, so it is not recommended for racing.  I've ridden this stretch for years, ... but always commuting, and I never thought it was a test of my climbing ability, or worth uploading.  I should note that Graham rode a personal best up this slope on his way out of town on May 26, and is now back up to 3rd place out of 45 Strava riders, ahead of James, Dominic, Thomas P., Tim S., Shane, and even Race-Across-America veteran Jamie S.  Keep it up!  Kudos!  And the rest of you, haul ass and put up some better times.  We are watching.

So I set out on Sunday with a specific goal.  I wanted to get a better time on the climb from Motojuku Crossing to Tomin No Mori.  This is a true, even a "classic" hill climb segment in the Tokyo area.  It is where Pete W. and many others train regularly.  I don't ride it regularly, but I've gone up it at least 2-3 times each year since 2005.  My personal best at the climb, in December 2010, is 68 minutes and 43 seconds, as you can see from the Positivo Espresso Togebaka page.  (See Togebaka #3).  I think I did it in 71 or 72 minutes once back in 2008 or 2009, but not with a full GPS recording.

The problem is that when I did the climb in December 2010, I must have rested at the bottom and/or the top, and missed either the beginning or end of the segment, and left the recording on while resting at the time.  So the Strava/Ridewith GPS segments add additional time, recording 102 instead of 68 minutes.

So yesterday, despite roads that remained wet, the hot, sticky mid-day air, my Brevet wheelset (testing slightly heavier Conti Four Season 25x622 tires on 36/32 spoke wheels), and suffering a somewhat bloated stomach after the traditional 7-11 food stop at Itsukaichi, I tried to make a good effort on the climb.  I started BEFORE the intersection at Motojuku, and kept going for at least another 50 meters AFTER the parking lot for Tomin no Mori, no stops, just to make sure that I got a complete time.

I recorded 73 minutes and 31 seconds for the Strava segment, and 73 minutes 14 seconds for the nearly identical RidewithGPS segment.  Not great, but acceptable given the conditions, and enough to at least push me up by 5 spots in the rankings.  I need to go back and try this climb one cool morning later in the year, with my best climbing gear, and see if I can get my recorded time under 70 minutes.  And I'll need to return to most of the "Togebaka" climbs later in the year and at least post a time that is representative for me, even if I'll never be KOM up these or other hills.

If you don't post and share a ride using these services, ... you might as well have stayed home.

Rite of Spring

The upper Daigo River -- near the forest road climb to Wada Pass

Tuesday was a national holiday in Japan, to celebrate the Vernal Equinox.  So Dominic (aka Dave), Graham and I headed for a ride in the nearby countryside.  The rest of Tokyo decided to try to visit the cemetery in the family car.  I saw many lines of traffic, standing, over the course of the day.

Dominic made it to our stop near Itsukaichi, before turning around to get home by around Noon.  Graham and I continued on and did the climb from Itsukaichi over Iriyama Pass and down to the Daigo River ... a mere stream trickling down from the hill north of Wada Pass.

Graham's and my bicycles at Iriyama Pass.  Left to Togura (near Itsukaichi).  Right to Daigo.

As Manfred was kind enough to point out in January, Graham and I took the "Bonbori Rindo" over Iriyama Pass.  At the Daigo (South) end of the forest road, Graham turned left and headed back to Tokyo, while I turned right for the climb up Daigo Rindo to Wada Pass.  Two young Japanese cyclists resting at Wada were shocked to see me emerge from the forest on the gravel path.  We chatted, and I assured them that the road was beautifully paved until the last 200 meters or so.

Hard to imagine a better way to celebrate the arrival of Spring.  Now if only we could get some Springlike temperatures!

Looking to the Northwest from Iriyama Pass.  Spring is coming!

Sunday Ride - Shiroyama, Tsukui, Otarumi

Sunday was at least dry enough for us to get a group headed out of town in the morning and up the Tamagawa.

View from above Shiroyama Dam toward the mountains around Miyagase-ko and the foot of Doshi-michi

James K and two of his friends peeled off to ride Yomiuri V Dori and then head back to central Tokyo.  Dominic and Doug peeled off at end of One Kansen Doro for the Starbucks and then a return to town.

Jerome, Didier, Graham and I went on via the "tank road", then up a hill to Shiroyama Dam, around the North side of Lake Tsukui, then back over Otarumi and home down the Asagawa and Tamagawa.   

We ducked out of the rain that started as we near the top of Otarumi for ramen and gyoza at Fujiya, the little hilltop ramen shop that welcomes cyclists.  They even had a bicycle rack, and when the rain strengthened they helped move our bikes under roof cover, and lent us a towel to wipe off the seats dry.  

It was a wet descent, but the pavement had pretty much dried again by the time we made it back to the Tamagawa.

Didier enters the steep part of the climb to Shiroyama Dam.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is a national holiday ... and the forecast is for dry, if cold, weather.  An even better day for a ride!

Sunday social ride

UPDATE:  The Sunday ride started according to plan.  Tristan, Graham and I headed out on dry pavement, Jerome caught up, and we met Tom and Ludwig at Tamagawahara-bashi.  6 people -- not bad for a group of expats on an early Sunday morning in mid-summer, with a questionable weather forecast. We decided to head for Takao and then, if all went well, over into the low hills around Sagamiko. The sky was very dark.

As we headed out the river to the WNW, we could see rain and very low clouds, and soon we entered the precip -- real tsuyu (rainy season) or September typhoon season weather, with tiny drenching droplets of warm rain.

Ludwig quickly said he wanted to head back, not favoring a ride in the wet.  But he kept with us to the bridge over the Tamagawa, where he and Tom decided to head out Yaen-kaido toward Onekansen, rather than Takao (an easier "u turn" if the rain did not let up).  Somehow I was expecting that even if Ludwig and Tom showed up, they would probably head off in a different direction, since they like to ride solo and have finally become a good fit for trips together.  Graham, Tristan, Jerome and I pushed on toward Takao, starting up the Asagawa.

The rain got heavier and heavier, the closer we were to the hills surrounding Hachioji.  We were still a few kilometers short of Hachioji Station, at a place where the route along the Asagawa involves multiple turns and road crossings, when Tristan slipped and went down -- I heard a "bam" of someone hitting a guardrail behind me.  He banged his thigh hard, but fortunately nothing broken, just what looked like it will be a nasty, painful bruise.

We continued on into Hachioji, found a Denny's and sought shelter and breakfast, to see if the weather would improve.  It did not, so we headed back.  (Except for Jerome who, having had at least 3 cups of coffee and 4 of cola, decided it would be a shame not to at least go up to Otarumi Pass and back, having made it this far).

By the time we got back across the river the rain had almost ceased and we were on dry pavement again.  We did a short detour, one trip up the Yomiuri-V-Dori to show Tristan and Graham the location, then Tristan and I did a  semi-team time trial along the road on the Kawasaki side back to Futakotamagawa, Graham not far behind.

When I got home, my wife and son reported that it it had not rained at all in Tokyo while we were getting soaked just a bit closer to the western hills.

__________________________

ORIGINAL POST:  It has been awhile ... but is anyone else in town (Tokyo, that is -- not Bremen, London, Grenoble or one of the other branches) and interested in a social ride on Sunday, heading out relatively early Sunday morning?  I think Jerome is also in.


Maybe a 7:30AM start from Kaminoge (my house), or 7:10AM Ebisu, or 8:00AM from Tamagawaharabashi (the bridge that crosses the Tamagawa just after the Keio-kaku keirin stadium and leads to Onekansen)?


No detailed route plan -- depends on the weather and the group. 
 
The forecast is for cooler, cloudy weather, with a chance of rain showers -- could be worse.

Leave a reply in the comments or drop me an email if you are interested.

Impressions from my Sayonara Ride

It is very strange to write in detail about one's own Sayonara ride while one is still in Japan. So I would like to make a few comments here and there only, post some pics and thank everybody who came along and send me off to the far shores of Germany. Still it is hard to write something which hasn't been written already a thousand times before. But you have given very much to me and I am very thankful for that.
So, we had a good time.

It started as a nice day in spring with the carp streamers high up in the sky. I met some of the PE guys at the Tamagawahara bridge and we rode off to Takao. On the way we passed a cyclist with an exchange frame on the back. Perhaps, I thought, we should re-start the TCC-thread about the proper content of a saddle bag and include "Exchange carbon frame" I thought before we realized that the bicycle free flea market was hold at Sekidobashi along the way. Just like cycling, the flea market has come a long way, from a hardly noticeable event to more than 100 people attending last Saturday - not bad at all.
We said goodbye to Dominic who was asked to attend a ballet recital of his daughter before she will be send to Borneo where she will live in the jungle with the Aborigines for two years; hence the need for ballet education which will come handy.And by chance I also saw Zenbiker along the way at the Asakawa. Or perhaps I understood something wrongly. My English is not very good, sometimes I mix up easy words such as "fencing" and "fanzine".

The ride was not really leisurely so far, but we took the peaks out most of the time. Suddenly I was alone with Fumiki and (Ko)shu, but we all arrived more or less arrived at the Takao 7-Eleven. Can you see where this picture was "photoshopped" to get rid of some unpleasant detail?

A huge crowd has arrived already and I was very much impressed by the turnout. Doing my round of shopping at the 7-Eleven, I noticed a small detail at the Weider Jelly Stand. It seems that nobody so far was interested in Vitamins, Proteins or Beauty, but everybody was preparing himself for a "leisurely" ride. More energy was much in demand.

We then rode on through Takao, the Showa cemetery (where I once almost met the emperor with the zipper of my trousers open) and along the Jimbakaido to the bus stop at the base of Wada Toge where we assembled the group for the first ever organized time trial of TCC and PE. There was some reluctance first and some riders choose to disappear before we could get started, but overall we manged this quite well and we had a lot of competitive results. James time was very impressive and so were those of James and Tim on their fixies.

Here are some photos which I took at the start of each rider and which documents the various pro starting techniques which are acceptable in Japan as per Japanese Cycling Rulebook paragraph 248 b):

The "Handle is piping hot" style. It is not allowed to touch the handle before the command to start and Tim also never did afterwards until reaching the top.The "Ground is piping hot "style: It is not allowed to touch the ground ever unless a flat tyre needs to be repaired. Which happens every 20 km.
Zen-like concentration paired with minimum wind resistance in standing position. Headtowel soaks up sweat from extreme concentration.The "I am gone already, cannot possibly wait for your finger to push the shutter" style executed by Yair.
The Scottish copy of the previously described Hiroshi-Zen starting style. The rucksack is filled with real look stone made out of polyester to increase the awe-factor. Note: More efficient when rucksack is open.
The "When speed is more important than direction" style.
This style is appropriate for rides from Tokyo to Nagoya or further as proven by Travis.
This is Kim starting - easy to mix up with Fumiki as both belong to the blue men group.
The bike starts to move at 40 km/hr immediately after releasing the brakes. The "American dragster race" style.
Sorry to say, Steve, but this style is not yet described in the rulebook.
Please note that as usual Mike lines up behind Sergey at the start so that his motivation to overtake him is amplified by a factor similar to the amount of Japanese government debts.
.... as we can see here.

Sorry, there are no photos of Thomas, Graham, Tom, James, Kim and me. Our huge group was then assembled at Wada pass when I finally made it up and much to my surprise everybody was sitting in front of the witch's tea house. The witch was nowhere to be seen. Really, I never have seen such a sight in my life at Wada. We then continued with a fast downhill and the cumbersome climb through the golf hills of Uenohara. Tom had selected this course to execute his final punishment on me and also in memory of Paul Jason who rode this precise course once.

Nobody was really in the mood to start another time trial up to Kobu Tunnel (OK, I was not in a mood to do so) but nevertheless once David gave the "Go!Go!Go!" sign everybody started to move up quickly. I was staying with Yair almost all of the time. Already a bunch of guys were waiting at the top when I arrived and the others came in one by one. Steve almost crashed while trying to raise his arms in victory salute. He barely could stay on the road and in order to calm down he went for a pee with fellow Englishman Michael. Which lasted for only a few seconds as the warning shout "Naomi is coming up!". Steve managed to zip-up and to play the innocent bystander while Michael couldn't manage to stop.Naomi nevertheless didn't noticed anything and showed Steve how to cross the finish line not only in style but also straight and paralell to the road. Also I would like to mention that she was also so kind to finish behind me, I guess some form of Sayonara-present. She overtook me once when riding up to Tomin-no-mori and that was when I set my personal best time. Amazingly after a while also the Fixies were arriving. They had the huge respect of everybody that they could do that extensive climbing on their bikes. Still I guess that everybody else thought that theyr were happy to posses 20 speed geared bikes. I like this photo of James with enchanced colors. The bike itself is rather not enhanced. Cool helmet color, by the way.

And then we went superfast down to Itsukiachi in nice duells giving no rest to the wicked. This also continued on the Mutsumibashi road to the Tamagawa, where Ludwig, James, Travis, Yair and me speeded along at 40 km/hr plus. And what did I get for all of this effort? One lousy T-shirt from Israel!No, I was joking, I think it was the perfect present for the day, Thanks Yair.
As this was my Sayonara ride I rode out the next day with Ludwig to Chichibu, but this is another story to be told another time.

L'hitraot.