AlanW
Maximum Pace
- Jan 30, 2007
- 1,215
- 440
Another Sunday, another race! This time it was the Nariki stage of the Tokyo Hillclimb series. There are three races in the series; today's plus one from Hinohara up to Tomin-no-Mori and the final one from Okutama to Tomin-no-Mori.
The Nariki stage is short, only 9.5km and climbing from 200 to 700 metres, so not a big climb by any means. It's a race of two halves, with the first 5 kilometres rising gently at about a 2 or 3% gradient to a junction with a dead-end road. The course then follows this road to where it finishes in a small clearing in the forest. The second half of the course is where the meat of the climb is, with some really steep pitches and a final 500 metres that reduces legs to jelly!
@Naomi and I stayed at a cheap hotel in Hanno the night before, as our tolerance for getting up at stupid-o'clock to go racing had run out. We arrived at the course before registration had even opened, so decided to go to the parking area about halfway up the course and then ride to registration.
We picked up our number plates and rode back to the parking area, where Naomi-san warmed up on a turbo trainer and I made a few final checks to the bikes. Then back down towards the start of the course to complete the warm-up.
At the start line I had a surprise, for there was @echothree (Clay) back from Australia. We chatted and waited in the heat (although the heat was nowhere near as bad as 3 years ago, when this race was held in August).
We started, as usual for Japan, bang on time at 10am and the first group rolled out. The pace was incredibly relaxed along the flatter sections of the course. I was sitting second, behind rider no. 4, and neither I nor anyone else wanted to take the front! So were rolling along at about 70% effort, which has never happened to me in a hillclimb before. But nobody was attacking so I sat tight. Eventually a couple of riders passed so I jumped on their wheel, but again, the pace was pretty slow for a race. As we got close to the junction, I went to the front. We filed through the junction and immediately the road kicked up, and the usual strong guys (Shikuya-san and Inoue-san) came to the front, with another rider. I was fourth, with Clay right behind me. Despite his "Oh, I'm really out of shape" claims, he's still a very powerful rider!
About 2km into the steep section, Inoue-san lost his chain and I passed him, but it didn't take him long to fix it and blast past me again. A 15kg weight advantage can do that! Another km later and Clay attacked and left me. The steep section is really intense; I was at my maximum sustainable heart rate for pretty much the whole thing. So even though my mind was telling me to go, my body had nothing left in reserve. I barely saw anything except the road ahead and the numbers on my computer, telling me just how metres I had left to climb.
I managed to hang on to 6th place and pretty much collapsed as I crossed the finish line, with a time of 26 min 59 sec, much faster than my previous best time despite the slow-rolling first half. Clay ended up 4th and Naomi-san was 3rd overall in the Ladies, so it was a good day for TCC!
The Nariki stage is short, only 9.5km and climbing from 200 to 700 metres, so not a big climb by any means. It's a race of two halves, with the first 5 kilometres rising gently at about a 2 or 3% gradient to a junction with a dead-end road. The course then follows this road to where it finishes in a small clearing in the forest. The second half of the course is where the meat of the climb is, with some really steep pitches and a final 500 metres that reduces legs to jelly!
@Naomi and I stayed at a cheap hotel in Hanno the night before, as our tolerance for getting up at stupid-o'clock to go racing had run out. We arrived at the course before registration had even opened, so decided to go to the parking area about halfway up the course and then ride to registration.
We picked up our number plates and rode back to the parking area, where Naomi-san warmed up on a turbo trainer and I made a few final checks to the bikes. Then back down towards the start of the course to complete the warm-up.
At the start line I had a surprise, for there was @echothree (Clay) back from Australia. We chatted and waited in the heat (although the heat was nowhere near as bad as 3 years ago, when this race was held in August).
We started, as usual for Japan, bang on time at 10am and the first group rolled out. The pace was incredibly relaxed along the flatter sections of the course. I was sitting second, behind rider no. 4, and neither I nor anyone else wanted to take the front! So were rolling along at about 70% effort, which has never happened to me in a hillclimb before. But nobody was attacking so I sat tight. Eventually a couple of riders passed so I jumped on their wheel, but again, the pace was pretty slow for a race. As we got close to the junction, I went to the front. We filed through the junction and immediately the road kicked up, and the usual strong guys (Shikuya-san and Inoue-san) came to the front, with another rider. I was fourth, with Clay right behind me. Despite his "Oh, I'm really out of shape" claims, he's still a very powerful rider!
About 2km into the steep section, Inoue-san lost his chain and I passed him, but it didn't take him long to fix it and blast past me again. A 15kg weight advantage can do that! Another km later and Clay attacked and left me. The steep section is really intense; I was at my maximum sustainable heart rate for pretty much the whole thing. So even though my mind was telling me to go, my body had nothing left in reserve. I barely saw anything except the road ahead and the numbers on my computer, telling me just how metres I had left to climb.
I managed to hang on to 6th place and pretty much collapsed as I crossed the finish line, with a time of 26 min 59 sec, much faster than my previous best time despite the slow-rolling first half. Clay ended up 4th and Naomi-san was 3rd overall in the Ladies, so it was a good day for TCC!
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