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"Hottest" Strava KOMs

Deej

Maximum Pace
Oct 13, 2007
1,018
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Hi everyone,

I've been asked by an LA-based cyclist (who is racking up lots of Strava KOMs on his home turf) what Japan's "biggest" KOMs are.

I assume he means in terms of scale, but he may have meant "prestige/awesomeness/etc."

Perhaps he meant both.

So, my fellow Strava-heads, what do you think Japan's/Tokyo's "hottest" Strava climbing segments are? Fuji? Norikura? Wada? Yabitsu? Otoge? Etc.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Deej
 
Veloviewer rates the segments this way
  • Veloviewer said:
    Position score - Each of your completed segments comes with a score, between 0 and 100, that represents your relative position based on the number of other athletes that have also ridden the segment. The higher the score the better!
So, it would depend on the number of people on the leaderboard.

Recently in London's Richmond Park I ended up 28th on one segment out of 28,133 which gives me my highest score of 99.90

From the KOMs or top rankings in Japan you'd have to get the most populated which would be....? Palace loops? (3000) Fuji? (2000) Not a lot of people in Japan use Strava. There was a Strava stand at the l'Etape du Tour event village and the guys there were saying that England, America, and Australia are sewn up but the rest of the world hasn't taken notice yet and they are trying to sponsor events to get the name out there. As far as I can see there is no language option on the site at all and that is a fairly big barrier for many.

I vote for Shiraishi
 
If you run you OS system language in japanese you get strava in all its japanese glory.
As far as I can see there is no language option on the site at all and that is a fairly big barrier for many.

If a segment is not up to at least a couple of hundred participants here in Japan there's no real kudos value if that's whats important these days :)
I think shiraishi would be a nice challenge with the KOM down to sub 21min now. Not quite "Pro-level" yet but you have to be pretty damn fit to average 18.4km/h.

I don't get the Wada hype at all personally but it seems to be a TCC favourite somehow.
 
I believe the KOMs I hold are probably the hardest to obtain, and therefore worth the most...... They also may be the hardest to find. he he he!
 
Recently in London's Richmond Park I ended up 28th on one segment out of 28,133 which gives me my highest score of 99.90

Richmond Park would be a bugger to KOM (let alone the fact that a lot of KOMs in England have been claimed by people on motorcycles and in cars...).
 
I'd say Shiraishi is the most popular one among TCCers. No idea which one commands the most respec' among serious Japanese cyclists, though.

In terms of pure numbers it would be like wot @Musashi13 said. Some stretches of the Arakawa have around 2,000 riders but they're generally only in one direction: "tailwind doping" is rife.
 
Local to Tokyo
Fuji Azami Line. Just climbing it is tough. Anyone near the top of the leader table is a seriously fast rider.
Yabitsu-toge from the south side. A big hill with a lot of fast riders regularly giving it full gas.
Farther away
Norikura seems to be the one all the Japanese hillclimb specialists really want to win.

Not to mention Ashigara-toge, the literal hottest segment which caused me to wilt in the heat. I had to stop twice!
 
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Thanks for the feedback, guys. Great information.

I still can't believe I've never done Shiraishi or Fuji after all these years. Now that I've caught the cycling bug again after getting sidetracked by trail running (which I still love), it's a good time to give those hills a whack.
 
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