I got the call a week before the ride. I was told that we were having a "Farewell ride for Serguei", who would soon be joining the ranks of fatherhood, and that this would probably be his last opportunity for a group ride for quite a while. In the end, there was Thomas, Phil (famed for his knowledge of the Boso backroads), Jules (famed for his bike-bags), myself, and of course, Serguei - Just the 5 of us.
It was to be a 3-day ride, covering as much of the Boso peninsular as possible over the first two days, and then on Day-3, possibly heading up as far as Mt. Tsukuba. The course plotting for days 1 & 2 were left in Phil's capable hands. Once the course was pretty much set - Thanks Phil - the remaining four of us had to decide how we'd be getting out there. The starting point was in Sakura, about 10km SW of Narita, and we all decided to take the train from Tokyo - The "Shiosai" Express train, departing at 7:37am, would take less than an hour to get there.
Day 1
The train arrived in Sakura at 8:24, and the four of us - Thomas, Serguei, Jules and me - set up our bikes and headed out from the station. We had arranged to meet Phil at a 7-11 about 7km south of Sakura station, so that he wouldn't have to double-back. The narrow country road that took us to the meeting place was quite pleasant in the morning, and set the mood nicely. We arrived at the 7-11 just before 9am, and we waited for Phil to turn up. After about 10 minutes, everyone turned to me and said, "This is the right place, isn't it?"... Two minutes later, Phil arrived, telling us how he had punctured shortly after leaving home. But we were still basically ahead of schedule, and the rest of us had had time to eat.
We set out at about 9:25, and headed almost directly south to Honda, where we usually begin our Chiba rides - It was a bit of a novelty to ride with Phil and have him show us how he usually gets there (this had always been a bit of a mystery). It was a bit less than 20km to Honda, and we had a quick break at the 7-11 there to fill up drink bottles, etc. Then we continued on our journey south, following mostly familiar roads on the way to Lake Takataki, where we usually stop and regroup. This time though, we stopped in Tsurumai, a few kilometers before the lake to fill up our bottles. This allowed us to ride past the lake without stopping, and head on to Kururi, where we would stop for a proper lunch at the 7-11 there.
While we ate lunch in Kururi, Phil and I checked the map to see how we would get to our next way-point - Mt. Kano - from there. There were a few little squiggles, but basically we figured we just had to stick to Rte.93 - As we took the small right-hand turn that should have been a shortcut taking us up to a higher point on Rte.93, things went awry as we came across some fairly heavy earth-moving equipment and dump-trucks being filled with sand. Our "shortcut" had ended in a sandy quarry, with us surrounded on three sides by massively steep cliffs. For all we could tell, we had somehow been teleported to Arizona without being told. In the end, there was no way through, so we had to double-back and take the long way around. But it was a nice little adventure (especially nice was the 16+% gradient on the ride up to the quarry).
We would still make it to Mt. Kano though. This would be our first time to climb that particular hill, and it turns out that it is one of the highest points in all of the peninsular, at 360m, or thereabouts. It starts at about 50m-elevation, and climbs a further 310m in only 3.5km - that's roughly a 9% average. There are a few more up & down rollers after that as we continued heading west on Rte.93, and we past the "Mother-Farm" (where it hits the highest peak of 379m) a few kilometers later before a nice long descent onto Rte.465. For the record, there are no convenience-stores along this road.
We headed east on Rte.465, and finally found a convenience store in Sekijiri, where Rte.465 splits with Rte.88 - We would follow Rte.88 from there all the way to Tateyama - but first we needed food, and the Family-Mart there (in Sekijiri) was great. Not only was it brand new, it had tables & chairs inside where we could sit and eat in relative comfort. We had a long-ish break there, and then we headed on the final run into Tateyama.
We set off down Rte.88, where there were two small-ish climbs, before it finally flattened out completely. We were all doing our best to get to "Point of decision", which was a T-junction just east of Tateyama - There, we would decide to go east, and follow the coast around to the southernmost tip of the peninsular; OR we could turn west, and head straight for Tateyama (3km away) where food, showers and dry clothes awaited. Gee... that was a tough decision. Thomas, Serguei, Phil & I all decided to go straight to Tateyama, and get settled into our respective accommodations. Only Jules - who LOVES the sea - chose to ride 8km to the beach, and go body-surfing.
That night, we met outside Tateyama station at 6pm, and found a local "Izakaya" that had been recommended to us. About an hour later, Jules arrived back from the beach, and we all ate & drank together until we had had our fill. Beers on the beach after dinner was the highlight of the day.
Total for Day 1: 140km (160km for Jules).
It was to be a 3-day ride, covering as much of the Boso peninsular as possible over the first two days, and then on Day-3, possibly heading up as far as Mt. Tsukuba. The course plotting for days 1 & 2 were left in Phil's capable hands. Once the course was pretty much set - Thanks Phil - the remaining four of us had to decide how we'd be getting out there. The starting point was in Sakura, about 10km SW of Narita, and we all decided to take the train from Tokyo - The "Shiosai" Express train, departing at 7:37am, would take less than an hour to get there.
Day 1
The train arrived in Sakura at 8:24, and the four of us - Thomas, Serguei, Jules and me - set up our bikes and headed out from the station. We had arranged to meet Phil at a 7-11 about 7km south of Sakura station, so that he wouldn't have to double-back. The narrow country road that took us to the meeting place was quite pleasant in the morning, and set the mood nicely. We arrived at the 7-11 just before 9am, and we waited for Phil to turn up. After about 10 minutes, everyone turned to me and said, "This is the right place, isn't it?"... Two minutes later, Phil arrived, telling us how he had punctured shortly after leaving home. But we were still basically ahead of schedule, and the rest of us had had time to eat.
We set out at about 9:25, and headed almost directly south to Honda, where we usually begin our Chiba rides - It was a bit of a novelty to ride with Phil and have him show us how he usually gets there (this had always been a bit of a mystery). It was a bit less than 20km to Honda, and we had a quick break at the 7-11 there to fill up drink bottles, etc. Then we continued on our journey south, following mostly familiar roads on the way to Lake Takataki, where we usually stop and regroup. This time though, we stopped in Tsurumai, a few kilometers before the lake to fill up our bottles. This allowed us to ride past the lake without stopping, and head on to Kururi, where we would stop for a proper lunch at the 7-11 there.
While we ate lunch in Kururi, Phil and I checked the map to see how we would get to our next way-point - Mt. Kano - from there. There were a few little squiggles, but basically we figured we just had to stick to Rte.93 - As we took the small right-hand turn that should have been a shortcut taking us up to a higher point on Rte.93, things went awry as we came across some fairly heavy earth-moving equipment and dump-trucks being filled with sand. Our "shortcut" had ended in a sandy quarry, with us surrounded on three sides by massively steep cliffs. For all we could tell, we had somehow been teleported to Arizona without being told. In the end, there was no way through, so we had to double-back and take the long way around. But it was a nice little adventure (especially nice was the 16+% gradient on the ride up to the quarry).
We would still make it to Mt. Kano though. This would be our first time to climb that particular hill, and it turns out that it is one of the highest points in all of the peninsular, at 360m, or thereabouts. It starts at about 50m-elevation, and climbs a further 310m in only 3.5km - that's roughly a 9% average. There are a few more up & down rollers after that as we continued heading west on Rte.93, and we past the "Mother-Farm" (where it hits the highest peak of 379m) a few kilometers later before a nice long descent onto Rte.465. For the record, there are no convenience-stores along this road.
We headed east on Rte.465, and finally found a convenience store in Sekijiri, where Rte.465 splits with Rte.88 - We would follow Rte.88 from there all the way to Tateyama - but first we needed food, and the Family-Mart there (in Sekijiri) was great. Not only was it brand new, it had tables & chairs inside where we could sit and eat in relative comfort. We had a long-ish break there, and then we headed on the final run into Tateyama.
We set off down Rte.88, where there were two small-ish climbs, before it finally flattened out completely. We were all doing our best to get to "Point of decision", which was a T-junction just east of Tateyama - There, we would decide to go east, and follow the coast around to the southernmost tip of the peninsular; OR we could turn west, and head straight for Tateyama (3km away) where food, showers and dry clothes awaited. Gee... that was a tough decision. Thomas, Serguei, Phil & I all decided to go straight to Tateyama, and get settled into our respective accommodations. Only Jules - who LOVES the sea - chose to ride 8km to the beach, and go body-surfing.
That night, we met outside Tateyama station at 6pm, and found a local "Izakaya" that had been recommended to us. About an hour later, Jules arrived back from the beach, and we all ate & drank together until we had had our fill. Beers on the beach after dinner was the highlight of the day.
Total for Day 1: 140km (160km for Jules).
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