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Boso Back in the Saddle - July 19th

It was nice to meet you trucksan, and put faces to all the other avatars I havent met before as well. You must have died quickly, as you were right behind me one moment, then nowhere to be seen. Hope you get better soon.

Was good to see you all, hope your journey back to Honda went well - though I suspect the rolling Chiba countryside might have been very tough in the heat today?

My journey west to the ferry went smoothly, it was mostly downhill from where we parted, and only 42km of quiet roads so I made it comfortably for the 3.20 sailing. Was so nice to sit in air conditioned room, drinking whatever was left in the vending machines and getting some soba in before the ride to Zushi.

Took me a while to get on the right road out of Kurihama, I went for the direct route 27 which turned out to be urban most of its length, for some reason I thought it might cut through some nice miura hanto countrside but no.

Even had a good swim at Zushi, theres a very large area marked out for swimmers now. Great to finish off the holiday ride in the sea.
 
Thanks everyone. Emi & I had great fun. Sorry you you had to pack it in early Dave. Glad you are ok. Andy W, that really sounded good after the hot day we had a swim would have been nice. Emi & I ended up waiting for everyone at the 7-11 on the corner. But you guys were at the other 7-11!

Anyway, a great day. It was fun to hang out with you guys.

Andy
 
Thanks for the great ride and lead through the rindos. Some beautiful roads out there! Luckily I didn't need any sticks this time to mark the turns (or stop the descents) !! Look forward to doing this again!
 
That was pretty funny last time.....Boy Scout riding!
 
It's a pity I could not join you guys - but I wouldn't make it in time for my work, as it takes 2 hours to reach Honda st. by train and 2 hours back.

I guess, it'd be better for me to spend a night in Chiba to enjoy riding there...I guess I'll try it soon.
 
Many thanks!

Many thanks to everyone who joined us for the ride yesterday. Overweight and out of shape, I was cursing those hills as I dragged myself up them, but the excellent company made it all worthwhile. Brilliant weather too; the sun was hot but lowish humidity meant the shaded spots offered real respite. Think I spent over 1000 yen on the pop machines, though. :)

Peter > Was great to meet you--hopefully see you out here again soon.

Andy and Emi > Sorry we didn't manage to say a proper goodbye--hope you made it home without incident. Emi, much respect for going the distance!

Tim, Andy W > Was good to see you both again (Andy W, I remembered when I got home, we did meet on a Tomin-no-mori climb... I think you were still on the flat bar bike back then(?))

David > Glad you made it home ok. Heat + hills is def. not the best way to recover from the flu, so wise move to turn back for sure.

Thomas and Travis > As always, a genuine pleasure.

SummerBosoJuly201003.jpg
 
Phil, as always thanks for organising this wonderful and social ride. :)

I can't think of a more stimulating and diverse cycling arena than the hilly Boso. Looking forward to the next Eastern adventure, thanks to everyone for the great company!

Travis, Peter, our breakneck run back into Tokyo was quite exciting. :D
 
It was a hell of a run back in to Tokyo! I was completely cooked by the time I breached my front door, ending up on 224km for the day. I'd really like to know how much vertical we covered. Travis did an amazing job negotiating (and sometimes controlling) the traffic and your support, Thomas, made all the difference, thank you both!
 
Phil,
Sorry I missed this one. I was pretty done-in after riding this on Sunday. Pics in the gallery.
Look forward to riding with you again soon!
AW.
 
Yes, it's been a while Alan, would be good to see you out here again soon. Great pics from your ride though...

Pete, forgot to answer your question about elevation, but usually the Boso rides always end up being between 1700m to 2300m total. As this one was shorter than usual, avoided the coastal hills, and took the flatter route back to Honda, I'd say at the low end of that.
 
Hmmm, perhaps you can get TCC naming rights on a few these... I wonder what the <sponsorship> costs??

I'd love to have my own station name ---

Like --

1) "Forza Fixie Refueling Station"
2) "The Rules"
3) "Tim's Hamburger Shack and Gumbo" (Station)
4) "Rinko While You Tinkle" (Station)

... etc

Small aside about Dental Support Otaki: Apparently in a bid to keep the small local line running, they sought out corporate sponsors by offering station naming rights...

http://www.isumirail.co.jp/sponsor/namingrights/ootaki/index.html

Right. Curiosity sated.
 
The wordy version...

Firstly, to echo everyone else – Thanks Phil, for organizing the ride!
Despite the heat and suffering, I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time.

This ride followed the standard pattern for all Boso rides – We went down that road, then turned onto this road. After quite a few kilometers on this road, we turned onto another road. From another road, we then turned onto yet-a-different road. We took let's-see-where-this-goes road, which doubled back onto another road before taking a detour on yet-an-entirely-other road. On the way back, we took a shortcut that skipped this road altogether until we found ourselves back on that road again. In short, only Phil knew exactly where we were at any given moment, and that is how it should be.
------------------------------

Just after 7:30 at the Kuramaebashi-Dori bridge, I met Pete (Yamabushi), Andrew (Nadrew), Tim (GSAuto) and Emi, who had all ridden out from the middle of Tokyo, and the five of us started riding the 40km out to Honda from there. We had one break along the way, and arrived in Honda at about 9:20, where Andy (Andy_W), Phil, Thomas and David (Trucksan) were waiting for us.

After filling up our bottles at 7-11, we set out at around 9:45. At about the 25km point, we reached the lake, where we had our first long-ish break. We continued on to the dam (which is different from the lake, but only in name and location), where we said goodbye to Andrew (Andy_W). That's also where some of us noticed that David (Trucksan) was no longer with us. We found out that he wasn't feeling well, and went home early – Glad you're O.K, David.
Despite all of the mini-climbs we had already done to get there, it was now time for the longest climb of the day – It's about 4km, at an average of 6-7%. Everyone said they liked it in a very Goldilocks-esque fashion, "Oh yes. I must say it wasn't too steep, but not too easy either. And it wasn't too long, without being over before its time. I might even say, that this climb is just right!"

There were a couple of punctures along the way; the first was Pete (Yamabushi) less than 5km out of Honda. The second was Andrew (Nadrew), as we were descending this just-right climb of the day. I've always admired it when, after everyone else has descended and the call comes in that the only person left unaccounted for has punctured on the way down, there is always one guy who jumps back on his bike and starts riding up the hill to help his fallen comrade. I had to find out what it was like to "be that guy"! Did I feel like a hero? No! Did I feel like a hyperactive child with A.D.D. after 3 liters of Coca-Cola? Getting closer! Was I just hungry, and thinking, "The sooner we get everyone moving, the sooner we can all eat?" Heroism is all in the motivation, and I don't think this counts.
As it turned out, Andrew wasn't "out of tubes" like I thought, but he was riding on "tubular" tyres, and was having trouble pulling them off the rim. So we used my trusty tyre-levers to scrape away at the glue. I still felt the ride up was unjustified though (he would've gotten it off eventually, right), until he said "...yeah, I left my pump on my other bike!" YES! He could use MY pump! I WAS a hero.

We finally stopped at the usual no-name convenience store – They've added tables and chairs inside since the last time I was there, so we could sit in relative comfort while we ate. The return trip was fairly uneventful, but on some of the longer, flatter sections, Thomas "the crank engine" lived up to his name by pulling strings of us, at various times, up to and over 40km/h for some fairly long stretches. Tim was also in surprise-the-heck-out-of-everyone mode, by riding up some of the climbs like a rocket.
O.K, yes! I got overtaken by a guy on a fixie… going uphill… several times.

As we began the homeward approach back into Honda just before 5:30, Pete informed us that he had to be back in Tokyo by 8pm-sharp. That would be cutting it fine, but I was sure we could make it – 50km in just over 2 hours through fairly heavy traffic – Not an easy task, but do-able.
That meant we had to leave before Andrew and Emi got back to the 7-11 – Sorry about that guys! I hope you got home safely from there, anyway!

As Thomas & Pete have already mentioned, the trip back was exciting. I always get mixed up as I come out Chiba-city though, about how to actually get on to Rte.357 – That is so annoying! Anyway, we crossed the Edogawa river (the Tokyo border) right on 7:25. That would mean Pete would have to pull a monster-effort from out of the bag if he was to make it home on time. Still, we almost made it.

Thanks again to Phil, for the organization and leadership. I had a great time.
Travis
 
Everyone said they liked it in a very Goldilocks-esque fashion, "Oh yes. I must say it wasn't too steep, but not too easy either. And it wasn't too long, without being over before its time. I might even say, that this climb is just right!"

:D:D:D
"It's funny 'cause it's true." H. Simpson

Thanks for doing a proper report Travis...I was just too knackered on Tuesday to pull it off!
 
Despite the heat and suffering, I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time. I had a great time.
Travis

I had a great time reading Travis' story :cool:! Thanks Travis and thanks Phil for organizing these Boso rides - some day, I'd love to join !
 
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