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Saturday 8th - Tomin no Mori

Yamabushi

Maximum Pace
Jun 1, 2010
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Saturday, January 8th I'll be riding out from Tokyo, climbing Tomin no Mori, descending to Lake Okutama to the vending machines for a 10-15 minute break then turning around and going back the way I came. Back up to Tomin no Mori and descending back through Musashiitsukaichi and back to Tokyo, about a 180km round trip from the Shinjuku area.

Route (just reverse the route for total ride): http://ridewithgps.com/routes/254536

Depending on weather and participants energy levels, we may decide not to descend down the back side to the lake. We have the option of cutting that segment out, which would eliminate a bit of climbing and reduce the overall distance by about 26km.

For those riding out from Tokyo, we'll meet at the Lawsons across from the Opera City at 7:30am and will depart by 7:35am. See map above for precise location.

There is also the possibility of meeting up at Musashiitsukaichi Station for those that would prefer not to ride out.
 
You love these busy roads... What keeps you from riding out on the river?
 
I definitely don't love traffic, I just want to get out there as quickly as possible. That being said, I was thinking that I would most likely return by way of the river.

Ludwig, if you were considering joining and would like to lead us out the Tamagawa, I'd be more than happy to do that.
 
Happy to do this some other day when I want to take it really easy. I prefer to leave a lot earlier to get more cycling into the day. Typical starting time for me in Shimokitazawa is 5:30am. In winter this is nice because you cycle into the sunrise. In summer, because it is still no so hot and gets you deep into the mountains before it becomes ugly.
 
Weather

It looks like it'll be a sunny but chilly day tomorrow. Here is the latest forecast for Oume:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saturday

A full day of sunshine

RealFeel®: 16°C
High Temperature: 12°C
Low Temperature: 2°C
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With the proper clothing, it should be a relatively good day to ride!
 
Sorry again I can't lead you to the river tomorrow, but it is actually quite easy. Just follow Setagaya Dori almost all the way to the Tamagawa, branch off just close to Komae station and take the road that approaches the Tamagawa. Where it comes closest, get onto the Tamasai (Tamagawa Cycling Road). This is just after the last stretch of gravel. From there it is basically always straight/along the river. Some turns here and there, but they are basically all obvious. You can go as far as Hamura, i.e. close to Ome. Or of course get off earlier, e.g. onto the Asakawa towards Takao or onto on of the roads leading to Itsukaichi.

Take extra care especially on the first stretch until Tamagawarabashi - quite a few walkers and runners out there, even in complete darkness in the morning, and not all of them are particularly mindful about fast bicycles. After that there are fewer pedestrians, and around Fuchu they are actually quite careful, carrying torches even when it has become bright (there was a bad bicycle-pedestrian accident there a while back, so people are particularly scared of us!).

Some cyclists like to get off the Tamasai and take the roads running parallel, but they are definitely not faster and on Saturdays the truck traffic can be quite horrible in places.
 
Perhaps if you have this route in GPX then Pete can upload to his Garmin. I don't particularly like the heavy traffic streets either - and though Tamagawa seems good, I get confused on some of the smaller turns - so doing this one or two times 'correctly' would be cool. Going TO the mountains in the morning doesn't seem to be too bad - its the coming back that is generally the traffic killer. Especially when it starts to get dark.
 
Another option

Here's another way to get onto the river:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/26685380

It's a little more direct, as it follows Rte.20 out almost directly west.
Follow Rte.20 for about 15-16km, and turn left onto Rte.19 - You'll find that this is just around the point where Rte.20 becomes uncomfortably narrow and difficult to ride on.
Follow Rte.19 for 2km, and you'll hit the river at Tsurukawa-bashi.
Sorry, I won't be able to join this time.
Have a safe ride! T
 
Rode 169km today and 1400m of vertical ascent with Tim Smith: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/155157

We had really beautiful weather and great day for the climb!

We did part of the river on the way back, but there were just to many kids, pets and people generally not paying. We never could get a full head of steam going, so we jumped back on the road which was much faster.
 
Great riding with you, as always, Pete! Glad to see the metrics - burning 7000cals can't hurt.
 
Always a pleasure Tim!

As for the data, yeah it's pretty cool stuff, two anomalies though. According to Garmin it was about 3000C and top speed was only 58.5. Other than that, I really prefer RideWithGPS to Garmin Connect.
 
That replay thing on the ride with GPS site is great!

Sounds like you had a good ride. What was the weather like, temperature wise?

Also, I sent you a message on FB about tomorrow...
 
@Owen it was in between the Monkey's Brass Balls and a Witch's <hat>. For an LSD we made pretty good time up the pass. Have to admit - the beef curry waiting at the top was pulling me!
 
I did the climb in 1hr 19min which is not fast by any means, but is my personal best on my 3 attempts thus far.

Yeah, there are a number of cool features there on that site!

We had sunny clear weather all day, and according to my Garmin the average temp was 4.3 celsius. The first thing in the morning it was a bit chilly, and so was a bit of the initial descent, but other than that I was pretty toasty warm throughout the ride.

And I just responded to you on FB!
 
One other thing... someone cycling with a blue jacket on called my name at the intersection that is considered (to the best of my knowlege) to be the official start of the climb. Unfortunately, we passed each other too quickly so I didn't get a chance to figure out who it was. Who was it? :confused:
 
From where to where is considered 'official'? Starting at the intersection than connects to kobu tunnels or the T intersection coming from itsukaichi? Ending at the car park or at the actual summit?

I'm curious :rolleyes:
 
As to what's "official" I'll leave that to other's, but as for me, I timed from the "T" to the car park at the entrance to Tomin no Mori.
 
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