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Ride MON, SEP 23rd, Otsuki 4.5/3.5

Aron B

Maximum Pace
Mar 24, 2012
351
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Making use of the public holiday and the nice late summer weather, Chikako and I are riding the by now famous Otsuki loop.
Because of the landslide, the road 212 to Sasago-toge (the last climb) is officially still blocked. We may be bold and try to walk/climb past the obstruction, or we may bail out before the climb to Kaiyamato station, which is about 2 hours from Shinjuku.
Depending on who and how many are going to join, we may split up in a faster (my pace) and a slower (Chikako's pace) group at some point.

INFO:
Meet Time: 8:00am
Meet Place: Otsuki Station
Climbing: 3500-4000m
Distance: 125-135km
Route: HERE

We'll be taking the front car of the Chuo Special Rapid via Takao that leaves Shinjuku station at 6.22am.
 
The Otsuki loop has been expanding from 4.5 to 9.0 to 13.5 :eek:, but this time it might be shortened.
It is no piece of pie, a challenge for me at least, but slow(er) paced riders are welcome to join and enjoy the dynamic climbs and great scenery of Yamanashi.

Hope to see you tomorrow morning.
 
See you tomorrow!

Do anyone remember how common/rare vending machines are during this route? Can I manage with one bottle?
 
See you tomorrow!

Do anyone remember how common/rare vending machines are during this route? Can I manage with one bottle?
in certain places when in the mountains, vending machines are few and far between. Obviously, going through Otsuki there are lots of machines and conbinis. If its a cool day you should be ok, but if it's warm, I'd take two bottles.
 
That's just a tad too early a start for me over here. I'll do another sortie into Chiba on me todd and see you lot next week.
 
There's a vending machine after each climb in my recollection, a soba shop after 2.5 and a combini after 3.5.
 
ok, looks like the temperature is going to be reasonably tomorrow so, I'll take my chances.
 
Small group, good ride. Matsuhime-toge was wet and gloomy, and we feared for a cold day, but it cleared up afterwards. @saibot and I could pace nicely together while @Chikako did very well riding mostly by herself. We met @Naomi and @AlanW at the top of Yanagizawa-toge, had a nice chat.

@saibot and I tried to push our luck and ride up Sasago-toge anyway. After about 1.5km there's a closed gate, and shortly after the landslide. It is perfectly passable on foot, but when they're busy working I am pretty sure they won't let you pass. After that a lot of dirt on the road. There's scaffolding on the other side of the tunnel, but passable. The road on the Otsuki side is pretty clean. @saibot took some pictures. The reconstruction is set to be finished by end of November.
 
Good to meet @Aron B and @saibot at the summit! Probably the warmest part of the ride, strangely enough, as the clouds thickened when we rode back down towards Ome. Stopped and had a quick chat with @Chikako on the way down the hill, with a longer stop for venison sausages (Mmmmmm) at the Michi no Eki.
 

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Indeed, nice meeting you Alan & Naomi on the Yanagisawa climb.
Take good care of your throat/voice!

Thanks Tobias as always for great company.
The route was a challenging one for me, but was nice to find out I could handle 50km of ascending + 50km of descending.
Enjoyed a gelato on Saturday and an oden today, and I missed my toe-covers and descending jackets today.
I must keep in mind that we could expect just about everything this season.
 
Looks like you had a good ride guys. Thanks for the update regarding the Sasago climb. I'm guessing there were no workmen there because it was a public holiday. I'm kinda thinking this means I won't be able to do an Otsuki 13.5 attempt at the end of October :(
 
@leicaman, knuckle dusters, init! Follow through on your dreams. You might not Strava but I wonder how many of those banners you can hold on your avatar.

Great to see all the TCC kit in effect today and all by chance. The ladies also going お揃い!

For what it's worth, I was sporting mine through Chiba.
 
Do you know the state of the landslide on the last climb currently? I'm thinking to ride Otsuki this Sunday. Might ride from Takao and get on the train at Kaiyamato. A 3.5 is probably plenty for me.
 
Do you know the state of the landslide on the last climb currently? I'm thinking to ride Otsuki this Sunday. Might ride from Takao and get on the train at Kaiyamato. A 3.5 is probably plenty for me.

@Pedro rode it earlier this week in the morning. I asked about the climb and he said: "The Otsuki side is fine, but the Kofu side had a lot of debris, and was a slow decent."
 
@Pedro rode it earlier this week in the morning. I asked about the climb and he said: "The Otsuki side is fine, but the Kofu side had a lot of debris, and was a slow decent."
is it rideable though? I'm still thinking of trying the Otsuki 13.5 but don't want to skip any climbs as I will not hit 10,000m of climbing if I do so.
 
Thanks for the info. I've never been out there so I'm eager to try before the year is out. I'm still thinking to do 3.5 on Sunday and maybe 4.5 depending on my condition at Kaiyamato. Weather is looking decent.
 
is it rideable though? I'm still thinking of trying the Otsuki 13.5 but don't want to skip any climbs as I will not hit 10,000m of climbing if I do so.

Unfortunately @Sibreen and I started out a bit late on the ride, plus I made a 20-km wrong turn and we had to miss out Sasato-toge due to lighting issues (I didn't have one/there wasn't any).
 
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