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Double Otsuki ??

Otuski 9 : 1 , Triplets of Tokyo : 0 . Joe and I drove out (thanks, Naoko) to Takao and rendezvous with Eric there. Then we hit the last train for the coast, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. Well actually just Otsuki, to begin the challenge. Weather was obliging to begin with - a gorgeous super moon and cirrocumulus cloud covers. We rode the first section in the dark - our lights playing an eerie ballet on the abandoned roads. Summit at Matsuhime was welcomed by sunrise. Quite cool and humid meant taking on a chill quickly. Then descend to the second climb. I'll write up in more details - but personally I love this route for the variety of the climbs and beauty of descents. Unfortunately our time was running low at the end and I had to forgo the 2nd loop. Riding with stomach cramps doesn't help either ... but I think our mind is set on this one now.

Many thanks to Eric for organzing and cajoling. Thanks and kudos to Joe for humping out the big hills! We did nail the <real> Otsuki 4.5 and for anyone that hasn't done this route, I highly recommend it. It's a bit of a tapper - so you need to really watch your pacing. Yanagisawa is so inviting to hammer down, but then it's immediately followed by a nearly 12km at average 10% climb, so busting tail here will only leave you begging for mercy later on.

Even with the pace set at 'Otsuki 9' expectations - for me about 60%-70% of 'tempo' , I still finished all the climbs very close to my 'normal' pace and all the climbs I was at 200W or so continuous. 3.2w/kg. I'm not great at starting before my normal 'wake time' , and the climb / descent at Yanagisawa was a bit surreal combined by sleep deprivation and near hypothermia. The short nap helped - but I think next time a full sleep BEFORE the attempt will be better. And definitely a full ferry out to Otsuki.
 
Do you ride with a power meter Tim? Thought you would be the last person to be using high tech wizardry like that. Well done on doing the 4.5. Might head over that direction on Thursday and might give the Otsuki 4.5 a bash (not sure about a 9.0 though).
 
leicaman - yes, I use mine mainly for data acquisition . In fact, I used to design straingauge torque appliances so - the technology is not so 'foreign' to me. I'm not as keen as some on IFR riding and prefer a more SOP approach which leaves one a little more open to expand the envelope based on overall 'feel' rather than a pre-determined numerical governor.
 
leicaman - yes, I use mine mainly for data acquisition . In fact, I used to design straingauge torque appliances so - the technology is not so 'foreign' to me. I'm not as keen as some on IFR riding and prefer a more SOP approach which leaves one a little more open to expand the envelope based on overall 'feel' rather than a pre-determined numerical governor.
I'm so "IHGACWTASF" at the moment

(IHGACWTASF = I Haven't Got A Clue What Those Acronyms Stand For)
 
leicaman --

IFR - 'Instrument Flight Rules' . Pilot flies according to a pre-determined flight path by following the flight instrument indications and readouts only.

SOP - 'Seat Of Pants' . Pilot flies, quite literally, according to 'feeling' of your seat. This came from how to determine if you were flying 'crabbed' or turning uncoordinated with incorrect rudder usage. If the aircraft is not balanced within the context of a cross wind, then the passengers will actually feel as if they are being pushed sidewise in their seats. Later, any flying that the pilot did without the guidance of instruments became known as 'SOP'.

Lee Rogers wrote a nice piece about this -- http://www.theroar.com.au/2013/05/22/the-power-problem/ I think that SRM devices are great, but one should not become too dependent on them for truly 'riding with power'. One of the funny things I'm spotting is that when they don't work, you actually feel anxious.
 
Surprisingly I've never heard that usage outside the tarmac cafe. Usually associated with 'bench flying' pilots who've yet to gain a proper IFR rating.
Originally, IFR meant "I Follow Roads."
 
Tim (GSAstuto) and Eric (EricinIkebukuro) , thanks for a memorable ride in new territory, both literally and figuratively.

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This will certainly be one of the highlights of this riding year for me, similar in a way to Oume Temple Loop by Deej last July and the Miura LSD with James (FarEast) early that year. Common to all three is that they pushed the envelope as I started out with riders that were in a different performance class from me, and then explored new metrics in either distance, climbing, grade of hills and/or extreme weather :)

This was a much anticipated adventure after I couldn't ride much at the beginning of the month. At 206 km for me it was my "century ride of the month", as I try to do one ride of 160 km or more every calendar month. With 4,972 m of Garmin barometric sensor counted elevation gain it was my "climbiest" ride ever (about 45% more than during my 360 km longest ride around Fuji). Correction: 210 km with 4,675 m after accounting for some Garmin/Strava problems

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"Epic" is a much overused word these days, but Otsuki 4.5 truly is an epic route because it basically has no flats. It's always either up, up, up or down, down, down. Temperatures ranged all the way from 14 C to 34 C and altitudes from near sea level to around 1,600 m. On the never ending high speed descents I kept thinking: Did we really climb as much as this earlier on? And are we really going to climb all this back up again going the other way?

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Most of the route I had never cycled before. Some of it was near Mt Daibosatsu which I'd hiked up three times before and that was very familiar, including a place where we had coffee and noodles amid bus loads of hikers. Most of it was new territory and I loved it.

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After the last descent of the 4.5 loop we were out of time for another round and Tim had stomach problems, but I still had most of the afternoon and the whole evening, so I decided to climb Matsuhime one more time and then either head back to Setagaya via Tomin no Mori from Lake Okutama or via Oume kaido (R411) and along the Tamagawa, depending on time and the weather.

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When I was only 1/3 the way up Matsuhime, the clouds got darker and I felt raindrops, but instead of doing the sensible thing and heading back down to the nearest station (Otsuki), I continued because I wanted a personal climbing record. By the time I reached the toge I was soaked to the skin and it was only 14 C there. I saw a group of young cyclists taking shelter in a wooden hut at the summit from the by now torrential rain and decided to join them. It turned out to be the cycling club of my son's university and one of the guys even remembered his name and recognized me from a ride outside the Imperial palace. What a small world!

When the rain temporarily eased a bit, we all set off for the descent, which was hard with the wet brakes. Soon the rain picked up again. A couple of times I took shelter under roofs. I was shivering with hypothermia. In Kosuge village, still 20 km from Okutama station I took shelter again and considered my options. Finally I wore my rinko bag as an apron under my wind breaker to keep the wind off my wet clothes and cycled to Okutama station in the falling rain, from where I caught trains back to Tokyo. I was suprised how much warmer it was there than in Okutama. I then rode the last 10 km or so home, arriving at my front door some 24 hours after I had left home for Tim's house.

I really should have taken my rain gear with me and I should have abandoned the Matsuhime climb, but you live and learn.

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I can do distances and climbs because I keep eating and drinking, but I climb slowly because I drop into my smallest chainring and my lowest gears for climbs over a few percent and then spin up the hills at my own pace. I get there but I drop far behind faster riders. More than once it gave Tim and Eric a chance to nap after a start without sleep, but it's probably not quite want they wanted.

On Tim's recommendation I will experiment with bigger gears but I've had problems with my right knee before and if I confirm that it doesn't agree with those bigger gears after all, I may have to keep riding on my own or with other slower riders or learn to spin at an even higher cadence.

My bike and Eric at the initial fuel stop in Otsuki:
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Tim at one of the toge:
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Once upon a time I had an FAA CTO chit (control tower operator). A great fork in my life occurred when Reagan fired the controllers, I chose not to cross the picket lines and went to china instead.
 
Well done, chaps! joewein , I see a 600km in your near future.

Tim, you don't look too chipper. I hope you feel a lot better now.

Eric, of course "it's not about the bike", but anyway I like the look of your bike. (No doubt far more knowledgably and better maintained than mine are.)
 
...I climb slowly because I drop into my smallest chainring and my lowest gears for climbs over a few percent and then spin up the hills at my own pace. I get there but I drop far behind faster riders. More than once it gave Tim and Eric a chance to nap after a start without sleep, but it's probably not quite want they wanted.

On Tim's recommendation I will experiment with bigger gears but I've had problems with my right knee before and if I confirm that it doesn't agree with those bigger gears after all, I may have to keep riding on my own or with other slower riders or learn to spin at an even higher cadence....

You can come over here and ride with me anytime! ;)
 
Great write up Joe! It was a great ride and although we only made it halfway, there will be another attempt! This is what I live for and we will conquer this ride. I just need to look for the next window of opportunity to launch this again!
 
I was thinking of attempting the 9.0 solo in the next few days. Planning on driving out to the loop, camping the big then setting of early the next morning. Does anyone know of any campsites along the route where I can stop and pitch my tent and use it as a base?
 
I've just been looking at the route online for this and it seems like every now and then there is a symbol of a fat man with a cross through him. Does this mean people shouldn't pass this point? Seems strange though because the route passes numerous fat men.
 
When you say online, do you mean here?

There weren't any road closures anywhere when we passed on Sunday, though occasionally there were roadworks with lightsaber guys at work.
 
When you say online, do you mean here?

There weren't any road closures anywhere when we passed on Sunday, though occasionally there were roadworks with lightsaber guys at work.
Yep, thats right. If you look, for example just after the 74km marker, there is what looks like a fat man or possibly a snowman with a cross through him. Any idea what it means? Perhaps it means no snowmen beyond that point.
 
This little fella...?

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Yep, thats right. If you look, for example just after the 74km marker, there is what looks like a fat man or possibly a snowman with a cross through him. Any idea what it means? Perhaps it means no snowmen beyond that point.
It means that during bad/snowy weather the gate at this point in the road will be closed and locked. There's a corresponding gate by km 81 on the other side of the hill.

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