joewein
Maximum Pace
- Oct 25, 2011
- 3,532
- 3,693
Shintaro and I went to Gunma on the weekend. This was for his first race, JCRC series stage 6 at the Gunma Cycle Sports Centre (JCRCシリーズ第6戦群馬CSC). It was a good day. For the way home we took a scenic detour over the mountains towards Oze / Kegon Falls / Irohazaka / Nikko, where the autumn leaves had started to turn. The mountains were beautiful in the evening light with a crescent moon in the sky.
We drove up late at night on Saturday and slept in our car outside a conbini. Lots of cyclists were heading the same way, most by car but some by bike. It's a pretty good climb to Gunma CRC, which is up on a mountain. When the car park opened at 06:30 it already had a long queue of cars outside, but they seemed to have a fair amount of space, including a second car park.
Shintaro set up his bike and did test runs on the 6 km track when it opened at 07:00. I also did one loop on my Bike Friday before they closed it for the first race. We met Eric (EricinIkebukuro) and James (FarEast) who were also racing that day. Both gave valuable advice to Shintaro for what was to be his first race. Eric adjusted the derailleurs on Shintaro's bike. He also discovered the large chain ring on Shintaro's (2nd hand) bike was bent, probably from some crash and will need replacing, so it was not possible to do a perfect setup.
Thank you, Eric!
Shintaro did OK in the race. He finished without accident. Despite lost time from a dropped chain (perhaps due to the chainring problem or because of a worn chain) he managed to catch up enough again to come in 23rd out of 46 starters in category X.
Later we watched the start of James and Eric in their respective categories and cheered them on. We walked along the course to watch the racers zoom past at various climbs and corners (I got some video too).
Eric and James:
Eric with Shintaro's bike and Shintaro after the race:
Eric preparing for his race:
Eric lining up for the start:
I was glad none of us needed "Fast Aid", though there were crashes that day and at least one ambulance was needed:
We drove up late at night on Saturday and slept in our car outside a conbini. Lots of cyclists were heading the same way, most by car but some by bike. It's a pretty good climb to Gunma CRC, which is up on a mountain. When the car park opened at 06:30 it already had a long queue of cars outside, but they seemed to have a fair amount of space, including a second car park.
Shintaro set up his bike and did test runs on the 6 km track when it opened at 07:00. I also did one loop on my Bike Friday before they closed it for the first race. We met Eric (EricinIkebukuro) and James (FarEast) who were also racing that day. Both gave valuable advice to Shintaro for what was to be his first race. Eric adjusted the derailleurs on Shintaro's bike. He also discovered the large chain ring on Shintaro's (2nd hand) bike was bent, probably from some crash and will need replacing, so it was not possible to do a perfect setup.
Thank you, Eric!
Shintaro did OK in the race. He finished without accident. Despite lost time from a dropped chain (perhaps due to the chainring problem or because of a worn chain) he managed to catch up enough again to come in 23rd out of 46 starters in category X.
Later we watched the start of James and Eric in their respective categories and cheered them on. We walked along the course to watch the racers zoom past at various climbs and corners (I got some video too).
Eric and James:
Eric with Shintaro's bike and Shintaro after the race:
Eric preparing for his race:
Eric lining up for the start:
I was glad none of us needed "Fast Aid", though there were crashes that day and at least one ambulance was needed:
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