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Tour de Kusatsu 2011

As far as training goes, when I'm not running around to different bike shops getting parts on my bike upgraded, fixed or replaced, I'm still climbing the hills around Takasaki. Gonna try and squeeze a bit more training in after work tomorrow and Friday before the TDK.

I've also been watching alot of past TDK vids on youtube and i'm starting to doubt I'll be even near the top 10 champion class positions. This is my first official race after all, and the more i see and read about it the more and more intimidating it appears.

A little happy that my jersey and shorts arrived in the mail the other day. Thanks goes to Primal. Now just waiting on a saddle and bike computer.

Sorry to hear about those of you who can't make it. My friend who works for the infrastructure committee in Gunma told me that the Akagi race in September is still in the works. Maybe you can have a race in Gunma yet, this year. I've driven both Kusatsu and Akagi and Akagi is just as fun. Maybe more on a bike.
 
Good Luck!

To the guys and gals racing this year,
Do your best, have a great time, and bring back tales of heroics & camaraderie!
Oh yeah, and LOTS of photos!
Yay! TCC!:happy:
 
Congratulations to Clay the Dominator! :D 35min! :no1:

Alan - 6th, Tim - 7th! - Very strong performance by many TCCers! Myself excluded. Only 23rd at 43min 3sec, which is my best time so far, but the lack of visible progess is disappointing - need to embrace The Pain.

Kinda missed the results by other participants - Type R, Steve, Naomi and others - how did you do?
 
My result

Congrats Clay, Tim and Alan:) and all of the TCC guys.

For me it was a kind of nightmare today, I missed podium for the first time.
My time was 50mins which was slower than two years ago, even I now have a super fast&light machine:eek:
A two week sickness weakened me:eek:uch:
Oh well, I should revenge next time;)
 
LOL, I made a big mistake entering in Champion. LOL.

At least I managed to make it up the entire 13 k without stopping. I'm proud of that, at least.

It was nice meeting some of you folks. Too bad we didn't have more time to chat. I know it was a busy two days and I ran into most of you folks right before, during, and after the race.

To the guy who came up from behind me while climbing and told me, "Ganbatte, cheers!"

Thanks man. I needed that positive boost. It helped.

Edit: I noticed on the uphill and downhill, there were folks taking photos - how can I gain access to them?

Thanks.
 
Well I'm yet to join the TCC hall of fame, but had a fantastic time anyway !
Congratulations to Clay, Alan and Tim (wow... those last 2000 grams really made the difference ;)).

It was my first time in Kusatsu (and my 2nd hill climb race in total) and I managed 47:57 which I'm pretty happy about. I was pleased about my pacing - I overtook a lot of people in the 2nd half of race who had passed me earlier on - but positioning was terrible and I just couldn't find anyone to draft behind :eek:uch:. I guess that all comes with experience (as well as more & more intervals on my mole hill) ...

Anyway, was great to see so many familiar faces again - man, it's been too long !

Cheers
Steve
 
Amazing ride, Clay! Wow, what a gorgeous day. Pretty happy with my results , though missing the big 'P' by less than 20sec - grrrr! Like Serguei said - I shoulda dug deeper into the pain locker! I waited just 2km too late to ramp up to 110%. Congrats to everyone and look forward to an exciting season of hill climbing! Gotta say, that riding light wheels really helped - and love those Challenge tubulars!
 
Well done to all TCC racers at Kusatsu! :climb01:

It was my second go at this race; the first was 2 years previously. This time there was no warm up/parade lap around the town; instead, after the Champions class started, everyone else started in one of three large groups (not by class or seeded). There was a lot of talking by the organisers before the start of the race so it was very hard to stay warmed-up. I waited almost 40 minutes after lining up before my group was allowed to roll.

The timing start line was very close to where we joined the main hillclimb course. I tried to accelerate so I was already moving quickly as I passed it. Of course, with everyone all mixed in together there was no way of telling how well or poorly I was doing against the other fast riders. So I tried to pace myself as best as I could; I was passing a lot of riders. I was fortunately not really held up along the way as there always seemed to be a gap I could get through. A rider from another class passed me and I grabbed his wheel and was able to draft him for a while, but he faded quite badly leaving me on my own. I tried to use riders and groups to shelter from the wind where I could, only moving out to pass people at the last minute.
At the top of the course there was more exposure to the wind but I kept a decent pace and was able to accelerate over the last couple of kilometers where the course flattens out.
I reached the top in 39:43, faster than my target of 40 minutes. My time was a bit slower than before but overall I was happy, since my training this year has been interrupted by a couple of nasty colds, and the lack of an effective warm up this time around definitely had an effect. I was really pleased to find out I had got 6th place!
 
Great conditions for the race, although yes, the lack of warm-up is really annoying. I think next time I'll keep riding until only a few minutes before the start (even though they say to get there 30 minutes before) because starting a sprint race like that with cold legs is really hard.
I had a pretty good race, the guy who won (the pro, who wasn't counted in the official tally) shot off the front early on. I didn't have the legs to bridge across to him so I hung with the second group of three riders and sucked their wheels for most of the way. It was obvious we weren't going to catch the leader so I was content to just sit in, nobody was gaining on us so no point to push it any harder. 2km from the line a couple of Blitzen guys appeared out of nowhere and joined the group, but they didn't pass us. I guess they'd spend a fair bit of effort getting to us. With about 1km to go I gave it a bit of a welly and got a break that I kept to the line.
It was a good day out and good to meet up with fellow TCCers. Weather is getting nicer so looking forward to some mountain rides with you guys sometime.
 
Sounds like you all had really great day. I regret that I couldn't be there but given the lack of training it would have been painful.

The race did feature on the NHK news in the evening, which was nice to see. I didn't spot any TCC jerseys though, unfortunately.
 
My first race in a year and a half. It was good to see so many familiar faces after such a long time! Congratulations to Clay and all the others who made it onto or close to the podium. It appears that the FG team in particular was very strong.

Like Steve I had a fantastic time, although not from an athletic point of view. I made it in 46:23'22 which is at least a personal best. :warau:

To the guy who came up from behind me while climbing and told me, "Ganbatte, cheers!" Thanks man. I needed that positive boost. It helped.

That must have been me. Glad it helped! :)



Thanks for the picture and the company, Pete!

I used my GoPro camera on the descent from Mt. Shirane and concocted my first ever video. The angle is too low (I used the chest mount), the music cliche, but I'm working on it. :D

[yt]ToEBYNizqKk[/yt]
 
Results...

For everyone's viewing pleasure!
Click the link for the Kusatsu Results

Sorry I missed it.
But great to see so many awesome results by TCC.
 
The angle is too low (I used the chest mount), the music cliche, but I'm working on it. :D
Well done! It hurts my neck watching it as I keep trying to look further up! Practice on that hill we live on!!
 
Well actually there was a couple of my division I had made an attack on the last 1.5K, and what you didn't see is that I had to pass about 8 riders on the last 200m so I was 'full on' at the goal and the inside track was the cleanest - plus my daughter was yelling at me!!

Cool, looks like you just about ran over your fan club :D
 
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