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Today November 2021

Earlier this week I signed up for my first brevet of the 2022 season, which started on November 1 (randonneuring seasons run November to October). It's a 300 km AJ Kanagawa ride from Kamakura to Shimoda and back to Zushi on November 20/21 (overnight). Usually they hold it early in the year, but everything is different now.

I have not yet taken the eastern coastal road all the way down to Shimoda by bike (only by car), so this will be a new experience and a few new tiles. My furthest excursion had been to seafood restaurant Isobe in Minami-Izu town, about halfway between Izu-Kogen and Shimoda. It's going to be a lot of hills in the middle 200 km portion of the ride, but no worse than the west coast I am told.

Thanks for sharing this one -- I can actually ride this course with minimal risk of not getting home in case something goes wrong!
If my registration goes through I'll be joining you on the day.
 
OTB is never a good experience... hope nothing's broken. a lot of cycling acquaintances getting into accidents and injuries recently...
nothing broken a little sore made my CX race the next day not so good.
 
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Friday night I rode out to Chichibu, to do a loop the next day to Mitsumine shrine and back, followed by a ride home to Tokyo (85 km and 162 km on Strava). I was joined by two friends for the Mitsumine loop. The two night rides were the coldest rides I've done since the winter.

I had booked a room at Route Inn Chichibu not far from Seibu-Chichibu station to allow me to do this ride without any trains or cars.

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I set off from Setagaya after sunset with various extra layers in my front bag and in a string backpack for the lower temperatures I might encounter. I needed every single item and could have done with a few more, because especially the descent from Yamabushi toge to Chichibu after 23:00 was really cold (3 deg C). It wasn't quite as bad on the way back as it only got down to 7 deg C around Naguri.

The urban part between Tokyo and Ome was no problem either way.

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From previous rides I had a good idea how long it would take me to ride all the various parts. Both on the way out and on the way back I stopped for dinner at "Sherpa" in Ome, which is almost exactly on the halfway point between Route Inn and my home in Tokyo.

On Saturday morning I had breakfast at the hotel buffet which, as on a previous stay, was pretty good.

Then I met up with Carolyn and Akira at the station. The weather was perfect, a clear blue sky which would really bring out the colours of the leaves. I took off my windbreaker to ride in my short sleeve jersey. After picking up some snacks and drinks at the 7-11 we headed out west, staying off the main road for all but 3 of the 16 km to the turn-off into the Ochigawa valley where we climbed the rindo.

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The main road to Mitsumine on the west side of the mountain gets very busy during peak "koyo" (autumn leaves) season, but the rindo on the east side is closed to motor vehicles with a total of three barriers, one near the shrine and two on the east side. All we met was one group of cyclists. It was generally in reasonable condition, with not too much debris on the road. There were a lot of leaves after the second barrier on the rindo climb and the road surfaces was broken at some rockslide spots near the tunnels at the top, but these were just short gaps. Neither of us had any punctures.

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When we stopped at the fishing spot near where the climb gets steeper we had a chat with the owners. They said it was peak koyo season at this elevation, implying it would already be thinner at the top, but that wasn't the case. The timing was perfect. I love riding next to the river there to enjoy the view of the rocks and waterfalls.

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We talked as we climbed and stopped for pictures many times. Around noon we reached the top of the climb and enjoyed the view of the Chichibu valley below from between the two tunnels.

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After the second tunnel we descended about 2 km to the shrine entrance. There was a good size queue on the road, which I later measured as 2 km when we descended to the west. Despite the traffic outside, the shrine grounds were not that busy. We treated ourselves to snacks and coffee, then lunch at a restaurant at the shrine gate. We didn't have to wait long to get a table. Both of the restaurants were well ventilated.

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After the shrine visit we put on all our jackets and windbreakers for the descent from the mountain and back to Chichibu, 35 km that was almost all downhill or (closer to the town) flat. After the farewell at the station I grabbed some food at the 7-11, then headed to Yamabushi toge. It got dark before I reached the top. It was cold in Naguri but not quite as bad as on the way to Chichibu. I think next time I ride in similar temperatures I'll make sure to bring my shoe covers and my warmer gloves.

With this 162 km ride, my November "Century of the Month" is complete and I'm at 111 consecutive months of the "Century a Month" challenge. In two weeks I'll ride a 300 km brevet to Shimoda and back with a lot of night riding and hills, for which this weekend should have been good practice. For the December ride I may head to West Izu again.
 
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November 7 Sunday, got on the bike and did some country roads. Route 37 going to Hagi , but I got a late start so Hagi was too far to go. Beautiful weather, but Monday rain and today Tuesday nice, but busy .

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On this country road, one has got to be careful of the wild boars, but generally they come out when the sun starts going down.
My lunch is usually an apple pie and chips from Cosmos store.
 
I walked out of my European office today for the last time.
5 weeks away from home - I am ready to get back.
Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, and short stretches in Austria and Luxembourg.
With one coworked from Japan, we knocked out the work of roughly 6 guys doing our job.
Work hard, play harder. We both are drained and ready to return home.

so 2 weeks of house arrest coming.... thank goodness for Zwift
 
I walked out of my European office today for the last time.
5 weeks away from home - I am ready to get back.
Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, and short stretches in Austria and Luxembourg.
With one coworked from Japan, we knocked out the work of roughly 6 guys doing our job.
Work hard, play harder. We both are drained and ready to return home.

so 2 weeks of house arrest coming.... thank goodness for Zwift
Have enjoyed the playing parts of your business trip vicariously! Thanks for sharing them.
 
it's a wet week here in Aomori with sunshowers and a brisk NNW wind. The leaves are dropping really fast.
It's time to look at putting the ice tires and full fenders on the all road bike. Sucks cause I have done bugger all riding this year for a variety of reasons.
 
I recorded a ride yesterday and unfortunately the GPS didn't track properly when I uploaded it from my Garmin to Garmin Connect on my phone. (Never had this problem when I connect by USB to my computer.) The correct track is showing when I look at my activity but the VeloViewer track shows a straight line between two points in several areas and misses a 'crucial' area.

Was thinking of saving the activity, deleting it from Strava, then uploading again but I'm afraid I might somehow lose the entire file.

Anyone tried to reload an activity like this? How did it go?
 
The correct track is showing when I look at my activity but the VeloViewer track shows a straight line between two points in several areas and misses a 'crucial' area.

Was thinking of saving the activity, deleting it from Strava, then uploading again but I'm afraid I might somehow lose the entire file.

Anyone tried to reload an activity like this? How did it go?
Do you mean this, @Chuck?
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I see on the Strava activity that you followed the road, so I think it that if you click through to the individual activity in Veloviewer it will redraw and pick up the missing tile.

I've deleted and uploaded, trimmed and split activities, within Strava and offline, several times. It's always worked out.
 
Do you mean this, @Chuck?
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I see on the Strava activity that you followed the road, so I think it that if you click through to the individual activity in Veloviewer it will redraw and pick up the missing tile.

I've deleted and uploaded, trimmed and split activities, within Strava and offline, several times. It's always worked out.
Thank you, sir! That did it! (You made my day.)
 
Amazing achievement by ultra-cyclist Amanda Coker: On Saturday, Oct 23 she set a new world record for distance cycled in 24 hours by a woman, covering 824.8 km at an average speed of 34.37 km/h on a road in a state park in Florida.

In 2016 she broke Kurt Searvogel's world record for the highest annual distance cycled (76,076 mi / 122,432 km), improving it by over 10,000 miles / 16,000 km to 86,573.2 mi / 139,326 km.
What an achievement. She did double my lazy month cycling distance in 24hrs…. Crazy
 
I attempted the Tour de tama 46 found a stump or a hole. came to a sudden stop.


I was hoping to make that race this year... both spring and fall. Missed both. :(
I was planning to race Single Speed in the Long race. Last time I made it to that race was the last race pre-Covid. I took a top 10 spot in expert after a crash early on after a 3 bike tangle up. But I was so far out of reach of the lead pack, I didn't actually know where I was in the grid when I finished. I thought closer to 20th.

If you ever want to play in the Yokosuka area - hit me up.
 
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