Rear Disc wheel for ... less than 7000 yen?

Inspired by MOB's reminder of the TT world championships, I decided on Saturday to try a product that I got recently from wheelbuilder.com along with my new Velocity A23 rim/White Industry hub wheels.  It is an "aero jacket" cover for my HED Jet 6 rear wheel, converting the already-aerodynamic wheel into a super slick disk for TT and triathlon use.  The product is cut and drilled specifically to fit my wheel, including an inquiry as to whether I had 24 or 28 rear spokes, to make sure that the fasteners don't hit any spokes.  And the cost, only $89, or about 6700 yen.

Shipping charges would increase that substantially ... so best to order as an accessory that can fit in the same package as a wheel set.  Maybe this is something one of our favorite LBS's would want to offer in Japan?

There is an adhesive cover to place over the cutout for the valve stem -- not yet attached.

This photo showing right/cassette-facing side.

Do I ride TT's or triathlons?  No.  But someday.  ...

It took quite awhile to tighten the plastic fasteners so that the cover is firmly attached against the spokes.  And the fasteners look pretty flimsy -- I cannot imagine I can take them on and off very many times without damaging them (but a spare set costs only $7.50 ... 600 yen).  The plastic aero jacket itself looks reasonably durable and should hold its shape nicely, though it comes with a warning that it is not intended for regular training use -- save it for race day.

I rode these wheels up and down the Tamagawa on the Friday holiday afternoon.  I really noticed a difference, especially coming back down the road along the Kawasaki side.  Yes, I rode this stretch awhile back with Steve T., holding a high average speed as I gave it my all.  But this time, I was not pushing it into the "red zone", and could still hold the speed at 41-42 kph for long stretches without much wind.  Nice.

The Latest Fad

We saw lots of various items of compression clothing on the leaders at Transalp this year.  They are much cheaper and much less inconvenient than the fad of 2009 -- electronic muscle stimulus gadgetry -- and I think equally unproven.  But they make your legs feel stronger and leaner, and without them, it is clear that you will be written off as not a serious competitor.  It was easy to pick some up at the Etape exhibitors' village this afternoon.  I got a pair of the "medilast sport" Chausettes Pro-Sport Speciales Cyclisme, for use while riding, and another (2nd half price) of the Speciales Recuperation designed for recovery (recommended for 90-120 minutes use).  I was promised that in only 90 minutes, my legs would be good to go!  They had orange, red, black and white ... but were out of the ugly green ones we saw in action on Transalp.

UPDATE: I wore the black socks on Acte 1 of Etape. They are supposed to "activate" the blood flow. They felt good for the first 2 hours or so, then I started to notice the fairly tight, binding feeling at the top--around the knees, and I wanted to cool down as I climbed and the day heated up. I ended up folding them down around my ankles for the rest of the ride, where they did not cause any problems at least. And my feet were one of the few parts of my body that did not cause me any concern during the ride -- good blood circulation, no pain or numbness. There were way too many variables on Monday to consider this a valuable test.

UPDATE #2: I wore the white "recovery" socks for several hours Tuesday night, after a short but painful rear wheel test-ride Tuesday that included some hills in the suburbs (well, surrounding communities) of Annecy.  I must say that my legs feel really good after wearing the recovery socks.  So the first impression is that they do improve circulation and just might work to speed recovery.  I'll try them again after the 208km race on Sunday and gradually try to see if this theory holds up.

UPDATE #3: Also, I had dinner Tuesday night with a 40-year old Brit rider in this tour group who completed Monday 3 hours faster than me, and said he used race time trials with Chris Boardman (big, big local hero in Britain, for those of you who are not familiar with him -- almost as many Brits with Boardman bikes on Monday as I saw Germans with Canyons at Transalp). He mentioned that he had had a blood clot in his legs a few years ago, and used compression socks to help it clear, eventually.  That got me thinking about things like "economy class syndrome", and the use of compression socks to avoid blood clots during surgery, and for people who have had lymph nodes removed as part of cancer treatment and are subject to swelling in the legs.  There may be more science behind this trend than I had thought, even if there is not "proof" that they work. Maybe I should be wearing them on the plane back to Tokyo?

Time to Climb - Sasago, Kamihikawa, Yanagisawa

Inspired by tales of the Positivo Espresso Europe ("pee") training camp in Mallorca, still trying to catch up with my own Transalp training after too many weekends off the bike from mid-February through March (work, earthquake, visit to the U.S. with my son, etc., etc.), and with spectacular weather forecast, it was time for a big ride, with some real climbs.  I thought I should return to Kamihikawa Pass, a long climb that was one of the key days on my April 2009 Transalp training.

Jerome and I left early and rode together out One-Kan and the tank road, and as far as the South side of Tsukui-ko. From there Jerome headed for Yabitsu Pass and then on to Zushi to meet some business contacts for an early lunch.  I continued on to the West, joined Rte 20 and took it as far as Sasago -- cannot hurt to ride the first leg of Tokyo-Itoigawa a few times this year to have it fresh in my mind for May 21, and traffic was light after Uenohara.

Resting before the Sasago climb, in Euro-cylist gear -- Assos jersey, bib shorts, socks and (not visible) inner layer today, with plenty of white (though the shoes are red and silver/grey).

I left the main road for the always beautiful climb up to Sasago Pass (1050 meters). 

The ghosts were nowhere to be seen in the sunlight today, but I felt their cold breath in the haunted tunnel.

Entering Koshu City, at Sasago Pass.

Even Route 20 looked nice today -- this photo in front of from the Kai Yamato 7-11.

After the descent, I stopped for spaghetti at the 7-11 in Kai Yamato, then headed up Kami-Hikawa. 

The town was full of sakura, still in bloom.

If this is Yamanashi, then there must have been a battle involving the Takeda family nearby ... this statue of Takeda Katsuyori ko, 4th son of Takeda Shingen. 

In this case, it was the last stand of the Takeda, against the Tokugawa, in the battle of Tenmokuzan -- Takeda Katsuyori died in Tano (田野), early in the climb up the Hikawa.

Kami-Hikawa was just as long as I remembered it, from 650 meters elevation at the base of the Sasago descent up to 1625 meters, just above Kamihikawa Pass.  But it was not quite as steep, perhaps, as the impression from my first visit.


Then a second refueling stop with Houtou (Yamanashi flat noodles in miso broth, with vegetables and, the house specialty, pork that had been marinated in wine), and then the last climb of the day up to Yanagisawa, followed by the long ride back to Oume.  At 210 km and 3400 meters of climbing, I hopped the train home at Oume.

I took the big climbs slowly, but had better legs than in 2009, managing a third pass (Yanagisawa) and a much longer ride this year.  Now I just need to get faster.

THE RIDE

Woke up in time, had prepared the bike already the night before and was ready to go out and ride based on a grand master plan. But would we be able to stick the plan? I mean, for perhaps the first time ever?

Weather was just fabulous, as David used to say, "world records are achieved under these conditions." But weather is one thing. Leaving the house at 6:45 AM another. And then dragging the bike through boring but unfortunately hilly Yokohama before finally arriving at the Tamagawa. I was too early, had splendid time to drink my coffee and waited for James, David, Graham and Jerome to arrive. They brought Jon and Craig with them who needed to do some more training before cruising Kyushu in mid May.

Up the Kan-One. Somehow I was very much in competition mood. I tried to climb up the hills as fast as possible and if there was any rider seen on the road I tried to catch up with him. That was maybe a little bit stupid in view of the long climbs we had in front of us, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Then along the tank road and through Hashimoto for the first break.

The "Tank Road" from David Litt on Vimeo.

A break gave me ample time to explain the merits of my gravity-zero wheels to Jon and Craig. By chance they are also for sale.

Jon and Craig had to leave us - strict mongen imposed by their better halves were given as reason - but Stephen was on his way to Aihara to add to our team.

So I phoned Stephen, who, to my surprise was on his way in his car, plus 30 minutes late as he had forgotten to take his cycling shoes with him. Plus travelling from Ome to Hashimoto is never a good idea (it is anyway not a good idea to get to Hashimoto in any fashion) plus that Stephen had no idea where he was, where to go and never ridden in the area. But hey, he has an iphone and Google maps which is as much compensation as life can offer.

But anyway, I thought I would never see him.

So the rest of us rode along our favourite Tsukui lake North road (thanks, Hiroshi)

Short descent on N. side of Lake Tsukui from David Litt on Vimeo.

... and then a short stretch along Doshi Michi towards Miyagase Lake where we made the first of many serious stops.

Miyagase Lake rest area from David Litt on Vimeo.

At one of the many soba shops we had a good meal of soba, Jerome had in addition some fish which I would never have eaten while on a bike trip. David had a "Kalbi" steak-kebob (kushiyaki) -- also not mid-ride food. We waited for Stephen but we couldn't reach him on the phone any longer. I recommended him to pack his car in a car-bag and take the train, as in Japan anything can be taken on trains provided that it is properly bagged. The amount of bags you can buy at Tokyu Hands is just amazing ; Bike bags, car bags, children bags, garden bags and of course Louis Vuiton bag bags.

And off we were to Yabitsu. Ah, Yabitsu one of my favorite climbs which never makes me tired. The wind was good and I was in good moos, so I started to go up fast. Within no time I was alone and started the real climb which leads to places like "hell swamps". In my head I was humming "highway to hell" but my body was slowly running out of steam. But what was that: "A rider with a yellow Wachi shirt was forcing his way up just before the final teahouse at the river - Stephen has made it and was attacking Yabitsu obviously to surprise us at the top : "Hey guys, finally here?". He has left his car in Aihara and has taken the short road to Yabitsu while we took the more beautiful and much longer one and had a long, long soba lunch at Miyagase lake.

The valley to Yabitsu from David Litt on Vimeo.

Middle stretch on Yabitsu climb from David Litt on Vimeo.

So I talked briefly with Stephen and then I accelerated again, my motivation now on the top and the goal only some three kilometers away. There is one stretch after the tea house which is a little bit steeper and harder, but after that it is OK. Although one thinks constantly that the pass is just around the corner, but it is not.

And up I was a final sprint : 51:39 min new record and 10 minutes faster than last year at the same point in season. Cool. I felt like Lance Armstrong winning his eighth tour.

Stephen came in second, followed by James, David, Jerome and Graham. Then again, no one else was racing against a clock (or each other). We didn't spend too much time on top and only briefly surveyed suicide opportunities. This is a famous love double suicide spot, you know.

The group (Graham, Stephen, David L., James and Michael K.), stopped for the view and a photo just onto the Yabitsu S. side descent:



Our own personal team photographer, Jerome:


Then a fast downhill to Hadano where Graham left us while the rest of us, believe it or not stuck to the original plan and proceeded to Ninomiya and then long route one further to Odawara and Hakone. Now we were on familiar Ekiden turf.

At the 7-Eleven before the start of the real climb in Hakone I tried to stop David, who just went on, and then James, who signed that he would continue to ride. But with Jerome and Stephen I could convince them to take a break.

And then we started the 850 meter Hakone climb. I used to do this once, in the peak of the season and after a ride straight from my home. This was already the third time this year, including two times after Yabitsu. But nevertheless with so many km in the legs it is a hard climb. We lost Stephen already at the start and up to elev. 600 Jerome and me were going roughly at the same pace. Then I was getting faster, maybe because of the food and finally I arrived at the top. Not in a good time, but at least without a stop in one go. I hate to give up in the middle. I hate to stop. I don't care if I am slow but I want to ride up in one go.

Up on Hakone the weather was still good but very cold. I met David and James at the Hakone 7-Eleven (I knew that they were waiting there - we always rest at 7-Elevens!) and shortly afterward Jerome came as well. Where was Stephen? After a few minutes I gave him a call at he was still at elev. 700, about 20 minutes to go. David was pushing that he needed to catch a train home and it was getting also cold and dark so we told Stephen to return while we went through with the original plan and continued to Hakone Pass and then to route #20.

Oh, beautiful route #20 (not to be confused with Koshu Kaido National Route #20 or Yaen Kaido Tokyo route #20). Many true things have been written about this extremely beautiful road, mainly by myself, rarely by others. But this is really my favorite road in Japan, slightly curved like the unshaven legs of Juliane, with a nice and steady gradient moving down like the underbelly of Jerome. Perfect views to the West deep into (no comparisons any longer, I am not Raymond Chandler), Shizuoka and via Fuji and to the East to Kanagawa-ken.

The bike is running smoothly at 40 km/hr plus and one has to navigate the curved but never ever to brake. David is so fast on this road, it is almost impossible to catch him. James is also fast, but sometimes he is overtaken by crazy mini cars who threaten to take them of the road.

The driving skills of mini car drivers : Mini cars - mini brains.

So with the first 8 km or so one descents on road 20 from elv. 850 to 650, along Jukoku Toge and then to the legendary Atami Toge. Then there is this brutal stretch where it goes down from 650 to basically 0 with 5 or 6 km. The hands are on the brakes constantly and white clouds are ascending from the brake pads. The rims can be seen glowing lightly in the night as they are becoming hotter and hotter. One moves his behind further and further back and finally touches the back wheel to add braking power. Only with this advances method it is possible to navigate this road downwards. Basically it is a free fall.

So we arrived before 5:30 PM at Atami station, bought more than enough beer and took the Shinkansen home. And who happened to join as in Odawara? Stephen who has managed the long way home from the Hakone climb back.

One beer was not enough to do all the trip justice and recount all the wonderful adventures we had. Also this post cannot do it. So I am hoping that James and David will add some photos, data and videos to show the full extent of this glorious trip. [I've added some videos and photos -- though my skills as a videographer obviously need improvement. David]

I mean there are many things you need in order to fully enjoy a ride out. A good bike, strong legs, perfect weather, a nice road, not too much traffic and good company. Only when "Set" and "Setting" are right the result can be perfect [The older of you may remember that this is original a concept by Timothy Leary]. This ride was a close to perfection as it can get.


A little more video..

Wed Apr 28 Ride from Knotty on Vimeo.

Doshimichi ride to Lake Yamanaka today...splendid !

Very little traffic, lots of sun, warm, dry road conditions everywhere ... simply a perfect day on the bike it was. Too bad there was nobody I could share this with !

Greetings from Germany

Couldn't resist to try and come up with another novel idea: the shortest ride ever written about. This one was only 26km:

It took me an astounding 1 hour and 20 minutes to complete, but I didn't feel like I was going at such a leasurely pace - grace of this bike:

My parents' bike - all I have left here in Germany. What a pain to ride on a bike that is far too small and far too heavy for my taste.

But then the nice scenery here provides for some consolation, as did today's weather: sunshine and 5 degrees.

A nice place to try out my new GPS logger (Holux m-241). If only I had a decent bike here...

Yokkaichi JCRC #10 Race Report

Yokkaichi makes it difficult to visitors to love the city. I came in on Saturday night from Nagoya and while in the train I flipped through the tourist guide leaflet that was provided by the organizers of the race. Oil refineries. Yes, this is the first thing that is mentioned in the uppermost right corner of the leaflet to describe what distinguishes Yokkaichi from other cities in Japan. Even the mediocre cycle event I was going to participate in found it's way into the leaflet. As does the reconstructed Australian pavilion from the Osaka World Exhibition - in 1970 that was.

Nikkan Sports newspaper conducts one of the races of its 2008 Tour du Japon series at Yokkaichi and it's part of domestic development assistance. The overseas development assistance might be handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but its domestic sister is a different matter. Conducting races on islands which are due to explode any matter amidst clouds of toxic sulphuric gases [Miyakejima] or in boring industrial towns which are deep in recession [Yokkaichi]; lurking hundreds of cyclists to these places with their family and give locals a chance to exploit them ... what else can it be than to be considered domestic development aid?

So when I checked into the NEW YOKKAICHI HOTEL close to the station, I should have been warned that "new" doesn't means new in Yokkaichi. Rather the "new" in a traditional way, say what was new in the Seventies (Limahl, Boy George, Bay City Rollers). But it was cheap and could be conveniently booked through the Internet without going to the trouble to spell my first and family name countless times to the unhappy receptionist.

Outside the hotel a bososoku gang was testing the maximum noise level from their exhaust pipes. There was no police to be seem in the middle of the town, although an illuminated Koban was just right on the spot. Inside I filled out the forms to get my room key.

"Can I please have a room which is located on the other side of the road, away from the noise?"
"Don't worry, your room will have no windows at all".

Yes indeed, so it was. The room was located in the centre of the building, no windows, no ventilation shaft, nothing. A truthful replication of the Fuehrerbunker, app. April 1945. I went to sleep and dreamt of the hits of Russian artillery coming closer and closer. I woke up and started to dream about teaching at the ICU which was somewhat more pleasant.

The alarm clock rang at 5 AM, it was still dark. What did you expected the inside of a room without windows looks like anyway? So I switched on the light, packed my things and mounted my bike on the way to the Yokkaichi Sportsland which was about 15 - 20 km away. Of course I couldn't find the proper road out of town, so I went out and had to come back. My optimism that I will eventually find the way is always playing tricks with me. And once I was on the right road, it started to drizzle and then to rain.

Of course I tried to ignore the rain, which is an approved method of stopping rain. I have done this thousand times, although I have to admit that it normally doesn't work. But that's how humans are, getting the problem solved by pretending it is just not there.

Finally I arrived at the venue and made a first test round of the track. The D class race, which I was registered for, called for two laps of 9 km each. So with very little chance of getting lapped and after the DNF (DID NOT FINISHED) in Gunma the week before, out of the 10% rule (one get relegated to a lower class when one finishes three races in a row with a time of more than 10% slower than the rider finishing in 10th position), I just had to attend and to finish, not more was required.

But being ambitious I also wanted to come in with a good time and get some points from my closest competitors. My goal was to stay with the main field at least one lap and then stay within 10% of the winning time, if possible not to finish in last place.

The track is actually not easy. After a short downhill after the start there is a long climb of 80 elevation meters up, which is 2/3 of the climbing which needs to be done in one lap. So I know that I had to survive this climb with the field if I wanted to stay with them for the first lap. After that there is a nice and fast downhill part, where one can oversprint one little hill. Followed by a straight part with some curved and two smaller hills, followed by a nasty climb again. Then there is a flat part which lead to the finish, but 200 meter before the finish there is another crazy curve which leads to the uphill finish sprint. More than 120 meter of climbing per lap and some nasty metal gratings and curves, so one has to take care not to get dropped and also not to slip.

After one lap in the rain I felt already cold and miserable. Before the start I went to the toilet and in such miserable circumstances, even small things like a warm toilet seat can make one happy. Until I discovered that the seat was not electrical heated but warmed up by the hundreds of people who were sitting and shitting there before me.

At the start I met Yanagi-san from Miyakejima and saw some other familiar faces. Then the race was started behind a pace making motorcyle. To my surprise I could keep the pace and finish the mighty climb more or less with the main field. In the downhill part I simply had more mass momentum and could close in again. I was doing well until the nasty climb about 1.5 km from the finish, where I got dropped. But at least I knew I was not in the last position and I have lost maybe 200 meters overall.

I then started for the second time the mighty climb which was now harder to do without any draft. Nevertheless I was involved in some serious superhuman efforts here [note: the definition of a human is a white Male, 46 years, 96 kg of weight, moderate talent for sports. Thinking it over, I should rather use the term "supermob efforts"].

And I saw another D class rider 100 meter up the hill which gave me additional motivation. Shortly before the top of the climb I was almost overtaking him. But I did not, which in hindsight was a very clever move [although not planned]. I stayed behind him on the downhill part and when the small oversprinting hill came, I had so much momentum, that I zoomed along at mobonic speeds. Yes I virtually mobaculated myself from the bottom of the hill into the sky and left him there standing in pure admiration of the God of speed. This must have demoralized him completely. He fiished way behind me.

The rest of the race I tried to go fast but even better not to slip. When I was attacking the last nasty climb, I got overtaken by the leading E class rider who has started 2 minutes behind me. So I knew that after all I had done well. I did a last sprint up the hill to the finish and then the race was over. I was not being overtaken by any other rider.

Later I checked the results - 15th place out of 20 riders, this is pretty good for me as normally I tend to end in the last place or second last place at this kind of races. All my direct competitors for the D class JCRC championship did better than me (notably 7th and 9th place) and also the Tour du Japan competitor was doing better. But it looks good, I just need to attend and finish the Saiko race to become the champion. Tour du Japan championship is now a little bit impossible, but that was never the goal anyway.

Later I took a look at the Ciclo data which was quite impressive and confirms that I am in good shape. I mean for my shape.

Actually after all the cycling and rain I was so tired of everything that I just rode to the next station and took the train back. Unfortunately I managed to end up in the smokers compartment when I left Yokkaichi. So this will be my last impression of the town. Oil refineries in the rain, viewed through smoke stained windows from the train.

PS I visited Mie-Ken in 1985 in 1990 and in 1999 and I have been to the most wonderful places there, including Mikimoto pearl island and the Spanish village. This one is different.

[some other material to follow]

Matsuhime Loop

With the decisive race in Yokkaichi/Mie-Ken around the corner next Sunday, I thought that I should include a brutal ride into this weeks training regime and add some substantial distance. So far I did rarely rides of more than 200km distance: Itoigawa Fast Run, Shimoda, that's it almost. So I decided to go to Matsuhime and back, something I have done with Marek, Jerome and David last year in the rain and which turned out to be a most memorable trip. This time I tried it solo.

I left the house a quarter past nine, much too late already. I tried to contact Mike from TCC from which I knew that he would go to Matsuhime as well. Also I mad sure to wear my Positivo Espresso jersey to be easy recognisable.

I took it slow, but not too slow and went along the Tamagawa river towards Ome. Got into a quarrel with an idiotic truck driver.

As I was already late, I decided to skip the break at Ome station and ride on to Okutama Station instead. This was a very hard decision, as it meant that I would not be able to ate the famous royal milk bread from the Ome station bakery. When I passed the station I closed my eyes and tried to think about something else: lung cancer, Bayern Munich, cricket - anything just to forget the royal milk bread. It was one of the most terrible moments of my life.

When I arrived at Okutama station I was less than 3 hours on the the road and the sky was blue and the weather just awesome. I took a short break and pressed on to Okutama lake, then to Kosuge village where I refilled my waterbottle. So far I have been on the road for 4 hours.

I then started the time trial up to Matsuhime Toge. The Positivo Espresso time trial point is the signalled crossing in Kosuge [I guess it is the only signal in town], however that's quite inconvenient if you would like to do Matsuhime Toge after coming from Otarumi through Tawa and Tsuru Toge. In this case the crossing of both roads is better. Just in case I took both times.

From Kosuge signal it is a gruesome 10 km climb of about 570 m elevation up to the top Matsuhime Toge at 1.2４0 meters. I started to go up at a regular speed and fully under tension. This went very well and I was able to keep the tension up to 1.050 m elevation. Then I lost it a little bit, but after going into survival mode for some minutes I could speed up again. Very fast I could see the signboard shortly before the top. I tried to sprint the last 100 meters up but I was completely done. I checked my time: 42:05 minutes - a huge improvement compared to my July run. I know that I was in good shape as I felt just like Mario Pantani when I moved up the slopes [Note: Mario Pantani in his heydays, before he died, that is]. So after that I felt very comfortable going to Yokkaichi.

After a short break on the top I started the descent. Strange things were going on in my head. This synthetic melody popped up again and again and somebody said: "..to seek out new climbs and mountains, to boldly go, where no rider has gone before ....".

Not too far from the toge I saw something liquid, green and fast coming up the mountain which looked like this:Well it didn't look exactly like this as the Liquigas jersey zipper has been opend fully to reveal the manly body below. This view however should be restricted to the over 20 years old I am afraid.

It was Mike from TCC who has started the attack of Matsuhime Toge from the other side. Obviously he didn't wanted to stop his brutal onslaught of the mountain, so we exchanged only very short greetings. Nevertheless I feel that in the TCC Hall of fame he is qualified for a 20 second deduction of the recorded time.

It was only one of the very few times I met some of the strong climbers from TCC (Thomas, Travis, Phil, Philip, Deej, Sergey, Keren and others) but I heard much from Tom about them. They must be awesome.

I then descended further in direction of Sarubashi and at one point I hit the 67 km/hr mark. Everything was just wonderful. Until I head route 20, which is just one nightmare. I mean, it is better going towards Sagamiko then in the other direction, but with all the trucks and traffic it isn't a very nice road to cycle. route 246 is even worth but 20 is close. Somewhere I wrote something about the similiarities between route 246 and my marriage (actually I met my wife the first time on 246 in Aoyama).

And then comes Uenohara, with its ridiculous amounts of hills and climbs and of course I had more crashes in Uenohara than in any other country of the world, including Japan, excluding Uenohara. But this time I came through unharmed and after a short break at a 7-Eleven at Sagamiko I made the last serious climb of the day over Otarumi and checked out the location of the Family Mart starting point on the other side of the climb. My estimate is, that it takes about 4 minutes from the Takao 7-Eleven to the Family Mart, or, an Otarumi time trial time of 19:30 min (my best) would be aquivalent to 15:30 hr on the TCC scale.

I continued my way home through Hachioji and then along the Asakawa and it was already twilight. Then something happened, what never has happened before: A flying bird hit me unbraked in the face. The bird must have been drunk, perhaps it was a salary-bird on the way back from a karaoke outing with the other birds from the office. Or it was just a stupid bird. Anyway I started to seriously thinking about upgrading the illumination of my bike.

I reached the Tamagawa when it was almost dark and continued in the dark on the cycle road. I didn't get hit by anything else but with all the dogs and old ladies on the cycling road in the dark, one has to ride very concentrated and cannot go too fast.

Also it should be noted that the part of the road which is normally closed by chain links, is open in the evening for car traffic and it is not nice at all to ride there.

Anyway, I came home shortly before 7 PM after a long day on the bike and 215 km in my legs. It was an excellent training day and I am ready to do what man must do in Yokkaichi.

Yokohama Stadium Race

Jacques Daumont from NFCC and me started on Saturday at the Bike Navi Nissan Stadium Race in Yokohama. The category we have chosen consisted of a three hours solo endurance race in the morning, followed by a two hours solo endurance race in the afternoon, followed by a week in the intensive care unit of a Japanese hospital of your own choice. Only 62 riders choose this "King of Enduro" category, otherwise they opted for either 3 or 2 hours, or riding as a team. Wise guys and girls.

The race course starts on the field track inside the stadium and follows a mostly flat lay-out in the park area around the stadium with a length of 3.2km. The course was peppered with "virages en épingles", this is at least how Jacques described it in French. There is also one brutal ramp leading from park level to stadium level. Although it is only 40 meters long and has an inclination of perhaps 15%, this proved to be the location where riders fell off their bikes later during the race in a state of complete exhaustion.

Of course it started to rain when I was on the way to the stadium and that was the running theme for the whole afternoon. Not a hard rain, but steadily small drops. I met Jacques at the parking lot and he was in good mood nevertheless. He is always in good mood and he is one of the funniest guys that I know. Of course I do not include all the funny guys working in the company in this comparison. Perhaps he is also so funny because he speaks French (which I do hardly), almost no English (can) and almost no Japanese (can too), so our conversation is a mix of three languages. He also speaks some German, or one sentence to be precise: "Warum bist du nicht meine Mama?"

So we had long conversations about the state of the world, pro biking and the new French embassy in Tokyo which is equipped according to Jacques with "vegetable lighting". I am not sure what this is, perhaps "les legumes lumieres" in French?

Anyway, then we did a test lap and found out that there are a lot of metal gratings and one cannot be careful enough to maneuver them well. The course is not easy because it is very hard to find a rhythm. There is constant acceleration and deceleration and that makes one very tired over the course of five hours. So an average of 30 km/hr doesn't seem much but even good riders don't do more than 34 or 35 km/hr.

We proceeded to the start area and watched the cheerleaders, who were not half as good as the ones in Tsukuba. If you look carefully, you can see them in the picture of Jacques on the monitor in the upper right corner. I asked the guy in front of us to take some pictures and he turned out to be a JCRC A class rider who knows Goro-san. Being one of the very few foreigners in JCRC races and the only one who attended every single race this year, everybody seems to know me but I don't know anybody. Shinji was very kind and he actually finished in third place of the morning race.During the start countdown Jacques made many, many noises like the horn of a big truck, or a bicycle bell which brought all around us to laugh and gave us the chance to overtake our immediate surrounding even before the countdown was finished. The course was then full of riders, following the pace making motorcycle. I maneuvered myself to the front, not as skillful as Alain but nevertheless I was able to ride the first 4 laps with the fast group. My problem was that I lost too much time on the ramp and then it was hard for me to close the gap again on the straight parts.

After half an hour I wanted to give up as usual. But then I found some rhythm, jumped from group to group and drafted and felt the strong sensation that I was leading the race. This was of course completely untrue and some faster riders constantly overtook me, but somehow I felt like the king of the road and that motivated me to continue to go fast. After two hours I overtook Jacques. He was having fun with the other riders next to him and enjoying himself. I almost slipped two times on the metal gratings and rode the corners extremely carefully, loosing perhaps some time. But there were some crashes, one even inside the stadium and the riders involved didn't look good at all. In particular the ramp was a place where the suffering of mankind was displayed on small scale.

After 2 and a half hours I felt better as I knew that the race would come to an end. I was riding very constantly lap times of 6 minutes and it would be possible to cross the finish line after a little bit less than three hours with 30 laps and add one more lap (this year the rule who finished the most laps with the last lap starting before the three hours deadline, last year it was within three hours time).
So I gave even more but in the end I didn't made it and the result was

• mob 30 laps 3:00:26 hours 31.92 km/hr 34th place
• Jacques 29 laps 3:05:41 hours 29.98 km/hr 76th place
  
• out of 209 riders in the morning 3 hours race.
  

As we rode in the rain for almost the whole race my bike and me were unbelievable dirty. Jacques was laughing and said that I looked with my dirty face like a coal miner, but I didn't took it too serious.

We retired, had some noodle soup and I slept in Jacques car. The weather was now much better and it seemed possible the road would be dry for the start of the afternoon race. I tried not to think about the fact that I had to add another two hours.

We came to late to the start so we needed to start from the very end of the better group. Jacques faked a start in the opposite direction before the countdown was over, bringing our neighbors to tears. Yes, Jacques, he can make you laugh and he can make you dead [Secret note: Jacques is employed as chief assassin of the French embassy in Tokyo. His road to cycling is littered with dead bodies. He never talks about work. Ever. Only about vegetable lighting.].

So I never had the chance to move up to the fast group from the start. But there were a lot of fresh riders who skipped the morning race and concentrated on the two hours only, so I felt that the general speed was a little bit higher compared to the morning. And I was also definitely slower, I thought.

After half an hour I wanted to give up as usual. But then I found some rhythm, jumped from group to group and drafted and felt the strong sensation that I was leading the race. This was of course completely untrue and some faster riders constantly overtook me, but somehow I felt like the king of the road and that motivated me to continue to go fast [I copied this part from the description of the morning race - but it was exactly the same].

After a while I started to stop thinking and everything went automatically. But what I like about endurance races is, that you one is constantly motivated to close the gap to riders in front and that there are constantly some good riders in front. This is very much different, from, say hill climbs, where I am in last position almost immediately after the start, only the motorcycle of the organizer behind me and the gap to the rider in front of me is ever increasing.

Anyway, I was riding 6 minutes lap times plus a little bit more and after 90 minutes it was pretty much clear that I would finish with 20 laps. I didn't overtook Jacques this time, as he secretly sneaked out of the race to pee somewhere.

Then the final countdown, one more effort and the race was over. The result of the afternoon race was

• mob 20 laps 2:00:55 hours 31.75 km/hr 59th place
• Jacques 19 laps 2:04:27 hours 29.31 km/hr 129th place
  
• out of 238 riders in the afternoon 2 hours race.
  

I was surprised that I could keep my average speed in the afternoon, I thought I would have been slower. And here is the end result for the the KING OF ENDURO:

• mob 50 laps 5:01:21 hours 31.85 km/hr 14th place
• Jacques 48 laps 5:10:09 hours 29.71 km/hr 27th place
  
• out of 62 riders that finished the race.
  

I think we did a pretty good job, riding solo faster than many of the teams attending. And we were competing against S and A class cracks and anyway only the hardcore riders start in the King of Enduro class. Actually last year I did only the three hours race in the morning and I was slightly faster, but the weather was much better than. So we were tired, but also proud of us.

And now comes the funny part. On the same day the Octoberfest of the German school was conducted and I promised my family to go there. As I was looking like a swine and I thought it would be a nice idea to take a shower at the nearby Nissan waterpark pool before turning up at the school yard and leaving behind me a trail of crying and disturbed children. Actually I looked like this:So, here is a quiz; when I showed up at the ticket counter of the pool, which question was I asked :

• A : Could you please wash yourself [you pig] before jumping in the pool ?
• B : Do you have any tattoos ?
• C : Do you have a bathing cap with you ?
  

Obviously, and as anybody knows who has lived a while in Japan, the right answer is C. Even if you are dirty as a coal miner and stink like a sewer, the rules must be respected. And the rule is that you need a bathing cap.

So, what was my answer to this question?

• A : Yes, I have a bathing cap, but no swimming shorts.
  
• B : Actually I only wanted to take a shower
  
• C : Yes, but my bath cap has a tattoo.
  

Obviously the right answer is B, as I am not such a reaction-quick wisecrack, but more some kind of Milquetoast.

Summary : A good race, but very hard. I rode at walking speed to the Octoberfest where I found out that my wife didn't come by car so I had to ride back home on the bike as well. I was completely done. The next day I could hardly move. So most likely I will do it next year again.

Cosmos Everywhere

Weather was superb today so I decided to skip another day of the few days left at office and head out for a ride in preparation of the Yokohama Stadium King of Endurance race on Saturday. I was not sure where to go, so I went to Itsukaichi first and then, getting weak in the knees and thinking about plans for the evening, decided to head for Jerome's hill rather than for a Tomin no mori trial.

I was giving everything up the hill and thought it wouldn't be enough. The last meters I wasn't even able to sprint, I was that much de-powered. I collapsed on the top of the hill, lay flat on the ground and watched the clouds moving in the gap between the trees. Everything was so peaceful.

When I uploaded the Ciclo data at home, somewhat to my surprise I set a new personal best with 08:30 minutes. Now I am only 14 seconds away from the all time best time of Tom. Which is, in all fairness, pre-season Tom's best time. Now he would be able to cut another minute I guess.There were Cosmos flowers everywhere along the Tamagawa. This is one of my favourite one. Simple, but a lot of colors and signaling the arrival of autumn. You cannot cut them and keep them at home, only see them out in the nature.

I had a good tailwind when I went home and was speeding at 35 km/hr all the time along the Tamagawa. I then completed the whole Jerome hill loop in 4:30 hours.
Yokohama may come.

Professionell Hill Climbers Part II Day I

If you want to improve your hill climbing performance you will need to resort to drastic training method.

It is not enough to ride your bike up and down the slopes every day, you also need to be prepared mentally. Virtually you have to spend you life on the slopes. Your whole life becomes inclined - you start to live on the edge of the slopes.

Tom and me know this and we trained hard before we went to attend the Shiobara Hill Climb . When we arrived at the race base camp, we were still suffering from the serious side effects of the training.Here we can see something that happens quite often to professionell hill climbers. Indurain, Pantani, Cippolini, Wim Vansevenant, .... nearly every great rider of his generation felt victim to this degeneration. And all of them got used to it as well. Something that is also true for Tom and me.
[TCC Readers start here]

In no time we were at our hotel and checked in before going on a training ride. Where accidentally I got stung by a bee. This must have been the first time since I was eight year old and I considered this bad karma.
The Shiobara race is a two day hill climb event organized by the JCRC and a Japanese sports newspaper. The race on the first day is a pure hill climb time trial, about 7 km long and 450 meter elevation difference. The track is quite nice actually. First of all, the landscape is beautiful in this part of Tochigi. However during hill climbs I tend not to see any landscape when my heart beats at 170 RPM + and my brain thinks in very little circles. But most important, there are some flatter parts on the road up where one can relax a little bit and save some energy to power up the steeper parts. My guess would be that some of the hair needle curves are up to 14%. I really don't know why I do this, my only consolation being that I sure would win in my weight class. If there would be one.

The second day consists of a road race which starts about 12 km away from the hill climb on a up/down road before it goes up a hill which leads to the start of the first day race. While we didn't know on the first day what was awaiting us, we did know very well on the second.

It was still early morning, the weather was fine and we had about five hours time before the time trial would start. I have to admit that I was rather pessimistic about traveling time from Tokyo to Shiobara and I forced Tom to wait for me at 6 AM at Futago Tamagawa. This left us with plenty of time before the start and a so far not experienced feeling of relaxation.

From our hotel, which was somewhat close to the day one start point, we rode back the road to the day two start point in order to familiarize ourselves with the course. The road is beautiful, winding along a river with some nice sightseeing spots.This photo shows Tom and me at a famous spot where a young Japanese maiden called Roleleiko was sitting on the cliffs, combing her Schwarzkopf-colored blond hair and was singing in Flemish
"Ik wess net wat soll et beduteen, dat ik soooo tlaureege been.." Wheras container ships navigating the river below where smashing head forward down the rapids and into the cliffs trying to escape the terrible combination of J-Pop and Flemish lyrics.

We met Goro-San from the NFCC team on the road who just came in by car. We tried to convince him that we came on the bikes from Tokyo, which he believes for not even a nano-second. Then we went to the start area to watch the other riders suffer. Our highest interest was concerning the women riders start. There was one about 12 year old girl on a Giant bike who was looking not exactly right in place but later smashed the competition and made first place. Overall, judging on the basis of looks, visual expression, legs and bike types, we made a pretty accurate forecast about the finishing results. I also found my personal benchmark (number 920).

Goro-san was supposed to start in B class, not in the lowly ranked D class (which, according to a Friend of Tom is for "beginners") in which we squirms were gathering. By chance I talked with a friend of Goro who then turned out to be an A class rider and I apologized immediately for accosting him.

And then it was already our turn to race. Already from the start there was a monsterslope.
The D class starting sequence this time was by age, followed by late comers. Tom and me were pretty much the last starters and as the D class was anyway the last group to start, I was afraid that I would be the last rider up the hill.

I started and Tom was then taking off 15 seconds behind me. When I looked after 17 seconds behind me to see if Tom has made the start already, he was just overtaking me. But much to my surprise I was also overtaking the rider who started 15 seconds before me. Then I was overtaken by 3 more riders from the D class and I settled into survival mode, tackling one slope after the other. There were some flat parts where I was clearly faster than the other guys, but mostly I was on my own and no other riders where in sight. The view from the road was beautiful and I never had the feeling that I had to give up. Just pumping, giving everything and looking at the ciclo to check distance and elevation.

At hill climbs I can do about 15 meters up per minute, regardless of slope and distance. So I figured out that I would need about 30 minutes. I checked this with last years finishing times and the winners in the higher classes are at about 20 minutes, 50% faster than me. Unfortunately that seems about right, based on my experience.

Within no time I was at the last kilometer mark. I continued to stay steady and then I rode over some chestnuts by chance. I heard the sound of air coming out of the rear wheel tube. It was about 400 meters away from the finish so I accelerated to ride as long as possible on the bike. Then I noticed that the air was completely out of the tube and when I navigated a curve the bike started to slide outwards. I rode some more meters with the flat rear wheel and then I demounted the bike and walked up the hill.

A lot of people were waiting at the finish, they asked me what happened when I walked up and I said "puncture". But then the guy who started 15 seconds behind me turned around the last corner and everybody was shouting that I should start to run. And I did run with my bike to the goal and incredibly enough I didn't made the last place! In fact I was only slghtly slower than the 30 minutes target. Tom finished 15th, in the middle of the field.

Later on, on day two, Tom and me where awarded the special Gambaru-Sho (Persisting in the face of obstacles) price, but this is a different story which will be told on day two.

We went down to the local supermarket where I bought myself a well deserved ice cream and Tom a good bottle of local red wine. We retired at the hotel and went to bed early.
[to be continued]

The secret behind the selection of Dennis new shorts

Tsukuba Eight Hours Endurance Race Photos

Allsports has released today 20549 photos from the Tsukuba endurance race. Who has the time to look through approximately 400 web pages and check all the photos. Well, I checked the first 31 web pages (I admit, during work) and could find some photos of Alain and me. Then I gave up. No wonder that the Japanese economy is in a down spiral. The amount of time checking Allsport photos during work will take a heavy impact on office labour productivity. This is potentially more dangerous than Minesweeper and Solitaire in the Nineties. The clever folks from Allsports have disabled PrintScreen copy, so now you can not just copy and paste the pics as you see them on the web page. The even more clever folks from TCC have advised the usage of Quick Screen Capture to come around this nasty problem. So here we have two examples from Allsports. First we see Alain in his chic AG2R shirt as he is battling it out for the top position during the early phases of the race. Then you see me, taking it easy after we have fallen back to 50th position during the later stages of the race. As usual I look awful fat on the bike. I thought that I could dampen the impact of this by buying a Cervelo frame with large members, but to no avail. Also, as we know now, we made a big mistake when designing the Positivo Espresso jerseys. For some reason, our design is enhancing potential body problem areas so all of us look double fatty in the jerseys as we normally are. Even Marek will look like Bud Spencer (right, not middle). For some mysterious reason this effect does not work on Tom's daughter.

Here are some more photos from Tsukuba taken by Alain. This one shows four members of our three rider strong team; Alain is taking position at the start. Then I gave him a big push so that he gains momentum at the start. Actually I pushed him so hard, that three seconds later he has completed the first lap and appears on the left side of the photo. I like my super-dynamic pushing style. Actually I look much more dynamic than riding on a bike. Perhaps here is where the future lies.
Some small buggers try to use the big draft I am creating. Of course I flew away before they could hang on.
See, I am basically gone.
But the shape of my body really gives me to think. See, I stopped smoking in May 2007 and as usual after stopping I rapidly gained weight, in particular during the Christmas season. I am now down again to 98 kg, which is still much to high to survive the forthcoming races in Shuzenji, Gunma and Shiobara. My leg power and heart is OK, but there is just too much weight to be shifted upwards. With this power and 15kg less, I should have no problems.
So I will try to loose some more weight for the Shuzenji race on 9/14 and later for the 72 km of CSC Gunma. So by the end of the year I will keep up with Tom and compete for the Toge baka records in earnest. Be warned, Tom!