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31st October, Arima Toge : a Sub-Prime Ride

SteveT

Maximum Pace
Nov 11, 2007
241
40
... or, "a not so speedy gents & ladies" ride ;)

You love the mountains. You love to climb but you also like to keep your breakfast where it belongs. You like to put in some miles, but you also appreciate solid food at lunchtime, and the chance to take the odd scenic photo without a lycra-clad backside poking into the foreground...

If this sounds like you, and you're generally terrified of those heroic 200km+ rides at race-pace (God knows I am...:() then this might be just what the physio ordered: a Sub-Prime Ride.

Start: Higashi-Ome, 7-11 (a few hundred metres north of the station - see map)
Finish: Komagawa Stn
Total Distance: 105km
Total Elevation: 2700m
Route: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Ome-Stn-Arima-Toge-Chichibu-Greenline-Komagawa-Stn

To account for the slightly more leisurely pace, we need to start a little earlier than normal: Ideally, on the road by 8:15....

Suggested train:
Shinjuku: Dept 07:00 Chuo-sen, Super Azusa 1-Go スーパーあずさ1号(松本行)
Tachikawa: Arrive 07:20
Dept 07:32 Ome-sen
Higashi Ome: Arrive 08:00

(I'll be joining at Tachikawa)

Sorry for the short notice.... currently it's Lee (Wolfman) and myself, but the more the merrier --

Cheers
Steve
 
Hi Steve,

Mind if I join you on the climb to Arima toge? I might peel off for Shomaru toge after Chichibu, however - will ride back to Tachikawa.

I'll meet you at Higashi-Ome meeting point tomorrow.

Since my replacement wheel has not yet arrived, I'll... be on my commuter bike... riding just to stay in shape... ;)
 
I'll... be on my commuter bike...
= "My commuter bike is a Cervelo S3"
just to stay in shape...
= "and I'm already planning to rip Team A into little pieces at the Tokyo Enduro..."


Sergey, I don't believe a word of it :)

See you tomorrow !


Cheers
Steve
 
2700m climbing? :eek: Sounds scary enough for a halloween ride for me.

See you in the morning !
 
Great day in the mountains around Chichibu/Ome! Thanks for this route Steve, it was a quality 120km in the end, and only short of the original total ascent I think because Mapmyride exaggerates the tunnels.

What a climb Arima touge is! It really goes on forever, then you get to the pass and descend 2 mins only to look ahead to see the real summit in the distance, but at least the view was beautiful with the autumn foliage

PA310075.JPG
 
Great ride, nature's colours were absolutely amazing. Steve, thanks for organizing; Lee & Andy - thanks for the company, it's been so nice to meet you all after a long while :)

I hope all went smoothly and as planned after I left you in Chichibu.
 
Sub-prime: Ride Report

Andy, Sergey, Lee - thanks for making yesterday. What a great day !

A brief ride report:

We left the Higashi Ome 7-11 at a little after 8:30, and after I'd done the bare minimum time at the front to qualify as ride leader (about 3km) Sergey and Andy breezed past, casually chatting to each other while Lee and myself grunted pleasantries, trying to keep our heart-rate below 180 :eek:uch:. We reached the turn off for Arima Toge surprisingly quickly, and the clouds had now cleared to provide a wonderful blue sky, albeit slightly hazy, which made cycling an absolute pleasure.

We took the scenic route around the lake before heading up to the climb. After jumping over a couple "road closed" signs, and a bit of "hikling" past a huge crane (who kindly moved aside for us) we were now on a wonderful little road, closed to vehicles, following the path of a stream as it wound it's way upwards towards Arima Toge. Bloody 'ell though, the climb went on forever, and by the top we were cycling through carpets of fallen autumn leaves.

A technical descent, superb Autumn views, and two punctures (Lee, Sergey) took us eventually into Chichibu where we dined in the car park of a 7-11. Back on the 299, Sergey bid his farewells, continuing in a cloud of dust upwards towards the tunnel while us remaining mortals peeled off onto route 11 towards Sagamine Toge. Lee had his 2nd puncture (he had mocked the Puncture Gods earlier in the day), and after the pleasant climb up to Sagamine we continued up to the Green Line mountain ride road. Really nice, unusually quiet and quite lovely with the late afternoon sun filtering through the forest. We were making quite good time, so decided to take an longer, alternative route back to Ome: we came off the Green line through one of my favourite little valleys and we all stopped in awe of the view of steep green fields, overlapping mountains and the utter silence of the place.

Four not-so-nice kilometres down Route 299 - and then we headed south into the hills again, tacking a few smaller passes "cross-country" before making it to Ome station while it was still (barely...) light.

A brilliant loop, 120 km with almost 2500m of climbing. FYI, here it is:
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Arima-Toge-and-Greenline-route


Again, thanks guys for joining !

Cheers
Steve
 
Thanks for the report and pics guys. Sounds fantastic, sorry I missed it. Sure was a beautiful day yesterday...
 
Thanks for the great ride and nice report Steve. Was very nice to see Sergey and Andy again. Arima is indeed a beastly climb, being both long and hard. The Green Line is really nice, and the bucolic little valley is really beautiful.

This is my Garmin report for the day. I started this from the PE/TCC approved 7-11 in Ome, so is probably short a km or two.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/17666484

Looking forward to the next ride.

Lee
 
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