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Official Ride Hakone Ekiden Ride 2010

m o b

m o b

Speeding Up
Jun 22, 2008
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PE+HAKONE+EKIDEN+V2.jpg
We are planing to have a traditional (since 2008) first training ride of the year on January 2nd 2010 jointly by Tokyo Cycling Club and Positivo Espresso. A gruesome ride from Tokyo (Kawasaki? Yokohama?) along the coast to Odawara and finally up the hill to Moto-Hakone. All the way followed by a bunch of incredible fast (and incredible young) university students ..... running.
Who will make it up to Ashinoko before they overtake you?

The reward for those who make it: The mother of all downhill rides: Route 20 from Hakone Pass over Jukoku pass and Atami pass down to Atami. And the mother of all quick returns.

January 2nd 2010. Mark the day.
[please also mark January 2nd 2011, 2012 and 2013 in case you bought calendars already]
 
Great

way to celebrate the New Year and good excuse for escaping the boredom of New Year family parties (and osechi-ryori):heyhey:! I plan to join & look forward to more details to come!
 
First entry

Hi,

I was introduced to TCC and Positivo Espresso by James, whom I have met the other day in Saiko race.

The Hakone training session plan seems quite exciting, especially after reading last year's session report...:)

I would definitely like to join (although I am riding a Dreck...), and looking forward to more details.

Yair
 
Ekiden Run

Hi Yair,

your most welcome to join us on the Ekiden ride. We are six riders from Positivo Espresso so far (Kanzler, James, Tom, Dominic, Graham and me) but we hope that we will get eventually a much bigger group together. We are not picky about the type of bikes at all.

I will post details about the ride and meeting points shortly before the end of the year on the TCC as well as on the Positivo Blog.
 
hahahaha..... MOB will let others ride what ever they like, but I don't think his bottom will grace certain brands.
 
We have upgraded this ride to an "Official PE/TCC Tour", organised by Michael (m o b) who will take care of all details.

I wish I could participate, but I will not be in Japan. I do hope that TCC members will be joining in as enthusiastically as the PE members. :)
 
koribeyer said:
I'm way out of shape but I hope I can beat runners....:eek:
Click to expand...

Don't underestimate the runners. They go at 20km/h in the flat. We have to stop at traffic lights (and I don't recommend skipping them with so much police around), so we are not so much faster. If we have headwind (last year we did not), it could be a little challenging for someone not in shape.

The really tough part though is the 900m climb up from Odawara towards Moto-Hakone. The runners do this at 17km/h and not even the fastest TCC cyclist will be able to do this. The strong ones manage to avoid being overtaken by starting sufficiently early and keeping a good pace. Others get overtaken, i.e. will have to stand aside until the runners have passed - and after that there is nobody waiving at cyclists anymore, and no traffic restrictions in place...

Anyhow, you are welcome to try, but please bring a decent map in case we lose you and you need to figure out where you are!
 
Looks like fun - I'll join! :)

Looking forward to the details, Mob.
I wonder what it's like at 900 meters in January. A mapmyride route would also be handy.
 
kpykc said:
Looks like fun - I'll join! :)

Looking forward to the details, Mob.
I wonder what it's like at 900 meters in January. A mapmyride route would also be handy.
Click to expand...

The weather will depend on the day. http://tenki.jp will tell you the forecasted weather for Moto-Hakone.

The route info (bilingual) can be downloaded from the official ekiden website:

http://www.hakone-ekiden.jp

And here is the GPS trail of last year's ride:

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/japan/setagaya+daita/570106663264

MOB will announce meeting details when he is back from his holiday at the end of this month. His plan is to meet up where the route has just crossed the Tamagawa, just as we did a year ago. The meeting point is clearly visible in the GPS track above.

This time, I shall be riding from the very beginning, i.e. Otemachi. Anyone wanting to join me please let me know.

Cheers, Ludwig
 
This time, I shall be riding from the very beginning, i.e. Otemachi. Anyone wanting to join me please let me know.


Hi Ludwig,

It will be great if I can meet you up in Otemachi; can you please let me know exact time and location you would like to meet?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Yair
 
Meeting point and time to start the Ekiden from the very beginning

Yair said:
It will be great if I can meet you up in Otemachi; can you please let me know exact time and location you would like to meet?
Click to expand...

Let's meet at 7:40am on the 2nd at the intersection of Hibiya Dori and Eitai Dori, at Tokyo Metro exit C14. Please don't be late, because if we don't start before the runners, we will have a hard time trying to overtake them by going on parallel roads.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou....685109,139.763764&spn=0.004845,0.010986&z=17
 
Thanks for the propmt reply.

Sounds good. I'll be there on the designated time / place.

See you soon.

Regards,

Yair
 
Ekiden Information

Ok, here are some more information about the Ekiden Ride on January 2nd.

Running History

Originally the Ekiden is a relay marathon of roughly 109 km between Tokyo and Hakone, organized for the first time in 1920. On January 2nd of each year, the race starts in the vicinity of Tokyo station and goes along major roads (mainly #1 and #15) to Moto-Hakone. The first part up to Hakone is more or less flat but the last 20 km is a pretty brutal climb of more than 700 m elevation up to Moto-Hakone.

On January 3rd the race is hold in the oppositive direction, starting in Moto-Hakone and finishing in Tokyo.Each year 20 university teams are attending and each team sports 10 runners, 5 for the first and 5 for the second day relay. The Ekiden has become a very popular sports event and is nationwide televised by Nippon TV with thousands of supporters lining the streets between Tokyo and Hakone.

More is here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakone_Ekiden [English]
and here : http://www.hakone-ekiden.jp/ [Japanese]

Riding History

Since many years [in the later part of the first decade of this century, Positivo Espresso riders have been running in front of the Ekiden field between Tokyo and Moto-Hakone on the first day of the race on January 2nd. The idea goes back to an American lawyer who wishes to stay unknown to the general public and who is anyway not in a position to ride this year due to a horrible traffic accident which involved him, a mama chari, a college student and his shoulder.

An account of last years ride can be found here: http://positivo-espresso.blogspot.com/2009/01/first-2009-positivo-espresso-team.html

It is an ideal opportunity to ride relatively fast & freely on otherwise congested roads between Tokyo and Moto-Hakone, being supported by the bored crowds that have nothing else to do but to wait for the runners. In particular the atmosphere on the climb between Hakone and Moto-Hakone and in the finish area is very dense and exciting with cheerleaders, marching bands and hard core supporters from the universities lined up.

Concept

The basic idea is to run ahead of the runners just after the roads are closed for general traffic so that one can have open roads all the way. As the police is omnipresent and not all traffic lights are turned off, progress is sometime hampered in the urban areas between Tokyo and Yokohama but this becomes gradually better further out. We wil make some stops at Combini to buy some food an drinks, but due to the crowds it might be better to take some food from home. The real challenge is the climb between Hakone and Moto-Hakone which covers about 13 km and 745 m elevation.

Mountain goats in good shape can do this climb in 45 - 60 minutes time. However, the Eliden runners are eqully fast. The challenge is to start the climb in time and make it up to the goal before the runners. This is very tough. And very much fun. After the climb we re-assemble at the rest area of Hakone Pass and have a warm meal. Riders who could not start the climb before the runners and were aftertaken before the climb begins can try to ride up the old Tokkaido (road 732 from Hakone-Yumoto- see map at km93).

Riders who are overtaken on the climb have to wait until all runners and cars have passed by and the roads are open again for traffic before they can make their way up. Once we are all together, we ride on route 20, the most beautiful cycling road in Japan to Jukoku Toge and then further on and down to Atami where we take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. Of course, those who want to ride back are free to do so.

Participants [so far]

So far we have Kanzler + 2 friends, Dominic, Tom, Bryon, James, Graham and me from Positivo Espresso and Yair, Sergey and Koribeyer from TCC joingthe ride. It would be of course even better if our groups gets even bigger.

The Route

I prepared a map my ride route, covering the whole sistance between Tokyo and Atami of 132 km and 1,245m of climbing. Out of this, about 112 km are on the Ekiden roads and the remaining 20 km are cover the return road between the finish in Moto-Hakone and Atami.

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/jp/hakone/986126207720862175

Meeting points are marked with M.
The END marks first the goal of the Ekiden at Moto-Hakone and then the goal of the ride at Atami station.

Meeting Points

We designated three major meeting points for all riders to join the ride. Th meeting points are marked with a M in a square in the above map, except for the first one which is the starting point.

Meeting point #1 is in Tokyo at the start of the race, at the crossing of Hibiya and Eitai Dori in front of exit C14. from there the total ride wil be 132 km. Ludwig and his two friends and Yair and perhaps Dominic will start there at precisely 7:40 AM. As we need to be in front of the runners, we will not start later than that.

Meeting point #2 is in Kawasaki, right after the bridge over the Tamagawa on route 1 in front of the Family Market Combini. We will meet their the riders from the Tokyo starting point and continue to ride at 8.25 AM latest. The distance to Atami from this meeting point is about 112 km. I (mob) will be waiting there and I assume that James, Tom, Graham and Bryon will start from there.

Meeting point #3 is in Fujisawa, mainly for the convenience of Koribeyer、on road #30 at the Fujisawa Eki Kitaguchi Iriguchi Crossing North of Fujisawa Station. We are going to be there at 9:45 AM. Again, we must start at 9:45 in order to stay in front of the runners. The distance from here to Atami is about 80 km.

Meeting point #4 is the restaurant MICHI NO EKI at Hakone pass. Here we gather after the cimb to eat something, and ride together to Atami. The runners wil arrive at Hakone about 13.30hr and traffic wil be open at 14:04hr. So I guess we can start to ride to Atami at about 14:30 hr latest.

Alternatives

It is highly unlikely that we will get overtaken by the runners before the climb. But somebody might get lost or overtaken on the climb, so what can be done?

If overtaken before the climb, please take road 732 from km 93 on the map which is the old Tokkaido. This is faster and much less crowded than the Ekiden road #1 so you will be faster up in Moto Hakone and ride then to the meeting point #4 at Michi no Eki at Hakone Pass.

If you are overtaken by the runners on the climb up, then wait until traffic is open again and ride up to Moto-Hakone and then further to Michi no Eki at Hakone Pass where we meet.

In case you want more safety, please send me an email or PM on the TCC blog with your mobile phone number so that we can stay in contact during the ride.

We shall be back in Atami by 15.30 hr latest and I assume that most of us will take the Shinkansen home. However, you can also ride home, although most of the ride will be in the dark on pretty big and crowded roads.

Weather

Please check the weather forecast for Moto-Hakone, for example here:
http://tenki.jp/forecast/point-797.html
So far it looks good and let's hope that it stays that way. No rian, but it will be cold in the range of 0 - 10 degrees Celsius and there mightbe patches of ice and snow in the shadows.

In case it is forecasted with ahigh probibility that it will rian or snow on the racing day in the Hakone area, we will cancel the ride. I will post on thge Positivo Espresso as well as on the TCC blog on the day before, so if you don't see anything you can assume that we will ride.

Also it will be cold, but you wil get hot during the climbs. Part from shoe covers and long fingrered gloves it is best to have layers of clothing which you can easily add and removed to adjust for the changes in temperature inside and outside of your clothing. A windbreaker will be good for the fast and cold descent from Hakone to Atami.

Other preparations

Apart from you, your bike and the usual stuff (repair kit, lights etc.) you will need a bike bag for the ride bag on the Shinkansen from Atami. Also it is adviseable to bring some food from home as the portfolio of the Combinis along the road wil be rather small due to the large crowds in the area. Bring also your camera and dress funny if you think that this will give you more support from the crowds.

Togebaka / Hall Of Fame

For the riders in competitive mood, I shall mention that the portion of the route between Asahi bridge and teh signboard marking the highest point of road #1 is an officially approved Positivo Espresso "Togebaka" or Hill climb time trial run of 13.2 km length and 745 m elevation difference with a best time of about 58 minutes so far.

Any questions ?

Let me know, send a comment.

See all of you on January 2nd.Happy New Year.
 
Thanks for posting the detailed explanations, MOB. A couple of additions from my side.

The more the merrier, but there is also a certain risk that the larger the group, the more likely the police may ask us to disperse - even though we will not be doing anything illegal by riding ahead of the runners. In case we do get approached by the police, it may be best to keep going in smaller groups or individually, and get out of the traffic restrictions (i.e. faster ahead).

The final climb to Moto-Hakone can be demanding. The most important preparation is to make sure you have taken in sufficient calories sufficiently early and steadily so that you don't experience a "bonk" on the climb (like I did last year). Also, as MOB points out, it is important to be able to "delayer"/open your clothing to avoid sweating too much.

To know how cold it will be up in Moto-Hakone, I recommend checking the forecast for Yamanakako (http://tenki.jp/forecast/point-915.html) rather than for Hakone-cho (as MOB posted), because the latter seems to be showing the temperature for Hakone-Yumoto (i.e. the base of the climb rather than the top).

The convenience stores along the way are busy but I don't think they will be overcrowded. Buying food and drink there should not be a problem. However, do expect the toilets to be busy, so I would suggest we give priority to our female members and those that need them for bigger business.

As for the meeting points, here is the link for the Otemachi meeting point: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou....685109,139.763764&spn=0.004845,0.010986&z=17

Please note that the link for the Fujisawa meeting point indicates the station as meeting point, but as MOB says, the actual meeting point will be the crossing on route 30 which is called the north entrance to the station. We will not divert to the actual station.

As MOB says, it should be relatively easy to stay ahead of the runners between Tokyo and Odawara. However, this assumes no technical issues with bikes, no lengthy convenience store stops or stops for other reasons (e.g. to sort out work issues with long phone calls). We normally wait for each other and help each other in case of trouble, but this is the only ride where you should not expect this. The train will keep moving no matter what (it will also leave on time and not wait for those with connection problems, no matter what the reason may be). For this reason, you need to bring everything you would need in case you find yourself on your own, in particular repair kit and a map/maps.

Looking forward to the ride - it is a lot of fun when everything works out well.

Ludwig
 
I'm most likely in and will try to meet at the 7:40 location in Otemachi.

Pls depart w/o me if I'm not there at 7:40

MOB- will pm with keitai
 
OK for tomororw

The weather looks good for tomorrow, blue skies, not too windy and up to 10 degrees between Tokyo and Odawara. But it will be cold, in the range of 0 - 2 up in Hakone so bring some warm clothing with you to put on AFTER you have chased up the slopes in front of the runners.

We will assemble quite a group, provided everyone will come

FROM TOKYO AT 07:40 HR

Ludwig + 2, Dominic, Yair, Todor, David A, Bryon + father iL

FROM KAWASAKI AT 08:25 HR

James, Graham, Tom, Sergey? and me (mob)

FROM FUJISAWA 09:45 HR

Koribeyer

Be on time at the meeting points as we will not wait there for anyone.

Also, please don't forget to bring your bikebag for the return trip on the Shinkansen.

See you tomorrow

mob
 
Mob,

You want to meet up and ride to Kawasaki together? Tried calling but no pickup.
 
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