leicaman
Maximum Pace
- Sep 20, 2012
- 2,878
- 2,698
Yesterday was a national holiday. I usually have to work national hoildays but yesterday was an exception. I couple of weeks back, I had planned to go to Gunma with a few friends to do what looked like a fantastic ride up towards Kusatsu. On Sunday evening I got an email from one of the guys saying that he was sick and would most probably not be able to make the Tuesday ride. We decided to cancel the Gunma trip.
For quite a while now, @saibot has been bumbling on about wanting to tackle a climb that starts in Enzan and finishes on a ridegeline between Mt.Kinpu and Mt.Kobu-Shigatake. I think he heard about it from @Stormy . I think Tobias wanted to get the train out rom Tokyo to Enzan, do the climb, descent then get the train home.......but oh no! That's not how it works. Instead, I thought it would be a better "well rounded" ride if we cycled from home, down to Oume, past Okutama then up the 411 to Yanagisawa Pass and down the Daibosatsu Line to Enzan before tackling the main climb. The plan was then to descent back to Enzan, whereupon we would get a train back home.
We met up at 7am in Asaka city then headed up the 109 to the 179 which took us down towards Oume. From there we jumped on the 411 which would take us all the way to Enzan. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, blue skies with wispy cloud. We got to the Soba place at the top of Yanagisawa toge and had a spot of lunch before descending in to Enzan. The descent felt like it would go on forever as we were descending from 1400m to 400m. We finally made it to the bottom and I decided to stuff my face at a convenience store before starting the main climb of the day. Bad bad idea. Little tip for you, don't eat curry rice, followed by half of the stock of a convenience store before tackling a 30km climb. I got stomach cramps a few km in but luckily they did abate further after around 15km.
I really am surprised that I had never seen this climb on TCC before. The road is fantastic and it is a super long climb. Apparently, the Strava segment for the climb is 27km but we started 3km further down the road which made it a tad over 30km in total. I encourage all those who enjoy the mountains to try this climb. She is a beaut.
As my stomach cramps began to go away, I started to enjoy the climb much more and I felt pretty fresh as we reached the top at an apparent 2365m (although my Garmin said we were just shy of 2300m, stupid gadgets).
In Enzan, the temperature was a very mediterranean 28c. At the top, the mercury had plunged to 7c. As we only had summer riding clothes, we donned our windbreakers at the top before beating a hasty retreat back down the mountain. Oh...my.....God. We were absolutely freezing. My teeth were chattering all the way back down the mountain. We stopped for the obligatory selfies on the way down. At one point, I had put my bike down on some grass at the side of the road and was bending down to take a selfie of Tobias when an old guy driving a van drove past. He slammed on his brakes and put his warning lights on. He jumped out of the van and ran over to me, asking me if I was ok and what had happened. He had obviously thought I had done an @Aron B . I thanked him for his kindness and he looked very relieved that police and ambulances weren't needed. It's nice to know people will stop and help others if need be.
We got back down to Enzan (literally all downhill from the top fo the climb) and jumped on a rather busy train heading back towards the big smoke.
All in all, a fantabulous ride that I wholeheartedly recommend.
The ride to the top of the last climb (There are only actually two climbs in the whole ride) was 146km with just over 3800m of climbing. (182km including the descent back to Enzan station).
And now for @jdd 's favourite part....The Selfies
Look mum, no hands selfie. Riding up the 411 towards Yanagisawa pass
Can you see me selfie? Riding down the other side.
The Garmin wanted a selfie. Not the kind of graph you want to see when you have stomach cramps
Bicycle yoga selfie
Flying selfie
Some video selfies
Gunshots from the Swede. Luckily I dodged
On the way down
For quite a while now, @saibot has been bumbling on about wanting to tackle a climb that starts in Enzan and finishes on a ridegeline between Mt.Kinpu and Mt.Kobu-Shigatake. I think he heard about it from @Stormy . I think Tobias wanted to get the train out rom Tokyo to Enzan, do the climb, descent then get the train home.......but oh no! That's not how it works. Instead, I thought it would be a better "well rounded" ride if we cycled from home, down to Oume, past Okutama then up the 411 to Yanagisawa Pass and down the Daibosatsu Line to Enzan before tackling the main climb. The plan was then to descent back to Enzan, whereupon we would get a train back home.
We met up at 7am in Asaka city then headed up the 109 to the 179 which took us down towards Oume. From there we jumped on the 411 which would take us all the way to Enzan. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, blue skies with wispy cloud. We got to the Soba place at the top of Yanagisawa toge and had a spot of lunch before descending in to Enzan. The descent felt like it would go on forever as we were descending from 1400m to 400m. We finally made it to the bottom and I decided to stuff my face at a convenience store before starting the main climb of the day. Bad bad idea. Little tip for you, don't eat curry rice, followed by half of the stock of a convenience store before tackling a 30km climb. I got stomach cramps a few km in but luckily they did abate further after around 15km.
I really am surprised that I had never seen this climb on TCC before. The road is fantastic and it is a super long climb. Apparently, the Strava segment for the climb is 27km but we started 3km further down the road which made it a tad over 30km in total. I encourage all those who enjoy the mountains to try this climb. She is a beaut.
As my stomach cramps began to go away, I started to enjoy the climb much more and I felt pretty fresh as we reached the top at an apparent 2365m (although my Garmin said we were just shy of 2300m, stupid gadgets).
In Enzan, the temperature was a very mediterranean 28c. At the top, the mercury had plunged to 7c. As we only had summer riding clothes, we donned our windbreakers at the top before beating a hasty retreat back down the mountain. Oh...my.....God. We were absolutely freezing. My teeth were chattering all the way back down the mountain. We stopped for the obligatory selfies on the way down. At one point, I had put my bike down on some grass at the side of the road and was bending down to take a selfie of Tobias when an old guy driving a van drove past. He slammed on his brakes and put his warning lights on. He jumped out of the van and ran over to me, asking me if I was ok and what had happened. He had obviously thought I had done an @Aron B . I thanked him for his kindness and he looked very relieved that police and ambulances weren't needed. It's nice to know people will stop and help others if need be.
We got back down to Enzan (literally all downhill from the top fo the climb) and jumped on a rather busy train heading back towards the big smoke.
All in all, a fantabulous ride that I wholeheartedly recommend.
The ride to the top of the last climb (There are only actually two climbs in the whole ride) was 146km with just over 3800m of climbing. (182km including the descent back to Enzan station).
And now for @jdd 's favourite part....The Selfies
Look mum, no hands selfie. Riding up the 411 towards Yanagisawa pass
Can you see me selfie? Riding down the other side.
The Garmin wanted a selfie. Not the kind of graph you want to see when you have stomach cramps
Bicycle yoga selfie
Flying selfie
Some video selfies
Gunshots from the Swede. Luckily I dodged
On the way down