What's new

Twin Ring Motegi 100km Jan 4th

Phil

Maximum Pace
Sep 1, 2007
1,816
55
A 100km race on the road-racing circuit up in Motegi, Tochigi.

http://homepage2.nifty.com/randi/race/2009motegi/2009motegi_race.htm

This is a great beginner's race because the course is nice and wide, the distance is reasonable, and you can ride it as competitively as you feel comfortable... Try to hang with the fast boys in the lead peloton, join a slower group and go for a personal best average speed, or dawdle on the sides of the track on your mama-chari.

Edogawakikkoman has done it a few times, and I did it for the first time last year and had a great time.
 
Count me in...

this sounds like a good way to start the New Year.

chazzer
 
Signed up today.
Looks like I`ll be driving up from Tokyo so maybe able to offer a lift.
 
Hotel and rides

Should mention that I'll also be driving up on the Saturday and have room in the car, although you'd have to first rinko it out to darkest Chiba so the offer probably isn't very useful for west-siders.

Also, I'm staying at this hotel Sat. evening:

http://www10.ocn.ne.jp/~mopia/yado/seizan/seizan.htm

Not a lot to reccommend it, but it's quiet and boasts an excellent yakiniku dinner. Would love the company if anyone else is thinking of staying overnight.
 
Sign up by Friday 12th

Just a quick heads-up to let you know that the cut-off for Sports Entry is this Friday (12th).

So far it looks like zenbiker, echothree (Clay) and myself for the race, and possible chazzer if he emerges from underneath his workload in time...

Clay and I are already in for the hotel. There's lots more room if needed. Also still have a spot or two in the car.

zenbiker > sent you a PM.
 
I am a go....

Signed Up and ready to roll.....never done this before so should be interesting !

chazzer
 
Quickie Report

The plan had been that four of us would be heading up for the weekend, with me picking up Charles (chazzer) and Clay (echothree) at a station en route Saturday, and Keith (zenbiker) meeting us at the hotel, but unfortunately, Charles and Clay both had to bow out at the last minute (Clay's story here in case you missed it.)

I'd already been a bit worried about this race, as my knee was giving me no end of trouble, I hadn't ridden 100 km since September, and now we were down to just two...it seemed the fates were not smiling on this event.

Still, as far as I knew Keith was still in, so off to Motegi it was. We bumped into each other at the pre-race registration, at which point I learned Keith had raced this course a number of times...on motorbikes.

Race morning starting chilly, but the sun was out and the skies were blue and it was a perfect day for cycling.

The race itself went well. I managed to complete it, which was my first goal, and beat my time from last year, which was my second. Keith rode a good race, although we only met once out on the course, about 2 laps to go and with me lagging, Keith came up to me, we had a brief chat, then he powered on.

There were a 1000 riders this year (last year I think only about 800 or less), probably becuase it was Sunday, so the course felt a bit crowded at times. There was a very large peloton (perhaps as many as a 80-100 riders) which I rode in for 6 or 7 laps. It wasn't the lead peloton, however, as there were a number of small breakaways early on--when it lapped me, the tete de course only had 3 or 4 riders in it. This might have been because of the sheer depth of the field at the beginning.

My lack of distance training really did tell in the second half...tired, tired heavy legs and cramps near the end. Pace varied a lot, too. Although faster than last year, this was much more of a struggle and I'm a long way off the form I had back in April when I did the enduro on the same circuit. Definitely need those 150km+ TCC rides to prep for this kind of distance! Still, finished in 2h45m, for an ave of about 36 km/h, which was better than I'd hoped.

Anyway, great race, great weekend. Many thanks to Keith for the company and numerous motorcycle crash stories!

> Charles, really sorry you couldn't make it. Definitely next year, yeah?
> Clay, heal up fast and hopefully see you on a bike soon!
 
Good work on improving your time. My 2nd attempt was worse than my first.
2 of my friends who raced today: One retired sick and the other finished in 2:40. He almost retired on the 2nd lap after getting dropped from the main pack and didn't feel too well either. He did well.

I was going to ride 100km myself today so I wouldn't feel guilty. I only rode 59km so feel a little bad.

The weather was great. Did you get any wind towards the end? Was quite gusty around 10 a.m on the Edo river.
 
Had a great day out! It looked a bit daunting at 6:30 scrapping the ice off the car at -4 degrees, but the sun came out and all was well!
Many thanks to Phil for the excellent company and navigation skills. I would still be looking for the hotel if I didn`t follow him.
My bum still hurts!
 
He almost retired on the 2nd lap after getting dropped from the main pack and didn't feel too well either. He did well.

The speeds at the front seemed really variable. When the main peloton lapped me, it was going too fast for me to consider jumping on, but then a I joined a fairly quick group working well together (including an Aussie(?) cyclist I'd never met before, member of Stork Korea team(?)) and we actually caught up to the peloton two laps later. Must have been a lot going on at the front.

The weather was great. Did you get any wind towards the end? Was quite gusty around 10 a.m on the Edo river.

Yeah, it was the windiest I've seen it up there. At our backs (sort of) down the home stretch, in our faces on the reverse loops and part of the climb. Still, not a huge factor. The circuit seems fairly well sheltered by the surrounding hills.
 
Hey Phil (and TCC)

Andre here (South African... actually), part of the Storck Korea team. I guess it was you that I rode with for a while yesterday in the race at Motegi... if so, pleased to meet you!

Great fun, great weather and a nicely organized race.

Four of us came over from Seoul for the race with a view to getting together some information and material to present to the department of transport here (and others we need to convince) to improve the racing scene in Korea.

Spent the night with a friend of one of the crew in Chiba and he put on some amazing hospitality (including the best Sashimi and Sake feast the night before prepared by his dad)!

My race went as follows:
Hung onto the first group for about 8 laps when the group split. Worked well for about 4 more laps with the remaining group. This then broke up a little once we started lapping bigger groups and people started bonking etc. Then spent the rest moving in and out of small groups. I actually stopped when I absolutely knew I had finished (which turned out to be 23 laps). Think that put me at about 2:36ish. Lower back feels sore today as I rode most of the way in the drops (chose to wear thicker gloves and couldn't feel the braking well enough with hands on the hoods)... yeah, control was quite important yesterday huh!

Any idea if there are:
- results posted
- any pics we can download for a presentation
- any footage

Best,

SD
 
Hey Andre, good to talk to you however briefly yesterday...sorry I was too knackered to place the accent! Well done on the race, and thanks for the pull to the peloton.

Results will be posted at the organizer's site:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/randi/event_index.html

They'll probably be up in a day or two, along with some photos. I'll post here with a specific link when they're up. I think you were in the same class as me and finished top 10, or at least top 15 (I was down in 33).

As well as the R&I photos above, All Sports will be uploading pictures on the 9th:
http://allsports.jp/event/cycling.html

There'll be hundreds of pics (have fun clicking through them looking for you and your mates). All Sports want you to buy the photos though, and the ones that appear online are watermarked.

No video footage as far as I know.

Let us know next time you come to Japan for a race and maybe we can all hook up.
 
Thanks for the info and will greatly appreciate the help to get at the pics etc. The Japanese websites are quite difficult to navigate!

Definitely will keep in touch and will let you know when we are next over... which is looking to be likely!
 
Results are up

http://homepage2.nifty.com/randi/race/2009motegi/2009motegi_race.htm

Click on the links to the right of the "NEW" graphic to view results in each class. You were 8th Andre--congratulations.

Keith > Looks like they sorted out your result and lap count. A sub-3 hour it was.

Tougher competition this year--although I was 5 mins faster, I slipped from 22nd to 31st compared to last year. Much bigger fields, too. In C Class there were 178 riders (included DNFs) compared to 103 last year.

Top time in Expert was 2:25:27.266 (41.58km/hr ave).
 
Great! 68th in D class. next time I`ll get some botox, say I`m 21 and grab 33rd place in the A class!!
I`m signed up for the ECO event in April over 75km. Target will be a probably unrealistic 2 hours.
 
get it so when u arrive from other country, your level is chose from your UCI licence??? God today in France is -5°c, impossible to ride outside today because roads are dangerous!
 
X class is usually for first timers and should be raced at B or C level speed.
The winners are allowed to go into B or C class (top 6 I think).
The remainder go into F or D class.
D is about Cat 5. level.
If you have a lot of experience you should be able to ride in whatever level you feel is similar to your own. There are no restrictions and you can enter whatever level you like. I've seen some foreigners come over to Japan and think they are good and enter the top levels and perform very badly.
Also depends on what kind of race you enter as well.
I am in D grade and am hopeless in the hills. I could probably sit in on an A grade flat race and finish with the field though. I'm choosing to work my way up the ranks by winning rather than putting myself in a level I want to ride in.

What level do you think you are?
 
Back
Top Bottom