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Today April 2019

Yesterday I did some cherry blossom viewing on two wheels, 205 km out to Yamanakako on Doshi michi and back via Kagosaka toge, Matsuda and Rt246 (ride on Strava).

First I rode to a conbini in Machida from which our 360+ km Fleche ride will start two weeks from Saturday. From there I followed the course out to Doshi and over Doshi michi Yamabushi toge to the lake.

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There were lots of motorcycles about. The parking area at Michi no Eki Doshi was full of them and the lawn next to it was full of bikes too.

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Other than for the first hour, I did most of the ride in shorts and a short sleeve jersey. I did wear my windbreaker for part of the descent from Kagosaka toge (1100+ m) down to Matsuda near Odawara, but didn't need it again after that. Yeah, spring! :D

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I had coffee at a shop selling vintage bike-related goods (bikes and jerseys) near Yamanakako. The owner wondered if one might find vintage Campagnolo parts in the Czech republic. I explained that Czechoslovakia and also East Germany used to have very little access to western bike supplies because of hard currency and travel restrictions. Occasionally coveted Campy parts would be cloned for racing use by using materials stolen from factories unofficially using tools and equipment in factories. A very different world.

Ideally I would have liked to descend from Kagosaka toge towards Mishima and pick up the Fleche route through Izu until Odawara, but that would have brought the ride to a minimum of 300 km, with a Monday, 04:00 return at the earliest. So I took the shorter route towards the east, aiming only to get back home as soon as possible.

Rt246, which I used almost all the way from Matsuda to near Futakotamagawa, is pretty nasty. In a couple of places it runs on flyovers that aren't off-limits to bicycles, in others it runs below ground level or in tunnels. In either case there's no sidewalk or other escape from road traffic. A few times the road split, with the Tokyo bound route to the right and other traffic to the left. So you have to cross lanes while trying to stay alive. Mostly the traffic was reasonable, but twice trucks passed quite close by, making me uncomfortable. While I will not avoid 246 west of the Tamagawa, it's not a road I would want to use every weekend, let alone daily

I stopped twice, once at a temple for pictures and once more for an Indian dinner in Atsugi.

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I got home after 15 hours on the road, tired but satisfied. It was good to have seen Mt Fuji from a ride and any ride with lots of cherry blossoms is always worth it.

I think I'm ready for the bike ride on April 20/21. I just hope the weather will be decent (i.e. no rain)!
 
Today I was solo. No one to tell me my decisions were dumb.
As a result, I took dirt samples a few times. I also tried a new trail that I knew sucked shortly into it, but my curiosity for where it would come out trumps my reality of knowing it was not a good trail to take. In the end, I had a good time.
3.5 hours of biking/hiking before meeting the group for trail work.

Luckily there were a few views!

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Just back from Sekiyado............nice ride and weather.Plenty of riders out today.It was nice to see the cherry trees stretching out another weekend of awesomeness.I have never noticed so many varieties of them......must be getting older,lol.
 
I'm almost getting hanami-fatigue. It's been a long season this year. I took the first photo on 10th March, and the second yesterday, 13th April.

Some great CBA ("Cherry Blossom Appreciation") cycling between the two, and probably plenty more to be found higher in the hills or further north, but I think I'm pinked-out for 2019.

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Got in a couple of reasonable rides this week. Fairly warm out today so I just wore my summer kit with a windbreaker and gloves (two pairs of socks tho). Saw a guy sitting in the trees with a rifle on the way out of Moroyama. Couldn't help asking what he was up to. He said they're culling inoshishi and deer at this time of year. First time to see that here. Friendly guy, too. It's been a bit of a mission of mine the last few months to chat more to people I meet out and about (what with being a moody and disaffected long term gaijin and all). I've had a few duds but it went alright today😀

Have a top week lads!
 
View attachment 17597
Got in a couple of reasonable rides this week. Fairly warm out today so I just wore my summer kit with a windbreaker and gloves (two pairs of socks tho). Saw a guy sitting in the trees with a rifle on the way out of Moroyama. Couldn't help asking what he was up to. He said they're culling inoshishi and deer at this time of year. First time to see that here. Friendly guy, too. It's been a bit of a mission of mine the last few months to chat more to people I meet out and about (what with being a moody and disaffected long term gaijin and all). I've had a few duds but it went alright today😀

Have a top week lads!
Well done for being a bit more chatty. The locals by and large are a very friendly bunch.However,I try to keep away from the self-entitled lot as much as possible.
Great photo of the downed tree and your bike.
 
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I did the thing you shouldn't do....

I rode a bike I have been planning on selling.
Why am I selling? Well, this bike climbs ok, is meh on the flats, but shines like a <insert favorite back word here> on the downhills.
locally there is no downhill without a climb, so my Hightower has taken over. It climbs well, does flats well, and descends well.
It is a very capable and fun bike and for that reason it pushed the Tracer aside.

But last night I asked my 4 year old to pick which bike dad would ride. She picked this one...
The first climb was not as bad as I remember....
The second climb, I had adjusted a bit.
Hit the first legit downhill.... I gapped my group in seconds - and it was easy.

sigh...
I don't need to sell it....
t1.jpg
 
I did the thing you shouldn't do....

I rode a bike I have been planning on selling.
Why am I selling? Well, this bike climbs ok, is meh on the flats, but shines like a <insert favorite back word here> on the downhills.
locally there is no downhill without a climb, so my Hightower has taken over. It climbs well, does flats well, and descends well.
It is a very capable and fun bike and for that reason it pushed the Tracer aside.

But last night I asked my 4 year old to pick which bike dad would ride. She picked this one...
The first climb was not as bad as I remember....
The second climb, I had adjusted a bit.
Hit the first legit downhill.... I gapped my group in seconds - and it was easy.

sigh...
I don't need to sell it....
View attachment 17610
If you did sell, you'd be down to your last 10 bikes. Best keep it to be on the safe side 😜
 
It is the time of year when if you cycle north the wind direction changes just around the time you start cycling south,lol.
 
This last weekend I finally installed my new BB for my Litespeed. Ever since I installed the sram BB when I first built up the bike, there had been a creak. I ordered a new BB off Amazon. They didn't have it in stock but said it would be available in 6~10 days. Days became weeks, weeks became months. It finally arrived last week. I ordered it on November 16th 🤷🏼‍♂️.
After fitting the new BB it appears that the creak has gone. I'm itching to get out on the bike now so I can't wait until my running race is over. So much nicer being on the bike than on foot in this weather.
 




Last weekend I rode the Flèche ride I had signed up for in December. This will probably remain my biggest ride for the year.

The objective in a Flèche is to cover as much distance as possible in 24 hours as a team, with a minimum of 360 km. You can not stop at any place for more than 2 hours and you have to cover at least 25 km in the final two hours of the ride. Teams consist of 3-5 members, with tandems counting as one member. At least three members who have ridden the entire route together have to reach the goal. Traditionally Flèche rides are held on the Easter weekend in France. In other countries dates may differ because of the climate, but the Audax-Randonneur Nihonbashi Flèche did coincide with Easter. I was part of Team NishiTokyo and the ride started from Machida.

There were supposed to be 5 of us, but one person did not make it to start, so only the 4 of us took off at 07:00 on Saturday. The three others were seasoned randonneurs. Ride leader Mr O. participated in Paris-Brest-Paris in 2015. In fact he was wearing the hi-viz vest from that event. I had first met him at a 600 km brevet. Last year Mrs N. won the Audax Japan "Randonneur of the Year" award: She completed a 2400 km brevet around the coast of Hokkaido, i.e. twice the distance of PBP. Mr D. organises brevets for AJ NishiTokyo.

I had little doubt that I was going to be the weakest rider in the team but it was going to be a team effort in which we would always ride within sight of each other, not even WATT on climbs but climbing together.

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I rode to Machida the evening before to spend the night at a cheap hotel (Toyoko Inn Fuchinobe, under 5,000 yen per night). Trying to minimize luggage this time and with no rain forecast, I opted for shorts, a short sleeve jersey, a light wind breaker and a t-shirt to wear as a base layer for when it was colder. I wasn't sure if that was going to be enough. I was the only one in bare knees and my ride mates wore long sleeve jerseys, but it worked out temperature-wise and I never felt too cold while we were in motion. At the Nishi Izu brevet on March 30 I was also the lightest dressed participant.

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Mr D. had prepared a cue sheet with average speeds between all the turns and major landmarks. Besides the PCs (points de controle) for which we needed to collect receipts to document that we passed there, he had also picked three Japanese restaurants for 30 minute meal stops. Normally on long distance rides and brevets I only eat food I buy at convenience stores or dried fruit I buy before, as it saves time. So I knew we would have to be riding considerably faster in between the stops. We also cut out all photo stops. All pictures I took we either stopped for a different reason (PCs, traffic lights, etc) or I took shots while in motion. We didn't even stop at Yamanaka-ko for a group picture with Mt Fuji.

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Mr O. had only slept for a few hours before the ride, but he led the group for almost the entire ride. His speed was very consistent. Mr D. was in second place, then me, with the rear covered by Mrs N. who made sure we stayed together. Sometimes she would suggest for me to speed up "if possible" to close a gap with Mr D.

After we crossed from Kanagawa into Yamanashi on Doshi-michi (Rt413), Mr D. started having problems with his knee. He had already abandoned a 300 km brevet the weekend before because of knee problems, which he didn't want to exacerbate. We traded places, me moving up to Mr O. and him being followed by Mrs N. Even if he had to drop out of the Flèche we could have completed as a team because we still had three people, but I was also worried about Mr. O.' s lack of pre-ride sleep.

At Michi-no-eki Doshi we had a short break. Like on my training ride to Yamanaka-ko two weeks earlier there were lots of motorcycles about. There were fewer bicycles than I expected. A new cycling base shop had opened not far from the road station, no doubt trying to capitalise on the increasing interest in Doshi road from the 2020 Olympic road race course.

We made it to the Doshi-michi Yamabushi-toge tunnel 10 minutes ahead of schedule, about 60 km from the start and at 1130 m elevation. I expected we'd be OK time-wise if we made it there on time since that first 1/6 of the course had almost half of the elevation gain. The legs got a short respite on the descent to Yamanaka-ko. the cherries were in bloom along the lake but we kept our pace towards PC1, where we only stopped briefly to collect receipts. A few km after that we pulled into the parking lot of a noodle shop. The food was served quickly. We used the toilet after ordering to minimize time.

Along Kawaguchi-ko Fuji was not as clearly visible as before and we picked up a head wind. Via Saiko we climbed to the main road and then Rt71 through the Aokigahara forest. We didn't stop for the view of Motosu-ko at the pass but headed for the descent towards Shibakawa on the Fuji river. On the west side is was colder and Fuji was totally obscured by haze or clouds. I did put on my wind breaker for the 30+ km descent. We made it to the Familiymart at PC3 almost an hour ahead of schedule. It was now the middle of the afternoon.

We turned east at the Fuji river bridge towards Numazu. First there were a lot of traffic lights but then there were longer stretches in this urban area where we could just keep on going. Everybody had a story to tell where someone had slept by the roadside around here on some brevet or other. For the first time Mr O. slowed down a bit as he was getting sleepy. We turned south into Izu and 35 km after PC3, stopped for another restaurant. While we waited for the food, everyone was sending out pictures from Yamanaka-ko, to let others know we were OK.

Evening approached as we headed into the center of Izu, past Shuzenji and up into the mountains. Mr D.'s knee problems became worse and he had to call for a break. Mr O. probed his leg muscles with his fingers and it seemed to help. We climbed to the pass in the dark, now considerably slower to help out Mr D. but it also made it a lot easier for me. At the top I put on my wind breaker again for the descent towards Ito. We had used up some of our time savings but still reached PC4 ahead of schedule.

We saw fireworks light up above the Izu east coast. Between Toi and Odawara there were 4 climbs of various sizes, the biggest one at Manazuru, where we used prefectural road 740 high above the main road. The pace was relatively slow there as most of us were getting sleepy. Before Odawara we rejoined the main road and the course became mostly flat. 264 km from the start we stopped at a Denny's restaurant for a meal and a turbo-nap. It was hard to believe we still had another 100 km to go.

Meanwhile the BRM421 300 km Fuji brevet by AJ NishiTokyo had started in Machida at 22:00. I was wondering if or where we would meet participants heading towards Odawara from Enoshima, for their clockwise loop around Mt Fuji. Indeed we came across the staff car parked by the side of the road, waiting for the fastest rider of that event to pass through and to take pictures. The staff members welcomed us with big cheers, took our pictures and we actually witnessed the first rider coming through soon after. As we rode east towards Enoshima we passed all the participants of BRM421 and shouted out encouragement towards them across the highway.

The nap at the restaurant seemed to have helped Mr O. and the flat route was better for Mr. D.'s knee. It became harder again for me to maintain the pace, but that was a good thing because it meant we could finish it as a team. We blazed down the west coast of Miura past Enoshima, Kamakura, Zushi and Hayama. Then we turned away from the coast towards Miura-Kaigan station for PC5, a 7-11.

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The first birds could already be heard in the night as the morning approached. A mere 8 km from PC5 we collected another receipt at PC6, a Familymart in Yokosuka, to document we didn't take any shortcuts. The more important next destination was a Jonathan restaurant in Yokosuka at km 337 where we arrived before 04:00. This was our designated 22 hour spot. We would eat and rest here until 05:00, 2 hours before the ride closing time, before our last ride segment of at least 25 km. The designated minimum goal was the Familymart at Yamashita-koen in Yokohama, just south of Minato Mirai, which was 26 km, for a total distance of 362.4 km.

We had just over an hour at the Jonathan restaurant. After having some food we all took a nap, until awoken by the alarm clock set for 04:50. We paid individually at 05:00, took our receipts and set off for the goal. We had almost 2 hours left to cover 26 km. There were traffic lights but not that much traffic. In between traffic lights Mr O. pulled us again at 28-30 km/h. As we got closer and closer we had an ever increasing margin against bad luck, such as a last minute puncture that could have screwed everything up. When we got close to Yamashita-koen, Mrs N. suggested not stopping there to collect receipts to prove we covered the minimum distance but continuing on towards Tokyo since the spirit of the Flèche is to ride as far as possible in those 24 hours. So we continued on past Minato Mirai and on to Rt15 as the clock moved towards 07:00. We would only get credit for the shortest distance from the last PC (Jonathan) to the 24 hour point, so not all the distance we rode counted towards the result. We all had coffee at a conbini on Rt15, where the 24 hours expired.

After that we collected and sorted our receipts and filled in the PC times on the brevet cards. Then we got back on our bikes again and rode another 27 km to Hibiya-koen in Tokyo, now without any clock ticking but still not much slower. We handed in our brevet cards with receipts for checking at the reception desk. There were teams that had cycled here from Sendai, Niigata or Nagoya. I met several randonneurs I knew from other events. The chairman of Audax Japan was also there. All the teams were called up on stage one by one, to briefly introduce themselves, with the team's route projected on a screen behind them.

And there we were, all four of us, with a certified distance of 366 km in 24 hours (and over 3,000 m of elevation gain):

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The ride home alone from the event seemed like the hardest part. All the adrenaline must have dissipated and the smallest climbs seemed painful. At home I went to bed and slept for 4 hours until dinner. Even today my legs were protesting when I climbed slight inclines on the way back from a shop, but I should be fine soon and am already looking forward to the next weekend ride :)
 
Just packed the last of my winter kit in the storage cupboard! Good times lie ahead
I feel almost the opposite. I hit a couple spider webs and had to deal with gnats and other random bugs.
The good times are almost over...
 
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