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Official Ride Wedding!

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Nobu & I must apologize for the lateness of this response, but I'm sure that due to the magnitude of the day's events, you might forgive us.
First and foremost, a HUGE Thank You to everyone who came along to the wedding itself – Ash, Peter (Edogawakikkoman), Pete, Okey-san, and of course Thomas, Sora & Shinobu. Also, my LBS owner, Mr. Kimura, and Okubo-san, from "Alpen-Marker"… in lycra & helmets! Cool!!
And also to the numerous members who made the journey out to Shinagawa-Seaside for the after-party.

Usually I pride myself on the ability to arrange rides, and put things together logistically so that everyone is in the right place at the right time … But this was something else – something way over my head! Even Nobu said, "We're only gonna do this ONCE!"
I completely agree.

It consisted of FOUR major events in one day:

1. The wedding ceremony.
2. The wedding reception.
3. The wedding after-party.
4. The wedding race
…switch back to No.3 until morning.

We are very happy to say that everything went very smoothly.

The ceremony and reception were (of course) months in the planning, and we had a lot of help from the church and the Cerulean Hotel staff.

For the after-party, we decided to kill 2 birds with one stone.
I had two friends coming from Australia, who needed a place to stay; And Nobu & I decided that we needed a place big enough to fit around 50 people without having the typical 2-3 hour time-limit (of a restaurant) hanging over our heads.
Hence, the "weekly mansion"/ apartment. It actually worked out perfectly – as well as having a relaxed feel to it.

Full report: Wedding After-Party & Race.

The whole evening for me started just after the reception finished. Nobu & I left the Cerulean Hotel, followed by all the guests to a small park around the corner, where our bikes were waiting with signs & cans hanging off the back of them – Thank you Andrew, for getting the bikes ready!

Nobu & I did one lap of the hotel, before proceeding to a convenience store just up the hill, where we took off the cans & signs and dumped them (cans only) in the rubbish bin.

It was about 4:15pm, and I had to be back at the weekly-mansion (apartment) by 5:00 to have the place ready for when the catering service brought the kegs-of-beer & other drinks around.
ie. I had to haul-arse on my bike through Tokyo traffic to get there on time (That was the most relaxed I'd felt all day – doing what I always do:bike:).

Anyway, the catering guy didn't turn up until 6pm, and I still had to buy food & get it ready by 7:00… panic set in:eek:uch:!
At 6:30 though, the girls (Nobu & Shinobu) arrived with the food, and then the Aussies (Simeon, Harriss, John, Andrew and Elizabeth) turned up to lend a hand, so I went down to Shinagawa-Seaside station to meet the guests…
Phil, Sergey, Walter, Lee, Thomas, Sora and Duncan from TCC; as well as some other friends – Yoshiko, Masako, Tadashi, Grant (Scottish buddy), and Okubo-san from "Alpen-Marker".

A lot of people turned up one-by-one after that – Ash, SteveT, Taro and Arai-san (TCC); and 3 other guys from Alpen-Marker (AM) – Shimura, Arai & Harada.
Some of Nobuko's school friends also came along, and there were now close to 30 people in the place.

-----------------------------------------------

The Race:

A small mix-up in the apartment's bike stands saw everyone downstairs to move their bikes clear. Since we were all there, we decided we should just head straight to the race venue (Shinagawa-futo) – about a 10-15 minute walk away…
Prying our "cheer-squad" away from the keg proved a little more time consuming, but we were finally all in place and ready to roll.

TCC:
Thomas
Phil
Sergey
Travis
Walter
Shinobu
Sora

Alpen-Marker:
Harada
Arai
Okubo

After a slow warm-up lap to check out the course, we were all in our start positions. With such a late start, and with the police-box being just around the corner, we decided to only do 5 laps of the originally proposed ten (11km).
The light went green, and the flag came down…

Lap 1: I took the lead set the pace for the first half-a-lap while we all settled into the groove. Then it was a free-for-all, with Thomas (TCC) coming past first and picking up the pace, followed by another attack by Harada (AM), and all the other riders in the fray sitting on each others' wheels… The pace was high!

The following three laps saw all of us in the lead group of 7 riders take turns at the front. There were also times when I felt in danger of being dropped off the back and had to really fight to catch that back wheel… Thanking some of the red-lights that made everyone slow down a bit.

Lap 5 (final lap): During the first half, the speed actually seemed to drop a little, as everyone was jostling for a good position on the final turn, leaving a 1km straight run to the finish.
As we rounded the last turn, Thomas turned to me and said, "You take the win. It's your day!" I yelled back, "Hell NO! It's a race! You take it if you can. GO!" Anyway, Harada must have heard our dialogue and took the initiative by flying to the lead, leaving Thomas to chase. That saw everybody else jump as well – Harada & Thomas were followed in quick succession by Arai, Okubo and Phil.
I managed to hang onto Phil's coat-tails for about… oohhh…5 seconds, before he too pulled away leaving Sergey & I to limp home in 6th & 7th place.

As far as I can tell, Thomas caught and overtook Harada (AM), while Arai (AM) just on their respective wheels managed to take Harada just before the line.

*Note1: Harada came overall 4th in last year's "Tour de Okinawa (200km)". And was overall 2nd in the 200km "Fuji Challenge" this year!
*Note2: Arai (wearing green) was riding a flat-bar bike that everyone mistook for a MTB. It is not! The whole set-up – Wheels, tyres, etc – is basically a road-bike with a flat-bar… And it has a pretty good engine to boot.

As for 4th & 5th position… I don't know if Phil was able to get past Okubo before the finish-line.

Official placings:

1. Thomas (TCC)
2. Arai (AM)
3. Harada (AM)
4. Phil (TCC) ?
5. Okubo (AM) ?
6. Travis (TCC/AM)
7. Sergey (TCC)
8. Shinobu (TCC)
9. Walter (TCC)
10. Sora (TCC)


After the race, we all made our way back to the "weekly mansion" apartment and did our best to finish off as much of the grog as possible.

All in all, it was the most eventful, and most wonderful day of my entire life…
In a single 24 hour period, I managed to:

- Get married
- Eat lunch in a 39th floor restaurant
- Sing to an audience of over 60 people
- Go in a bike race
- Have a keg party
- Be surrounded by some of the best friends I'll ever know

Absolutely awesome!
Thank you to everyone who made it such a spectacular event.

Travis & Nobu

P.S. To those who couldn't make it; Dave (TrufflesEater), Deej, AlanW, Naomi, Mike, Todor & many others who PM'ed & posted your well-wishes, Thank you all!
I hope to be riding with you all again soon! Rubber Down! T
 
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