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Official Ride Hakone Ekiden Ride 2010

Very likely won't

be able to make it to the Kawasaki RdV tomorrow...jet lag is terrible :eek:uch:; might do a few hours of "hatsunori" in the afternoon....

Happy New Year to all and have a great time !
 
this morning I woke early and ran along the river to Kawasaki to watch the 2nd tcc/pe ekiden challenge, great weather for you if a bit frosty. I saw you guys crossing the tamagawa at 8:42 just 5 mins ahead of the final car clearing the road ahead of the runners, hope you made up enough time on road to odawara before the big climb! The race is on, I can't wait for the writeup.

Wish I'd joined in this event now, must be amazing having tour de France style crowds for over 110 km!

FYI there was a big peloton of around 70~80 Japanese cyclists immediately behind the last vehicle.
 
I watched a bit of the race on TV while pedaling on the machine at the gym this a.m., about 09:10 to 09:45. It looked like great weather... (wish I could've been there)
 
Great day indeed - except for broken chain. The Otemachi crew got held up by countless red lights and did not make it to Tamagawa until 8:42 (as Andy said). Thinking we were about 10 mins ahead of the road closures, we made a stop in a combini close to Fujisawa - which turned out to be an mistake, and got wrapped up in road closures.

About 100 m from the combini, several us got pulled off by insistent police officers, while Ludwig, David, and Dominic squeezed by (I hope you made it guys). We tried zig zagging to get ahead of the runners, but no success. Good news is that we got a nice, clear 10k run from Enoshima along the ocean with an incredible view of Fuji. We then joined a 80+ peloton of riders following the runners. A 20 kph laterne rouge - good fun.

I ended up turning back when my chain broke about 4 k above Hakone Yumoto. Dumb, because I was thinking about brining a crank bro's toolkit with chain breaker and did not.

Next year - I think we ride out about 10 mins in advance, or surf the laterne rouge in a mama-chari

MOB - sorry to catch up to you guys. Great ride, though.
 
Guys all I can say is It was an amazing ride, with open coastal roads without cars and a good pace.

we pretty much stayed about 30 minutes ahead of the runners until the climb, Ludwig, David, Michael, myself and Dominic (Finished the climb in that order) made it over the top to Ashinoko without getting stopped although I did ignore one outrider as I thought he was talking to all the countless other people making their way to the top.

Dominic also managed to make it through with some sneaky walk-ride techniques to fool the police and got to the finish before the runners

I managed to put the chain in the spokes on the way up and chased Ludwig down again which was a mistake as it tapped into my reserves, second time it happened I lost my rhythm and started to bonk. Fortunately Michael caught up with me that gave me some motivation to keep going. Many thanks mate.

I hate not knowing the mountain passes as it plays havoc with the psychological warfare going on in my head as I ride up, but with yet another pass under the belt it won't be so hard next time.

At the Apex of the climb there were a lot of riders parked up and they cheered us on and over which was excellent.

At Ashinoko I crossed the final junction arms raised which drew a cheer from the crowd which Ludwig managed to capture.

After a quick lunch we headed up and over Hakone Pass for the much deserved downhill section into Atami.
Amazing ride, amazing company looking forward to much more of this in 2010.
 
Also these are the readings for Altitude gains from the Garmin 705 with the latest 3.10 firmware:

Elevation Gain: 1,714 m
Elevation Loss: 1,760 m
Min Elevation: 2 m
Max Elevation: 988 m

Wondering what you guys have to see if the improvements have worked.
 
Sorry

Sorry I bungled the organization of the ride for the group starting from Otemachi.

I should have foreseen that we had some slower riders which meant that especially in the red-light jungle of Tokyo we would not be making up time against the runners.

Less foreseeable was that the police was much more aggressive this year than last (while still being arbitrary and random) in enforcing traffic restrictions ahead of time. Last year, we were at times about as close to the runners as this year, but never got pulled over. This was particularly strange on the climb to Moto-Hakone where I was much further ahead of the runners this year than last (last year I heard the support vehicles all the time, this year not at all; and I arrived just minutes ahead of the runners while this year I had to wait for half an hour to finally see them arriving at the finish): police asked us to stop several times, but as this was really not practical stopping right in front of roaring crowds with no space between them and the road, I always went on irrespectively.

So I'm sorry that the conbini stop ended up taking Trad, Yair, Miyuki and Aki out of the race, while I was zooming by the police woman shouting "stop" (so did David I guess).

Well aware that I was in danger of being pulled too, I went relatively fast through long empty roads with lots of cheering people (who had only me to look at) and caught MOB's group soon after Fujisawa. I was hoping we would somehow see at least some of my group later, though gave up the hope as we were going at a more leisurely pace and nobody coming in sight from behind. What a pleasant surprise when David caught up with us in Ninomiya.

We then bumped into Guzz on his impressive wooden fixie and he gave us company into Odawara.

We left from another conbini stop in Odawara exactly half an hour before the runners were to arrive. Despite all that was still to come, I managed to keep up this gap exactly on the 900m climb and beyond.

But before getting to the climb, James almost crashed into me as I was breaking for a stupid policeman who had been waiving a car out from a side street and right into our way. Thanks to his soft Dura Ace 7900 gear shifter, I didn't feel his bump into my bottom for long. Probably aggravated by this experience, the stupid policeman then stopped David, Dominic and Kori, which cost them some time to get back onto the road (all unknown to us). This was also the last time any of us saw Kori.

The time-trial climb was a nightmare of navigating through an endless traffic jam. After more than half way to the top, it cleared and the remaining climb was nicer, albeit still marred by crazy bus drivers who liked to show they didn't care about bicycles and would see them rather dead than alive. The crowds lining the climb (many more than last year!) clearly thought otherwise, which was nice.

I had lost James somewhere half way up after telling him it was still half way up (he wanted to know) which seemed to have demotivated him a great deal. I was expecting him to emerge soon again, but in fact, after I took a break after the time-trial end at the peak of 874m to get into warmer clothing for the descent into Moto-Hakone it was David who appeared once again out of nowhere. Stopping occasionally for photo shots, we made it to the finish, where we waited for James and MOB, and to our delight later saw Dominic coming in too.

The final surprise of the day was Graham who I passed on the long climb. We had thought he hadn't turned up at all, but as he later explained, he had just missed the exit from the Dai-ichi Keihin for the meeting point and ended up going on his own all the way to Hakone. He joined us later in the restaurant, having watched all the runners pass, and clearly more knowledgeable about the results than any of us.

The descent into Atami was pleasantly free of much traffic, and the first-time use of route 20 for the final descent into Atami a nice discovery over the much steeper and shorter we approach we usually take.

My own statistics:

141km incl. 10km from home to Otemachi
1,300m of climbing (according to mapmyride; my less reliable Ciclo shows 1,550m)

People who started:

From Otemachi: Yair, David, Trad, Bryon, Ishihara-san, Miyuki, Aki, Ludwig
From elsewhere: Graham, Guzz (separately)
From Kawasaki: James, Dominic, MOB
From Fujisawa: Kori

People who finished:

Moto-Hakone, then Atami: James, Dominic, David, Graham, MOB, Ludwig (funny - four Brits, two Germans, one whom even UK-educated - does this say something about the future of road-race cycling?)
Hakone Yumoto: Yair, Miyuki, Aki, Trad
Not yet accounted for: Kori, Bryon, Ishihara-san

For me this was not a very strenuous ride, but certainly a very stressful one - it does not feel nice losing half of your riding mates and not being able to stop for them.

Cheers, Ludwig
 
I was surprised to see the Tokyo starters crossing the Tamagawa so late, as I had timed my run to get to the bridge just before the runners. At that point, the police were waving you guys through, so it didnt look like it would be a problem.

For the record, the King of the Hill, Kashiwabara from Toyo University broke his own record set last year for the 24.3km, uphill road stage from Odawara to MotoHakone in an amazing 1hr 17min 18s :eek:
 
Report from the back of the pack.

In retrospect, the best thing for the group probably would have been if I had stayed home or gone for a spin by myself... However, for me, it was a really good day out.

Since I'm living near Fujisawa, I met the group there. They were running about a half an hour behind schedule but it was nice to watch other groups of cyclists zip by and see the crowds gather. Once joining the group the pace was brisk (for me) but the weather was perfect and views of mount Fuji gorgeous. I began to realize, however, I was really unprepared for this climb.

In the last year, off a bike, traveling around the world and trying to decide if I should move back to Tokyo again, often all it would take would be to look at the TCC boards before I got a huge grin on my face and planned my return. In many ways, I'd been looking forward to a ride like this for over a year. I had had a minor crash the day before on the bridge to Enoshima just before sunrise on New Year's Day and though sore from bruises and whiplash, I really wanted to get back to riding with you guys again.

After the convi stop before the climb, I fell behind quickly. The soreness from the whiplash in my neck started to hurt more as I climbed. I knew there little to no chance that I'd beat the runners as the road started snaking up the hill but told myself that I would go as far as I could until I was stopped. It was a lot of fun to have the crowd cheer me on as I struggled up. I was kicked off the road at a big hairpin curve (luckily in the sun) where there was a big crowd, support runners to give the marathoners water, and a TV crew. It was a good show. Man, those boys are fast!

After the runners passed and the roads opened up, I considered continuing up the mountain but I knew I would be damn slow and my neck hurt too much to feel like it was a good idea to push ahead. So, I sent MOB a c-mail saying I was turning around and heading back to Odawara. Not getting a response I left a phone message about a half an hour later. Nonetheless, I don't think either worked and I'm SO SORRY you guys waited for me unnecessarily for me! Thank you for checking in with me later mob, that was really nice.

I look forward to riding with you again after I get in better shape! It was a good and very motivating day for me, even though I got my ass kicked. It won't be easy to keep up with you guys, but I look forward to the challenge. Thank you and congrats to all those who beat the runners!
 
Kori, it was nice meeting you, and you kept up very well with us until Odawara. After that it was every woman and every man for themselves, so I did not notice anyone falling behind:). We missed you at the top, but discovered Graham instead...:eek:

Sorry to hear about your accident.:eek: I hope you will get better soon, and will be able to join one of our rides when fully recovered.

Cheers, Ludwig
 
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