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Double Otsuki ??

I'm not totally sure, but these might be gates than can be swung across the road for winter closures. We saw a few of those. Not much to worry about in June!

EDIT: Mike beat me to the answer.
 
So I My guess was the opposite to the truth huh. So it's only snowmen beyond that point ;)
Thanks for clearing that up Mike and Joe.
 
Just looking your post again Joe, I noticed that you logged 4976m. Is that just the one loop or did you do more than one loop. The reason I ask is that if (and it is a big IF) I manage the two loops, I'll be very close to 10,000m of climbing. Would be rude not to find another small hill and hit the big 10k (I might have second thoughts half way into the ride though )
 
If you just do Otsuki 4.5, your total will be 127 km horizontal with 3,450 m of climbing, based on the Strava logs of last year's group ride in September.

After Tim and Eric had headed home from Otsuki, I headed north on 139 again and went over Matsuhime once more ("Otsuki 5.5"). My Garmin had shut down on the last descent of the 4.5, before hitting R20 and I lost about 4 km of horizontal distance with 300 m of descent from the recording, as well as breaking the ride into two activities. On the other hand, I also got some bonus climbing courtesy of a Strava bug, because it counted the 297 m of altitude difference between Tim's house (where I paused and shut down my Garmin before the car/train transfer) and Otsuki station (where I powered it up again and resumed recording) in the total figure. So my real horizontal total was 210 km (+4 km) and my real climbing was 4,675 (-297 m). Yours will be different.
 
If you just do Otsuki 4.5, your total will be 127 km horizontal with 3,450 m of climbing, based on the Strava logs of last year's group ride in September.

After Tim and Eric had headed home from Otsuki, I headed north on 139 again and went over Matsuhime once more ("Otsuki 5.5"). My Garmin had shut down on the last descent of the 4.5, before hitting R20 and I lost about 4 km of horizontal distance with 300 m of descent from the recording, as well as breaking the ride into two activities. On the other hand, I also got some bonus climbing courtesy of a Strava bug, because it counted the 297 m of altitude difference between Tim's house (where I paused and shut down my Garmin before the car/train transfer) and Otsuki station (where I powered it up again and resumed recording) in the total figure. So my real horizontal total was 210 km (+4 km) and my real climbing was 4,675 (-297 m). Yours will be different.
Gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up. 7000m of climbing sounds much more doable than 10,000. Although 10k has a nice ring to it ;)
 
Although 10k has a nice ring to it ;)

Indeed it does. The Audax Club Parisien, the mother of all randonneuring organisations, has created a type of event called Super Randonnée: 10k climbing over 600 km in 50 hours...
 
What time do you guys recommend I head out tomorrow morning? I was thinking of leaving around 4.30am. Too late?
 
Full daylight currently last from 04:30 to 19:00 (14 1/2 hours). So if you could do each round in 7 hours, you could do two rounds in full daylight as well as stocking up on food and/or having a break in Otsuki in between. Last September, the group did one loop in 6 1/4 hours. I think a double loop pace would have to be significantly slower than that effort was.

We completed one loop in 10 1/2 hours, but that was due to a lot of WATT for the slowest rider, i.e. me. Moving time for Tim was under 7 hours.

If you're in good shape, 04:30-19:00 may just be enough for two rounds, but I would definitely advise good lighting that's usable on mountain roads and that will last a couple of hours, so you can be more flexible about when to finish.
 
leicaman - it really depends on your body clock. If you are comfortable with riding when your body says you should be sleeping - then I'd start as early as possible. The timing we had put us at the summit of Matsuhime right about dawn. Perfect. Pacing is critical. We only 'pushed it' on the Imagawa section - mainly due to gearing (both Eric and I are riding around a 40" lowest gear) Most compact riders would be using something like a 34 or 35" gearing, maybe lower. If I go again, I'd consider using something in the 35" range for lowest gear so I can keep cadence up a bit more on the shorter /steeper climbs and reduce the metabolic cost. So - the timing we did was perfect, in my opinion. Things just fell apart towards the end due to a variety of weather, time commitment and other.
 
Thanks for the info GSAstuto. The campsite I was gonna stay at was like a ghost town and creepy as hell. Gonna stay in the car park at the rest area just after the route 20 sasago tunnel tonight. Might try and pitch my tent there or might just sleep in the car. Looking to leave at 4:30 tomorrow morning. That way I won't need my big head torch I don't think.
 
Good luck, leicaman. Looking forward to hearing how it went!
 
Phew.... That was rather a long one. Great ride with some lovely scenery and lots of climbing. Managed to knock the Otsuki 9.0 on the head , clocking up 253km and 6752m of vertical ascent too. I didn't start until 5am so the while way around I was working out if I'd be able to make it before sunset. Pacing was the key so I tried to take it nice and easy, although no matter how well paced you have been, that amount of climbing is going to catch up with your legs before the end of the day. Managed an av speed of 21.7km/h for the 253km. The second loop came in at about 15 mins slower than the first loop but I guess that is to be expected. After riding with Pete and the guys most weekends, I noticed how lonely it is riding solo. Speaking of which, I'm hanging around Otsuki tonight as I'm doing the Otsuki 4.5 with Pete and the guys tomorrow.
 
Phew.... That was rather a long one. Great ride with some lovely scenery and lots of climbing. Managed to knock the Otsuki 9.0 on the head , clocking up 253km and 6752m of vertical ascent too. I didn't start until 5am so the while way around I was working out if I'd be able to make it before sunset. Pacing was the key so I tried to take it nice and easy, although no matter how well paced you have been, that amount of climbing is going to catch up with your legs before the end of the day. Managed an av speed of 21.7km/h for the 253km. The second loop came in at about 15 mins slower than the first loop but I guess that is to be expected. After riding with Pete and the guys most weekends, I noticed how lonely it is riding solo. Speaking of which, I'm hanging around Otsuki tonight as I'm doing the Otsuki 4.5 with Pete and the guys tomorrow.

That is quite impressive sir! Nice job!
 
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