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Michael o.B. Kraehe aka MOB SAYONARA RIDE

Turtleman welcome :) but I'm going to hit the sack in a few minutes.

It doesn't sound like a great ride...it is a great ride and this isn't just a great ride, this happens to be THE M O B SAYONARA RIDE :rolleyes: (no sarcasm intended but I just about finished my Chateauneuf-du-Pape; yes Philip that's right).

Admire your courage to join a ride like this head over shoulders :cool:.

Somebody please help Turtleman navigate to our rendezvous....merci (Travis) !!

ARON / Ride + Party
ALAN / Ride + Party
DAVID L. / Ride + Party
FUMIKI / Ride + Party
GRAHAM / Ride only
HIROSHI / Ride + Party
JAMES M. / Ride + Party
JAMES F. / Ride only new
JEROME / only Party (?)
KEREN / Ride + Party
KIMM / Ride only
LEE / Ride only
LUDWIG / Ride + Party
MARIKO / only Party (?)
MICHAEL H. / Ride + Party
MIKE / Ride + Party
MOB / Ride + Party
NAOMI / Ride + Party
PETER / Ride only
PHILIP / Ride only
RYOKO / only Party (?)
SERGEY / Ride only
STEVE / Ride only
THOMAS / Ride + Party
TIM / Ride + Party
TOM / Ride + Party
TRAD / Ride only
TRAVIS / Ride + Party
TURTLE / Ride only new
TYLER / Ride only (?) new
YAIR / Ride + Party




Tom,

That sounds like a great ride. I'm new to Tokyo (arrived this week) and living in Shinagawa. I haven't been out on the bike yet but am very keen to, so is there a chance to join your ride tomorrow? If so, would you be able to link me a map from Shinagawa station to your start point.

Cheers.
 
Re-post

Tom,
That sounds like a great ride. I'm new to Tokyo (arrived this week) and living in Shinagawa. I haven't been out on the bike yet but am very keen to, so is there a chance to join your ride tomorrow? If so, would you be able to link me a map from Shinagawa station to your start point.
Cheers.

Hey Turtle,
It's about 10km from Shinagawa to Shinjuku, and it's easy to find once you're on Meiji-dori. Meiji-dori is not the most bicycle friendly road, but it's the most direct, coming from where you are.
Here's the map:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/jp/tok...27202619042081

We'll be leaving from Shinjuku at 7:30.
Hope to see you there.
Travis (Filling in for Tom:cool:)
 
Many many thanks

to all of you who joined MOB's farewell event !! Good weather, excellent company, no accidents, great beer...what a beautiful day it was :) !
 
Thanks for organising such a great day out Tom. Good company, a fun TT up Wada, and excellent beer and food. Goodluck Mob back home and have a safe journey.

James, thanks for leading the way home mate, that was a quick, fun ride home.

p.s. Deej if you're reading this, I got 16' 29 up Wada today, and couldn't believe it when I saw your TCC Hall of Fame time was 1 second faster! Damn:mad:
 
Cheers!

That was FUN!
Big "Thanks!" to Tom, for organizing the day!

And of course, MOB: Michael, even though we've never really had much opportunity to ride in the same groups together – bad timing, and the like – I've always enjoyed reading your ride reports. Informative, with excellent humor!
All the best, in your new posting: President of the Positivo Espresso, European Branch.

As for the ride itself…
I walked through the door just before 9pm, with 206km on the meter. While a 200km ride is not usually considered to be a leg-shatteringly big deal, it's still … 200km.
But then, a 200km ride at nearly full-speed; now that's leg-shattering. The distance itself is no biggie, but the average (meter) speed of 27km/h for that distance does make me feel warm & fuzzy inside – Wait! No, that's my legs cramping up again.

I didn't break any records; however, my Wada-toge time of 19:05 is a personal best – 30 seconds faster than my previous best time (of 3 years ago).
Probably the best part of today's ride though, was being able to come up with a new analogy for the "feel of the peloton". In the past, I've used the "personal roller-coaster" description quite a lot. Another one was "like a pilot in the Blue-Angels", or some other aerobatic team. "Traffic snake" has worked on more than one occasion too. But today's was a special kind of feeling; Never before have I ridden in a group, and known exactly what it felt like to be a member of "a pack of ravenous wolves". And for that, I'd like to thank James, for playing the part of the "hare" so well, while David, Ludwig, Alan, Thomas, Sergey, and myself, salivated furiously as we chased down our prey. "Gottaget'im!" "Gottaget'im!" "Gottaget'im!" (Picture, Wiley Coyote x 6).

It was great to see so many familiar faces again – some, for the first time in ages; Notably, Aaron, Philip, Sergey and Steve. And a lot of new faces – Hopefully, we'll all meet in the hills more frequently, now that the weather is starting to warm up.

Thanks again, to Tom. And thanks to everyone who came, for making it a great day!
Travis
 
Sayonara MOB. Your humor and kindness have touched many in our community. The number of riders who turned out today is testament to the high esteem to which you are held. We will all miss you.

Thank you Tom for making arrangements. You were correct. It was a great ride.

Cheers,

Philip
 
Thanks for a great ride everyone and waiting up! We'll be sad to see you go, MOB. Best wishes in your new home and position! My daughter is a little happier thanks to the 'stinger' we could get from you! So now I know that a 'leisurely jaunt between climbs' entails 200+ rpm downhills, I'm almost considering taking the geared bike out of storage. Cheers!
 
Thanks and Farewell

Tom,
Thanks for organising yesterday's fanastic blast through the hills between Takao and Haijima with Beer at the finish :beer2: :D
Herr Doktor Mob,
All the best for your new position as chairman of the Positivo-Espresso European Chapter, and wasn't there something about a professorship too? I'll continue to check for your musings on the P.E. website - always very entertaining :thumb:
Aaron, Philip - great to see you again! And to all the riders - a very enjoyable ride.

And if I may add, in the tradition of this post, a quick "translation"

Famous Tom quote #1
"the plan is to do a slow approach to the foot of Wada"

Translation:
"All the big guns of Tokyo Cycling Club, Positivo Espresso and Vlaams will turn up and proceed to chase the leading rider down like a pack of ravenous dogs; and you'd better be in form because there are two hillclimb races still to do!"

AW.
 
A huge thank you to Tom for organising an amazing send off for Michael and also to Michael himself for all the work he has done with Positivo Espresso and joint activities with the TCC.

Hopefully this ride will become an annual event!!:D

Amazing ride yesterday, it really was great atmosphere and straight from the go it was like riding in the peloton.

Lots of run throughout the day with lots of mini races up small climbs as well as the official Wada and Kobu Tunnel races.

Huge respect to James and Tim for completing it on Fixies..... outstanding!

Travis that chase down in to Itsukaichi was awesome.... I launched off the back of Ludwigs sprint and tried to hold you guys off as long as possible, I remember looking back and seeing this guy:

lg_devil_ap.jpg


I did a double take and realised it was Sergey leading the pack! I held on for as long as I could but it was futile, but the feeling it gives is magic!

Mike great to finally ride with you and Im glad I was able to lead you home...I think that beer gave us wings as that climb up to Yomuri Land seemed effortless! We should certainly get together sooner rather than later to get in to the mountains!

Also up to Kobu Tunnel I really had no idea where it ended, but it was why I was sitting in the middle of the road as it let me see around the apex of the bend.

Again thank you for to all who are involved with both Positivo Espresso and the TCC in making these events happen.
 
Wada TT

Thank you James for organizing the wonderful Wada TT...very professionally done :) IT made the day very special !!


A huge thank you to Tom for organising an amazing send off for Michael and also to Michael himself for all the work he has done with Positivo Espresso and joint activities with the TCC.

Hopefully this ride will become an annual event!!:D

Amazing ride yesterday, it really was great atmosphere and straight from the go it was like riding in the peloton.

Lots of run throughout the day with lots of mini races up small climbs as well as the official Wada and Kobu Tunnel races.

Huge respect to James and Tim for completing it on Fixies..... outstanding!

Travis that chase down in to Itsukaichi was awesome.... I launched off the back of Ludwigs sprint and tried to hold you guys off as long as possible, I remember looking back and seeing this guy:

lg_devil_ap.jpg


I did a double take and realised it was Sergey leading the pack! I held on for as long as I could but it was futile, but the feeling it gives is magic!

Mike great to finally ride with you and Im glad I was able to lead you home...I think that beer gave us wings as that climb up to Yomuri Land seemed effortless! We should certainly get together sooner rather than later to get in to the mountains!

Also up to Kobu Tunnel I really had no idea where it ended, but it was why I was sitting in the middle of the road as it let me see around the apex of the bend.

Again thank you for to all who are involved with both Positivo Espresso and the TCC in making these events happen.
 
Tom, thanks for organising this unforgettable event! It was good to see so many PE, Vlaams and TCC riders united and taking over the roads around Takao. It was also good to see so many new faces as well as old faces that have been out of sight for too long! James, the TT up Wada-toge was a smash, I'm all for turning it into a regular PE-TCC event. :)

Michael, you will be missed! I wish you all the best in the windy plains of northern Germany. In the light of your latest team jersey: "Next year in Jerusalem".

PS: Travis, thanks for the ride home. It'll be all ginger ale next time! Sorry Aaron...
 
Thank you for all,good bye Mob

Thank you so much for Tom-san's organize and James-san's TimeTrial.
I really enjoyed whole a day.
And I feel pain by overtraining.

Mob-san,I miss you so much.
I hope that Volcano's cloud will never remove.
It's only 3 months since we met.
But you changed my small world absolutely.
I wanna ride with you more and more.

I'm glad to see&talk with Mike,Sergey,Tim,Alan&Naomi,Steve and a lot of nice riders.

I want to ride again with like this massive peloton.
Honto ni Arigatou for all !!
 
What a fantastic day out ! Thanks very much Tom for the excellent organisation - much to my surprise I actually enjoyed the "mini hill-climb race" (no doubt completely obvious on my face as I crested Wada ...), and perhaps not so much of a surprise I really enjoyed the restaurant afterwards and that wonderful "ji-biru".

Michael, great to see you and ride with you one more time. You assembled quite a crowd yesterday which goes to show the incredible legacy you've left amongst Positivo Espresso, TCC and no doubt many anonymous others who regularly tune into your blog posts. I really hope you find new biking adventures in Germany and continue to amuse us with stories through those unique MOB-tinted spectacles ... Good Luck !

Hey, can't we have a MOB Sayonara ride every month ?;)

Cheers
Steve
 
A fitting farewell to Mob

I will join in the chorus of saying that Saturday was a truely great day out. Both the ride and the great fellowship afterwards at the restaurant.

And I am still a bit leg sore, so it must have been good for me. Right? :eek: I hope to join more of these hard core rides in the future. Echoing Travis' report; the ride into Itsukaichi was a super fast blast.

Goodbye and the best of luck to you Michael. Please keep your blog posts coming from Germany.

K
 
FUNKY GUYS !!

Huge respect to James and Tim for completing it on Fixies..... outstanding!.

Respect indeed...chapeau!!!

Also read or take a look at Hiroshi's very entertaining story Funky guys (in Japanese) :)
 
I really felt honored you guys would all let us tag along. Hopefully our pace will improve and we can truly ride at pace with PE/TCC! You gotta see James' new ride - I'll keep it hush for now - but wow -- !!
 
James,

It seems we live close to one another and also have a mutual freind from the music industry!
 
Sayonara

Thans for the huge turnout and for all the good friendship and great rides over the past years in Japan. It is really sad to leave.

Instead of long words I have posted some impressions and the time trial times on the PE blog, please have a look. I borrowed some of the photos from others, I hope that this is OK.

http://positivo-espresso.blogspot.com/
 
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