Okumasushi Madness

This weeks tour of the mountains north west of Tokyo took involved another train ride out to the start and finish point, Ome, just over half an hour from Tachikawa.
From studying the route using terrain view on Google maps, its very hard to spot any flat in this ride at all. And in fact there was none. Even the supposed "ridge" after the main climb of the day was undulating to say the least.
This week the usual suspects were Alan & Naomi, Dave and Patrick. New faces (at least to me) were Deej on his new bike "Black Thunder" and Brett. On a scale of 1-10, the gears on Deejs new steed go to 11 - I didnt know they went that far, and that means my triple chain ring only gave me a 2 gear advantage on him.
His first ride on the new bike, and he rode out to Ome and back - a massive 228km for the day !!

It was the first day of spring for the bikers, with the arrival of cherry blossom means we can now cycle in shorts without fear of blizzard conditions on the mountain tops.

Too many passes and climbs today, but the big one is called Sadaminetoge. Its a small winding track through great scenery, gradually rising 650m climb over 12km, except the final 2km which must have taken the majority of the ascent. When you start seeing the circles in the concrete road, to prevent ice and such in winter, you know you're on the steepest sections. Couldnt imagine doing this climb in summer.
Descent was fun due to aggressive speed bumps across the road as well as rock slides, but it was possible to weave your way down without hitting them too hard. Although Alan learnt this after the first few, his water going flying after he was launched into the air by one of the bumps. Still, it keeps the roads clear of racing motorbike gangs.
Other than that one, the descents were fantastic, and speeding through the 2km tunnel downhill before the start of the final climb was exhilarating to say the least. I really dont like these long tunnels, its always best to stick to the middle of the road to prevent any vehicles from even thinking about passing on the way down. As it was, we were on the breaks due to the traffic on this occasion.

Anyway, its a tough ride. A long day in the saddle, and good training for whats to come in only 3 weeks time now.