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Tomorrow Sat 13 March "Back in the Saddle" Ride

AlanW

Maximum Pace
Jan 30, 2007
1,215
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Celebrating the return of sunshine and temperatures above freezing!

Naomi-san and I plan to ride the KT9 course; about 75 km circuit from Takao station as a moderate pace back-in-the-saddle type ride.
A little later start than usual; meet @ 10 am at the south exit coin lockers of JR Takao station or 10:15 at the Family Mart next to the north exit.

Let me know if you want to come along.
AW.

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/japan/tokyo/838123919868949496
 
Hi Alan,

thanks for posting! banzai for sunshine! :happy1:

I'll tag along if you don't mind :) See you tomorrow next to Family Mart.
 
Hi Alan, thanks for posting. I'd like to join you but will ride from home. Do you mind if I join you at point 11 on your map, the junction of R518/517? If not, I'll ride with you guysfrom there to the top of Wada and then return home. What time do you think you'll be riding through? I promise to be a bit early so you don't have to wait around for me:D
 
Mike,
Do you mean the junction of 517 and 518 just before 18 km on the route map? By the wooden restaurant with the big Red Hot Chilli Pepper on the roof?

I imagine we'll be rolling through there at about 11:15 am. PM me your keittai number just in case.
AW.
 
Hi Alan, it will be great to meet up again. I was planning to ride the basic route you described anyway, so lets meet up by the Red Hot Chilli Pepper, 11.15am

I'll cycle out along this route if anyone is interested.

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/jp/tamagawa -> onekai/836126837031336286

I'll bring my new toy along, to see if it gets TCC approval.


Fly away on my Zephyr
I feel it more then ever
And in this perfect weather
We'll find a place together
 
Alan, yep that's it, the place with the big red chilli on the roof in the middle of nowhere:D I've PM'd my number.
 
This is a bit last-minute, but I'm going to try to join y'all today. Thanks for posting, Alan.

Deej
 
Thanks for the ride, gentlemen and a lady- it was so good to see you all in a long time! :)

A moderate-pace back-in-the-saddle ride turned into "who's going to win king-of-the-mountain classfication" (I was kinda expecting it to be like this, though :D), but lots of fun, as usual.
Very sorry for leaving you before Wada, but it turned out to be a wise decision, as I was having terrible cramps in both legs going up the gentle slopes of Odarumi... Wada would certainly kill me.

Anyways, looking forward to the next KT(?) ride :)
 
Down and Dirty

David, Mike, Andy, Deej, Sergey and Naomi-san,
Thanks for coming on the ride today. It was good to see you again, and good to get up into the mountains! Feels like forever since I did a proper mountains ride.

We were a bit late starting, as the train that Naomi-san and I were on stopped for almost half an hour at Kunitachi. By the time we eventually did get going again we were fairly behind schedule but Sergey, Deej, and David were still waiting at Takao when we arrived. We set off west, trying to make up some time before the meeting point with Mike and Andy. There were still large piles of snow at the side of the road despite the warmth of the sun, and water streaming across the road surface in many places. By the time we had rolled down the hill into Sagamihara we were all mud-splattered and I questioned my own judgement in wearing predominantly white kit :mad:
Around the south side of Sagamiko there was little traffic but again plenty of water on the road. We arrived at the Red Hot Chilli Pepper to find Mike and Andy waiting. Mike had had a punc so was running a bit behind himself and Andy was content to spend a few extra minutes staring at his new carbon fibre machine (which is very nice by the way).
We traversed the first rindo of the day, a real wake-up call for the legs with a short sharp climb at the start. Then up route 76. I stayed with Naomi-san so when we reached the turn-off to the next rindo I wasn't sure everyone had gone the right way. So I rolled an extra couple of km to the dam a bit further on. But sure enough, the group was waiting on the correct rindo, which was laced with tyre destroying stones and had a lot of surface water. We all made it through, although most of us had a sketchy moment on one of the metal drainage grates that cross the road. My bike went severely sideways as I crossed it but I was able to catch the slide and carry on forwards.
We had a short drink-break (where David was able to find a shop and returned to the group with a big stash of food), then we were off again down a road that looks exactly like someone's drive at the entrance. But it really is a road! Deej and Mike kept us entertained by vying for King of the Mountain points, with Mike generating enough power to pull his back wheel half out of his frame. Pooooowwwwaaaaaahhhh!
At the base of Wada we lost Sergey and Mike, and the rest of us talked ourselves into going up the hill. After so long away from the mountains it was a brutal climb and I was over 2 minutes down on my personal best time.
The downhill was blocked to cars but open for bicycles (although we did have to stop while a man with a chain saw was winched up on a crane to cut a tree :eek:). Again, plenty of water so by the time we arrived at the bottom of the hill we were looking truly hardcore! Deej and Andy then headed off home while David, Naomi and I rolled back to Takao where we cleared out the food shelves of the conbini! We were Hungry!

All in all a great ride!
 
Nostalgic....

Nice account Alan ! Still trying to break free from winter`s grip here but there are some signs that spring is close at last....

As I read your report I could get that wonderful skull camera effect of the scenery played back from memory....somehow familiar but somehow remote.....

Hope all is well with everyone in old Edo....

chazzer
 
Thanks for organising this Alan and for the ride report. It was great to meet up with everyone again after such a long time. Thanks to Ironsword aka Deej (yes it's all your fault;)) I found myself caught in battle on a few of the toge's launching ridiculous attacks my legs could only sustain for about 10 seconds. Ah it was so much fun though:D Something about you Deej just brings out the competitive streak in us all.

By the time we rolled up to the start of Wada I was totally toasted and dreaming of my sofa (cuddling up with my new frame of course). So sorry to leave you there guys but I barely made it home, which was still around 70-80 km over a few more hills.

All in all a great day and was shown some new toge's thanks to Alan. Cheers everyone and can't wait for the next TCC adventure:bike:
 
Bonkers

Everyone, thanks for the excellent company Saturday. And Alan, thank you for mapping out a hilly little route that I'll definitely be revisiting soon.

It felt like spring had finally arrived. Thanks to the warm weather, I was able to wear shorts for the first time this year. And of course that meant I had to shave my legs to let the world know that, dammit, I'm a dedicated cyclist!

It was nice to ride with my TCC pals, some of whom I hadn't seen for quite a while. It was worth it just to catch a glimpse of Andy's beautiful new steed. Poor Andy, though -- his shiny new bike, on only its second outing ever, soon became a mud-magnet because the mountain roads were so wet from the melting snow. I'm pretty sure that's the dirtiest my bike has ever been. When it rains, at least a lot of the muck is washed off. Yesterday, all the muck just stayed on the frame. It was quite an effort restoring Black Thunder to its natural lustrous state. That's right, natural lustrous state.

So as Sergey and Mike have hinted at or stated outright, yesterday's ride had a few little "races" thrown in for good measure. Every hill we met (and there seemed to be quite a few) seemed to trigger something within us, an instinct for glory and domination of our peers. I wasn't in the racing mood, but, well, when I would see, say, Alan accelerate, then watch Sergey turn on the gas, I couldn't very well just let them pull away. Mike, he was pretty cheeky as well, suddenly going on the attack, grin plastered on his face, egging us on with raised eyebrows that asked, "Whatchoo gonna do?" And Andy, now fully carbonated after years on a heavy steel rig, is powering up the hills, which means future rides with him are going to hurt.

As we gathered at the base of Wada to collect ourselves for the final assault and bid our adieus to Mike and Sergey, I told the gang that I could feel one of my famous bonks coming on. Sure enough, that 6 kilometer climb, which I can usually polish off fairly quickly, was a protracted hell. It was without a doubt the worst, most painful bonk I have ever experienced. David saved me by handing me a banana SoyJoy as he passed by and rode out of sight. Somehow, I was able to make it to the top without stopping, but my speeds were down to 4-5kph on the final leg. I've got to get to the bottom of this bonking business. I do it way more frequently than I should. I think its simply the result of too few calories. Next ride, no bonk.

After a nice cruise on route 521, Andy and I broke off from the pack -- David, Alan and Naomi -- and headed home together via the rivers. We were blessed with something of a tailwind along the Tamagawa, and made excellent time. I had largely recovered by then, because we had stopped at a 7-11, where I snarfed down some inarizushi, a Snickers bar, a coke and orange juice -- bleck, thinking of all that sugar now kinda grosses me out.

Thanks again, everyone. And Chazzer -- nice to see your post here. You know, I just realized that I never said goodbye to you! Terrible. Your are missed, and I hope you are well. And I hope you can join us for a ride in the near future.

Look forward to seeing everyone again!

Deej
 
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