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Tokyo Hill Climb Nariki next Sunday 17th

astroman

Speeding Up
Mar 19, 2007
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Anyone else in TCC signed up for Sunday's two stage hill climb near Ome on Sunday? I am up for it along with a couple of mates.

Now too late to register, but you can get an idea of the race on this site:

http://www.gem.hi-ho.ne.jp/kfc-onishi/

It is the race's 2nd year, I managed to do the 2nd (race) stage in just over 20 minutes last year and am aiming to go under that time on Sunday.

Will post a race report afterwards.

Cheers,

Keren
 
Keren- would love to join you but need some help with logistics. If you get time can you ping me. Thanks,
David
 
Good luck with the race, Keren. Will look forward to the report--hope you hit your target time.
 
It is the race's 2nd year, I managed to do the 2nd (race) stage in just over 20 minutes last year and am aiming to go under that time on Sunday.

Will post a race report afterwards.

Cheers,

Keren

Good luck Keren - looking forward to your report.
 
Go Keren

allez, allez, allez.....

chazzer
 
Some guys from the Positivo Espresso team will attend as well, I guess we will be at least 5 or 6. Actually there are two races, each 5 km long, but I am not sure if that will be the same track or a different one.
Will post a race report afterwards.
 
Actually there are two races, each 5 km long, but I am not sure if that will be the same track or a different one.
Will post a race report afterwards.

Yes, the race is over two stages with each stage being 5km long (and up hill). You do the same course twice. To qualify for the 2nd or race stage, you need to break 45 mins on the first stage. To me this is a generous cut off. But last year there were some already walking their bikes up the road after the first couple of hundred meters.

The time from the first stage does not carry over to the race stage. So you have to hammer it on the second go! I didn't quite understand the concept last year, so I will take the 1st stage easier this time. Phil's Boso ride a couple of weeks ago was great training for this hill. This is only my second bike race after doing it last year as well, so I still have a lot to learn.

Philip: this is my excuse why I am not up for your ride tomorrow. Am using this race as part of my training for the Singapore 70.3 triathlon in three weeks time.

Chaz: This my Alpe d'Huez! Sad aint it. :confused:

Will look out for Positivo Espresso riders. I will be my black Klein road bike.

Keren
 
Keren,

thanks for the info. I heard the hill climb is somewhat similar to Wada, so 45 min should be a possible cut to make. See you at the race.

You will probably recognize our orange/grey Positivo Jerseys, alhough I heard rumours that some of us might come dressed in pajamas. Of course you might also recognize us because we are foreigners.
 
Race results

Tom,

Good to meet you and Michael as well. How unlucky where we yesterday with the rain? The only rainy morning for weeks! How did you find the road conditions? I went out easy thinking that the road would be very slippery but found that it wasn't so bad afterall. But, as we talked about, I couldn't get out of the saddle much as my back wheel would spin out. But on the descent I could understand why they cancelled the 2nd stage, it was a bit hairy to ride down on that road.

I only found out about the seedings after the race. Those that went under 20 minutes last year were seeded into the first wave. So while we seemed to do ok in our wave, most of the fast guys in our AG in the first wave. I was happy with my race, but I probably should have went harder from the start. Finished in 20:07, only a touch outside of 20 mins. :eek:uch:

Keren
 
Tokyo Nariki Hill Climb Race Report

An exciting, wet race yesterday. Here is an excert of the race report I wrote for the Positivo Espresso website. There are also some photos from the race there.

We arrive at the registration, get some goodies and take cover under in some kind of barn. I think that perhaps I should do some warm up, but I really don't feel like this. I look at all the other riders and bikes around me. It is just amazing, there is not a single "bad" bike, famous brands only, a lot of carbon, expessive wheel sets everywhere. 90% of the riders are looking young, slim and if they could beat me everytime at any race. But I know that it is not like that. I will overtake a lot of these guys on there fancy bikes with their 60 kg body weight and I will be overtaken by 50 year old chubby guys on mountain bikes. There is really no relation between the price of a bike, the look of the rider and the chances he has in a race.
Finally Stephen arrives as well. I never asked him where he has been so long and as I am getting excited close to the start of the race I don't need to know. I give up the plan to start in my Chinese silk pajamas and collect a price for best dressed rider.

There are some other foreign riders arround, all in all perhaps 15, so this is most likely the largest number of foreigner riders I have seen at one event. Tom starts a conversation and I later join briefly. Astroman looks pretty fit, he should be able to make a good finish.

About 400 riders have assembled at the start area and are now taking off in groups of 50 riders. Later I find out that more than 80 riders have not showed up [Hello Knotty], most likely because of the very poor weather. But then, the temperature is between 20 and 25 degrees and that's better than to race in the heat. Now it is getting exciting. But before coming to the race, some information about the race itself. I don't write what I thought the race would be like, but what I learned AFTER the race about it:

The original plan nevertheless, called for two runs of 5 km each on the same road. The first run was supposed to be leisurely and one has to make it to the top in less than 45 minutes. The second run then was supposed to be the real race. However because of the poor weather, the first run was cancelled and the first and only run was the real race.

The road runs up next to the Narikigawa. It is a typical paved mountain road, about 2 to 3 meters wide and 4.14 km long. The elevation difference is 383 meters, that comes to an average gradient of 9.3%. One has to take care because there are many metal drains on the road [Hello david] and some slopes are much steeper than the average, my guess what be up to 15 - 18%. Once out of the saddle one has to balance properly, so that the back wheel is not loosing traction. Or, if staying seated, one has to take care that the front wheel still touches the ground.

To cut a long story short, it is basically a copy of the Wada Toge +10%. Fast guys can do it in 15 minutes. I checked the Wada Hill Climb Time Trial website: Fast guys can do Wada in 13:39 min.
Precisely 10% difference. Tom's best time for Wada is so far 18:18 min, thus Nariki should be 20:08 min. My best Wada time is 21:56 min, I should aim at 24:08 min.

The groups are taking off now. david and Stephen are already gone, Tom is one group behind me, Juliane another one. Off we go, there are maybe 30 riders in my group. The first part of the race is not too steep, along the river and some houses. I can keep a good pace and I move up, taken over some of the riders. Thanks to the good training by Alain, I am not afraid of getting into physical contact with the others any longer, so I rechlessly overtake. But after 500 meter there is the first steep climb and I fell back. From there onwards it is a succesion of very steep climbs followed by steep climbs. But the steep climbs offer some room to relax. I loose contact with the fast guys from my main group and my heart rate goes off to 170+. Now the first riders from the previous group come in sight, mainly mountain bikes. They are suffering. And now I am getting overtaken by the first riders from the group behind me - oh they are fast. Yoshinori in his Belgium jersey is the first one. But he is way ahead of the other guys in his group. There is a second guy coming and Tom is then right behind him. I shout: "You are in third place" and he answers "I know" and keeps sprinting after the second guy. Astroman overtakes some time later.

I have now given up any hope to go fast and go into survival mode. I am used to this, after the excitment of the start, the next 10 - 15 minutes are the hardest one. However, I overtake some more riders from the previous groups and even some of my own group. There is a guy in a Yellow Alphahawk jersey how groans loudly all the time. I screen my memory, but I do not recognize his face from the Japanese AV's I have seen in my life. I am down to 10 km/hr and still HR 170 but I am managing one steep slopes and one hairneedle curve after another. Sometimes my back wheel is slipping on the ground but so far no critical situations.

More steep slopes and more hair needles. My cadence is going down and I am more and more relying on brute power than on spin. I feel like giving up, but somehow I manage to stay focused. A mountainbike on 1:1 gear ratio is passing by, the rider spinning like hell. I catch up on him again and see some riders who have gotten off their bikes and moving them up the hill. No way, that I will do the same thing I think and move on.

I have now covered about 350 meter of climbing and I mistakenly think that there are 150 meters still in front of me. Behind me, I can hear #396, Ueda-san, aka the rider in the yellow Alpha Hawk jersey. It seems that he is now experiencing his seventh orgasm of the race. He overtakes me, I think let him go, or come, I will catch him later when he has his cigarette after.

But now there is a group of people standing on a corner, one foreigner is shouting: "Only one more bend". I can't believe it, I thought the race would be longer. So I asked stupidely "Really?" and he is answering postive and I think OK, I go into sprint mode. I quickly take up speed, but Ueda-san is already too far away. Obviously he has done his research and mapped a good strategy. I can still overtake one more mountain bike rider from my group (#374) and which substantially improves the result from 269th to 268th place out of 403 attendants. The time is 25:16 min which is less than I have expected (after making the Wada calculations after the race, without the calculations I was aiming for less than 30 minutes).

Stephen has come in slightly earlier, so I did not manage to make 2 minutes time on him. he finishes in 318th place with 27:05 min. Tom is already there since a long time, he has made 2nd place in his starting group and overall 77th with 19:37 min; clearly better than his Wada benchmark. He should try to set a new Wada Toge Baka record. david is also hanging arround, waiting for Juliane to come. He has finished in 24:35 min, 245th place. He also seems to be 36 years old, according to the result list.

We are waiting for Juliane. There she is. Amazing. I mean, how good she looks after such a hard race. Oh yes, and she also felt good, she says, she could have even gone faster but was also unsure about where the goal would be. So she finishes overall #206 in 23:10 min, but more important, in 2nd place of the women category. Unfortunately the second place does not receive 100.00 Yen, but zero. david is looking happy as well. The expected outcome, Tom clearly better than everybody else, and Juliane, david, me and Stephen very close together. I don't know the TCC riders so well, but Astroman made finished with 20:07 min in 90th place. Most impressive is Dennis, who managed an incredible 36th place with 18:15 min.
So we hang a little bit around at the goal area and I speak with some of the other riders. There are some Cervelo bikes and some nice guys from a club in Kamakura. I am happy that this race is over and given the fact that I am not a hill climber, I am also satisfied with my result. I guess I would have made first place, not in my age, but in my weight group (> 100 kg with bike, I have some pretty big water bottles). The general atmosphere on top of the mountain is not really inviting but it is easy to speak with many riders. Water melon pieces are handed out. Juliane has just eaten one and as this is organic, 100% natural stuff I think it is absolutely politically correct to throw this over one's shoulder into the scrubs. She does it, turns around and the next thing I see is a hailstorm of water melon pieces flying in the same directions. Obviously some other riders had the same problem and looked for directions. Japan.
We then move down to the start area are the last riders have arrived. The winner had a time of 15:01 min, and there were only two riders with times over 45 minutes, so the cut is very generous indeed. The complete results are here.
 
mob rules!

Hey Michael,

Great report! So great in fact that I can't be bothered writing one myself. Was a tad disappointed that I didn't make my goal time of sub 20 mins, but happy that I beat all of my mates. One of of whom I caught just before the line, even though he started two waves and six minutes in front. "BUGGER" was his exact word.

Keren
 
Congratulations . . .

Congratulations Keren, Tom & MOB (in order of posting). Shame about the weather but from MOB's excellent write-up it sounds like you all had a fun time.

Keren - good luck in Singapore - I'll be going long in Sado :)

Philip
 
Keren - good luck in Singapore - I'll be going long in Sado :)

Philip

Philip.

First time Sado? Or are you an old hand? I have done the B race twice and it is a great weekend. I am doing Murakami later next month as well.

Keren
 
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