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Backroads Boso (July 26th or 27th)

thanks!

Phil!

Thanks very a very interesting ride, my first in Chiba.

It was extremely hot and challenging, but as always I enjoyed seeing everyone and the comeraderie during the run.

Thanks to all for your help (and patience!), it was much appreciated!

Look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Ash
 
Phil, thanks for organising this ride! Though sunburned and completely wasted, I have enjoyed Boso's backroads. Looking forward to our next excursion into Chiba. :)

And sssh, don't tell anyone about those plastic bags... :D
 
Many thanks !

Phil - a perfect day. Those Boso hills really do make you suffer but somehow suit me a lot better than the endless grind on some of our toge to the west. Short bursts of sustained energy are OK :D

Travis, Thomas and I caught the second half of the Sumidagawa hanabi which was great, despite the ridiculous racket made by the local cops trying to get people to move on, sit down, stand up, breath in, breath out.....

Then home and after a few sticks of yakinikinoo in my local establishment it was back in front of the telly to see my man Carlos win the tour. What a tt he did !

chazzer
 
Le Report

Random Ride Stat: Roadkill spotted
1 raccoon, 3 snakes, 1 cat, 1 kitten, countless bullfrogs, 1 squirrel.


First off, many, many thanks to everyone for making the trek out to Chiba for the ride. The "moderate pace" thing worked really well...for about the first 10 minutes, at which point we hit the first small climb and all bets were off. :warau:

Ten of us set off from Honda station at 10 AM: chazzer (Charles), astroman (Keren), TrufflesEater (David), Thomas, Richy152 (Lee), SteveT, Ash, YellowGiant (Travis), chris, and myself.

The first leg of the ride was a series of narrow roads through woods, golf courses, and rice paddy valleys to Lake Takataki. The general trend is downhill from Honda, so this was fairly relaxed riding, but the heat was already becoming a factor and the water tap at the park was much appreciated.

Takataki_Lake.jpg


At this point, we unfortunately had to bid David farewell, as family obligations in Tokyo beckoned. He turned around on the 297 to head back into Chiba.

The remaining nine continued south along the 81 that had previously taken us to Yoro Gorge and eventually the coast. This time, though, we turned right at the 160 and soon thereafter onto the first of our rindos, this one running along the ridgeline parallel to the 81. This was also the first climb of substance, about 3 to 4 kms worth. The reward was an exciting, twisty descent on the other side, with glimpses of wooded hills and valleys to the left and right.

We then crossed the 32 and climbed back up into the hills, this time to summit close to the peak of the modest Daifukuyama (大福山). Time for a rest in a shaded gazebo. The heat was really starting to tell now. The clouds were low and threatened rain, so we were mostly shaded from the sun, but the humidity was intense and we were going through our bottles fast. There was much talk of beer...

Hill_station.jpg


Clearly, we needed a Chiba "in-combini"; fortunately there was one a mere 15 kms away. We came out of the forest to the Kameyama lakes area (with fine red-girder bridges spanning the lake-filled valleys). Some of us were out of drinks and there were many tantalizing glimpses of Coca-cola machines, but "push on!" declared Thomas, and we headed non-stop to the Mini Stop.

The oasis reached, we had a timeout for beer, sandwiches and coffee. The fuel was needed, because right after lunch we were back in the hills, this time crossing over to the hidden lake of Mishima. It was a new road for me, but with Travis's help we found the 410 and, for the first time in the day, our wheels pointed back home.

We were on open road now, the sun appeared briefly to add to the heat, and for some of us, at least, the going was getting heavy. The occasional snake road kill seemed only to add to the sense of humid foreboding...

No_escape_from_the_heat.jpg


After a short, hot break at 93 to admire Steve's sweat patch art, we continued on back to Lake Takataki, the last major waypoint before Honda. At this point, my Polar computer decided that it would no longer tell the time properly (in addition to not measuring speed, distance, and cadence) and I became convinced we were only half an hour behind schedule, and not two...

No matter. We gamely pushed through the heat and last few little hills to reach Honda with daylight to spare. At this point, certain members of the club who shall now be known as the Official Soft Men of TCC®, shamefully placed their bikes in cheap plastic bags and joined the rest of the Tokyoites in enjoying a more civilized mode of transport back into town.*

An exhausting but great day out...as always, the companionship and camaraderie on familiar roads made them infinitely more enjoyable.

*Oh, wait. Did you not want me to mention this, Thomas...?

> chazzer (Charles), TrufflesEater (David), Thomas, Richy152 (Lee), SteveT, YellowGiant (Travis)

As always, a pleasure!

> astroman (Keren), Ash, chris

Great to meet you guys. Looking forward to riding with you again!

> kpykc (Sergey)

Sorry we missed you...next time for sure.
 
Hot enough for you ?

Phil,

Thanks for putting together an incredible route: I loved the narrow winding roads, the lush greenery ... and some magical views of the canopy of trees around us. And the second half of the ride was like a trip back in time, a Japan of 30 years ago. Excellent company as always, I was never quite to too sure whether my sides were splitting from the jokes or the climbs.

Yes, a great day for road-kill - but there was so little traffic around I can only guess that they'd expired from the heat. Another 10km or so and I dare say you could have added a British cyclist to that list....:eek:uch:

Cheers!
Steve
 
ride stats

just to add to the ride statistics (acc to my fancy GPS):

2308m of climbing, spread over several painful hills

4889 calories, which is roughly the equivalent of 25 bottles of beer (!):eek:

A comforting thought if beer is your favorite means to rehydrate and re-energize...

A great ride, hope to see you all again soon!

Chris
 
yum, yum!

I meant to mention all the roadkill. Why did we go to ministop? That was what you were planning for lunch wasn't it Phil? Did you forget the BBQ?

In the last 10km, I thought the snake looked pretty good! :thumb:
 
One more snake!

Random Ride Stat: Roadkill spotted
1 raccoon, 3 snakes, 1 cat, 1 kitten, countless bullfrogs, 1 squirrel.

Phil,

Nice stats, but you missed one snake. It was long dead and pancake flat. I spent a lot of time with my head down looking down at the road as I tried to keep up.

Thanks to you all for the great day out. I hope I will be walking normally again by next weekend. :eek:uch: As a triathlete I am a poor bike rider, so this ride showed me that I still have a lot to do to improve.

Loooking forward to joining more rides in the future.

Cheers,

Keren
 
Thanks all

Just a note of thanks - firstly to Phil for organising a ride through the beautiful Chiba countryside, and everyone else for making it a fun day out. Especially nice to meet Chris and Keren for the first time.

Look forward to riding with you all again.

Lee
 
Fun & Challenging!

First of all, without echoing everyone-else, huge appreciation to Phil for putting together yet another fantastic ride in Chiba.
For those who have yet to go on one of these "Boso" rides, what Phil has done is;
Put together a series of six to 8 short (10-15km), almost-zero-traffic hilly unforgotten roads, and then link them up into a complete 120km course.
He (Phil) also went out in the weeks before to reconnoiter the course so that there would be no unnecessary "double-backs" or disappointments.

Once again, the company was fantastic! Thanks to everyone:)
Great riding with Keren and Chris for the first time; and great to see a lot of familiar faces again! Lee, Steve, David, Thomas, Charles, Ash, and of course Phil.
The banter was often hilarious, and made what might have been an ordinary ride into a great one (with the same company next time, we might rename it, The "Bozo" ride;) )...Lots of fun between some serious cycling!

Charles, Thomas & I managed to catch the last 25 minutes of the fireworks, which completed an already wonderful day.
Thanks again to everyone! Especially to Phil - Thanks!
See you on the next one!
Travis
 
sorry to have missed that one ...

... Sounds like it was a lot of fun. I've resumed lurking, as I'm now 2 weeks from due date for cost centre #1. The weekend was spent at a childbirth preparation class. This was fun (no, really), but nothing like a Hilly Bozo odyssey. Hilly Bozo the first was my first outing with the TCC, after all... Hope I can join you guys again soon, but I expect it might be a few months at least. Have a great summer all! B
 
Best of luck with

that particular project Ben ! I remember my own very well......

As we say in England - the first five years are the worst :D

Hope to see you soon on or off the bike.....

chazzer
 
Yeah, good luck, Ben... Hope you can get away for a few rides at least!
 
Ditto!

Congratulations Ben!:happy:
...And I thought I was busy:eek:

Good luck with the young'un, and we all hope to see you on some rides soon (in between changing nappies):D
Best wishes! T
 
that particular project Ben ! I remember my own very well......

As we say in England - the first five years are the worst :D

Hope to see you soon on or off the bike.....

chazzer
the first five are the cheapest, after that it just gets more and more costly each year. Buy your cycling stuff now. good luck.
 
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