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April 2022

I did my first "real" ride in about five years on Saturday. Higashitamagawagakuen out to Inagi to a Zebra Coffee & Croissants for breakfast. I believe that the roads out there were used for an olympic race, I saw a bunch of signs up and there were so many cyclists. Got a few weird looks in my bib shorts on a flat-bar bike, but was totally fine. Was about 30km all up and I was surprised that I wasn't even that sore. Cautiously approaching a 50km this coming weekend as a result.

I know this is nothing on what you folks are putting in on the bike every week, but I was pretty proud!

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I did my first "real" ride in about five years on Saturday. Higashitamagawagakuen out to Inagi to a Zebra Coffee & Croissants for breakfast. I believe that the roads out there were used for an olympic race, I saw a bunch of signs up and there were so many cyclists. Got a few weird looks in my bib shorts on a flat-bar bike, but was totally fine. Was about 30km all up and I was surprised that I wasn't even that sore. Cautiously approaching a 50km this coming weekend as a result.

I know this is nothing on what you folks are putting in on the bike every week, but I was pretty proud!

First rule of bike photo shooting: drivetrain side! :D
Just kidding. You enjoyed the day and this is what matters.

 
I did my first "real" ride in about five years on Saturday. Higashitamagawagakuen out to Inagi to a Zebra Coffee & Croissants for breakfast. I believe that the roads out there were used for an olympic race, I saw a bunch of signs up and there were so many cyclists. Got a few weird looks in my bib shorts on a flat-bar bike, but was totally fine. Was about 30km all up and I was surprised that I wasn't even that sore. Cautiously approaching a 50km this coming weekend as a result.

I know this is nothing on what you folks are putting in on the bike every week, but I was pretty proud!

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Best way to ruin the fun of biking.... compare yourself to others.
Glad you got out and enjoyed yourself! The more you enjoy it, the more you will do it!
 
I will ensure to always shoot drive side only from now on!

Yeah, I'm really happy with my bike to be honest. I definitely want to upgrade to something nicer in a year or two from now, but this is the bike I could afford for now, and it's more than capable of getting me around some decent rides I'm sure. Now it's just a matter of hitting the road consistently, improving my fitness, and squirreling away some money when I can.
 
Shortened ride today, 7-8m/s wind, felt like 10.

Last few days has been a strong headwind going out up the coast. Battling it out like Mary Poppins!

The return leg is the mother of all tailwinds though. Cruising like Cancellara!

Prefer that to the other way around. Riding out on a tailwind is like Icarus flying too close to the sun...

Andy
 
I lived there for a while. No cycle paths then (except alomg the Swan) just your wits against bogans. I used to motor out to the suburbs and then head due east to get some hills. Great city and I feally miss going to the footie which is a local derby game today. Freemantle giving Weagles a spanking.

We stayed in Freemantle which was nice. The RR was out in the hills and we had the motorway closed to get there. Looked like some good mountain bike trails out there too.

The TT was on Rottnest Island which was amazing. Don't wanna hit one of those little critters at speed!

Andy
 
On Monday I made a donation to the National Bank of Ukraine to help make Ukrainian streets safe for cyclists again. This decision was triggered by horrific recent events in Bucha and elsewhere.

Tanks vs. cyclists is not very fair but perhaps some of us cyclists can help correct this situation.
 
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Cheeky 41km ride (my furthest ride in about 10 years) to cross the Tama River before heading back home. The last 10kms killed the legs on the steep hills, but surprised yet again that I made it.

Sorry, my wife is still coming to terms with the fact I'm wearing cyclist gear and riding. I need to share my minor victories with someone haha.
 
Yeah, I'm really happy with my bike to be honest. I definitely want to upgrade to something nicer in a year or two from now, but this is the bike I could afford for now, and it's more than capable of getting me around some decent rides I'm sure. Now it's just a matter of hitting the road consistently, improving my fitness, and squirreling away some money when I can.
When the time comes to buy another bike, the experience of all these rides on your current bike will be invaluable. You will have an idea what kind of rides you enjoy the most and what you like and dislike about the current bike.

If you follow the Olympic road race route out further west (Rt 413 / Doshi michi), there is great riding out there, especially now that the winter is over. The Yamanako area offers beautiful views of Mt Fuji. Once the snow melts later this month you can even ride to Fuji Subaru line 5th station (~2,300m above sea level). A rinko bag to be able to take your bike on the train will greatly expand the area you can explore.
 
When the time comes to buy another bike, the experience of all these rides on your current bike will be invaluable. You will have an idea what kind of rides you enjoy the most and what you like and dislike about the current bike.

If you follow the Olympic road race route out further west (Rt 413 / Doshi michi), there is great riding out there, especially now that the winter is over. The Yamanako area offers beautiful views of Mt Fuji. Once the snow melts later this month you can even ride to Fuji Subaru line 5th station (~2,300m above sea level). A rinko bag to be able to take your bike on the train will greatly expand the area you can explore.
Thanks for the recommendation. That's actually a question I wanted to ask, Rinko bag recommendations. I will post a dedicated thread not to derail this one however.
 
I get out of Covid Purgatory tomorrow! Sadly I have a ton of crap to do and may not get on a bike.
My wife & youngest now have it, so I am not totally free... :(

This situation sucks.
But then again... I suppose the crap people in the Ukraine are going through kinda helps put this in perspective.
 
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The last training ride before the Fleche from Aichi to Tokyo on the coming weekend and what a ride it was!

BRM409 "Momotaro" by AJ Nishitokyo last Saturday was a 200 km brevet from Machida to Saiko (one of the "Fuji Five Lakes") and back (on Strava). It explores the old "Kyu Koshu Kaido" in the mountains north of modern Rt20 between Uenohara and Tsuru. The return route was via Akiyama. The course itself had over 2,800 m of barometric elevation gain, before the ride home to Setagaya. That's even more than the hilly "Shiokatsuo" brevet in west Izu on March 26 that I timed out on in heavy rain during its second half. I had done the same course on October 16.

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I rode to Machida the night before and staid at a ToyokoInn less than a km from the start. I set my alarm for 04:45 so I could attend a briefing at the start after 05:30 for the 06:00 start. One of my team mates, Mrs E. rode to the start from Tokyo, getting up at 01:00.

Our Fleche team captain for next week's ride was the ride organiser. The other 4 members of our team were participants and I rode with 2 of them for much of the ride.

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There were 56 signed-up participants, only three of whom chose not to ride. It was really like back to pre-pandemic times, except for everyone wearing masks at the start and finish and at conbinis. It was still cold at the start and I wore my windbreaker and my rain pants over my jersey and shorts. I took them off again before the first conbini stop and didn't need them again for the rest of the day. If anything the day was on the warm side.

I left as one of the first starters but didn't mind letting people pass me, remembering how in October I started out too fast only to have to pay for it after the first 40 km when the first major climb started. I found myself in the company of Mr H., with whom I also rode about half of the Izu brevet. Sometimes one of us got ahead of the other but we always met again somewhere. Mrs E. was also around until about 80 km into the ride.

There were some groups of friends riding together. When one of them punctured, half a dozen of them attended. They were a very sociable lot, not too much into the competitive aspect.

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The views of cherry blossoms, plum blossoms and Mt Fuji were gorgeous. Down near Tokyo the sakura was already thinning, but in the hills near Uenohara they were in full bloom and up near the Fuji Five Lakes it was still early for them.

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The course this year avoided major roads as much as possible. The climb from Otsuki to Fujiyoshia avoided Rt139. Only near Kawaguchiko did it get a little busy. I was separated from Mr H. at Saruhashi but we met again at a conbini in Kawaguchiko and rode together for a couple of km. At Saiko I met faster riders already coming my way as they had already rounded the lake. When I got to the untimed quiz point (QP1), I was about 20 minutes behind minimum pace, but as long as I made up that time by PC1 (control point 1, the first timed checkpoint) I'd be OK. Since there was over 600 m of elevation drop to PC1 I was confident I'd be OK.

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Mr. H. caught up with me just as I was about to leave QP1 and I told him what local information to write down for proof of passage. It had been windy heading west but that meant we had a tailwind on the return to Kawaguchiko. That and the flat route meant we eliminated most
of the time deficit by the time we got to QP2, another untimed control. Then came the long descent and we made it to PC1 in Tsuru with 24 minutes ahead of minimum time. Mr H. and I arrived together, but Mrs E. who Mr H. thought was ahead of us had not been seen yet. Our organiser was there and we could chat a bit.

The final 60 km from there were still hilly. First came the 8 km climb to the tunnel above the Chuo Shinkansen test track. On the way there I had actually heard the whooooshing sound of a maglev train passing on a bridge of the track not far from the maglev visitor center near Tsuru.

The long descent after the tunnel was fun and welcome recovery time, but there were still several hundred more m of elevation gain in climb after climb after climb in Sagamihara. Once we got close to Machida, it was traffic lights. By that time I knew I was on the safe side with my time buffer and took it relatively easy. When I finally got to the 7-11 that served as the goal and bought a coffee, it was 19:17 so I had 13 minutes left on the clock. Mr H. and Mrs E. arrived together soon after me. Together we rode to the Cherubim bike shop, where the goal reception was and had our brevet cards verified.

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Two hours later I got home with almost 234 km and 2,971 m of elevation gain for the day. That means my Century a Month is now at 116 consecutive months. Four more months to make it 10 years. But first I need to complete the 24h ride from Aichi to Tokyo with my team mates next Saturday/Sunday. After two hilly brevets I feel we are all reasonably well prepared for the effort but there is always the big unknown of sleep deprivation on a ride like that.
 
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