3 Prefectures

小田原　足柄峠　三国峠　山中湖　乙女峠　小田原

Odawara - Ashigara-touge - Mikuni-touge - Yamanaka-ko - Otome Touge - Odawara

This weeks hills ride started and finished in Odawara, with a big loop out to Yamanaka ko with 3 main climbs including the fearsome 三国峠 Mikuni Touge. The 3 prefectures of Shizuoka, Kanagawa and Yamanashi meet at the top of the mountain, hence the name Mikune Touge (3 lands).
Initially missed my intended train but luckily we are in Japan so after changing trains in Yokohama and later at Ofuna I was still in plenty of time to meet the others in Odawara. Alan, Naomi, Dave, Patrick and Todor started out.
First climb of the day up Ashigara Touge is tough enough - Todor san is in trouble already, and we catch him cutting corners by hiking between hairpin bends at the summit. Hes having a bad day and heads back after the descent, but still puts in an impressive ride back to Enoshima.

Before this ride, I was reading various warnings about the main climb of the day - gradients of 18%, snow, 800m of climbing a very tough 100km+ ride - all true, apart from the gradient was only 14% I believe.
As we climbed higher, the temperature dropped noticably and the remains of yesterdays blizzard (which prevented a TCC splinter group climbing the mountain) still lay at the sides of the road. At the top I am still out of breath when Naomi arrives apologising in a very Japanese way for being so slow and holding us up. Unbelievable, we have hardly reached the summit ourselves.

Descending down to Yamanaka ko we were treated to magnificent views of Mount Fuji as well as the lake itself. The road doesn't drop much to the lake, the real treat is the descent down to Gotemba after leaving the lake at its southerly point. The descent here is great, fast and very very long (~20km) until the final climb of the day, Otome Touge which was again long but a very gradual gradient and so an enjoyable climb. Through the tunnel, then descend amidst the Hakone day traffic down to Odawara.
Very close to Lake Ashi and Hakone, we could see the steam rising from the sulhpur beds high on the mountainside where the cable cars take the hordes to east their blackened eggs, hard boiled in the steaming waters.

So training is well on track with regards to distance and mountain climbing with less than a month to go before heading off to Shikoku.

Return To Wado Toge

Another sunny Saturday between days of rain, so get out there and bag a few more mountains and another 132km ride for the legs.

Trying to shake off a cold at the same time, the last week I've been unsure what my nose has been up to. Was it allergy to the cedar tree pollen which many Japanese and several gaijin are complaining about, or the yellow sand from the Gobi Desert in China which blew over, general pollution or a cold? In the end I think the latest cold virus is the culprit, but it still could be due to all the factors around atm.
The ride along Tamagawa is helped by a tail wind, temperature around 15°C, so great March weather. People seem to be booking their spots beside cherry trees already getting ready for hanami, which should be later next week. Up and over Takao, this climb still gets you breathing, but can't be considered a true climb any more after last weeks route.

Hazy day, so no view of Fuji san from the viewpoint on the climb up to Wado Toge. Today the climb is from south to north, up through the small villages and blossoming plum trees before the road narrows and becomes duodenal like.

At the top of Wado Toge, theres a stony track leading north. You can see it clearly on google maps, and it leads down to where we're descending to, but its mountain bike territory. Would be good, but it would be tough work getting an mtb up here.
Descend to Hachioji, then back along Tamagawa - this time the wind between Fuchu and Noborito is not as welcome. Tough section, then back home.
Good days training in all.

Yama Yama

130km, 2600m ascent Musashi Itsukaichi, Wadotoge(Jimba san), Kobu Tunnel (Sengentoge), Tomin No Mori, Bonus climb(?), Musashi Itsukaichi

15th March - Another weekend ride with TCC, and fantastic weather to attempt the big mountains. Its been too cold until now to get to the summits, snow and ice on the roads make them if impassable at worst, treacherous at best. So its warm in the valleys, hot on the climbs but still I'm keeping the extra thick shirt in a pocket, as well as the extra 100yen gloves for the descents.


This is one hell of a ride, great scenery, starts and finishes at Musashi Itsukaichi train station so basically there is no flat - the profile resembles a stage from an alpine stage of the Tour de France. 2600m of climbing in total! But also 2600m of descent, the view over Okutama ko is astounding and with Japanese motorbikers racing up and down the descent was most exciting. One of the bikers lost it behind us, lucky for him he crashed into a soft bank and came to a quick stop.

Top of Wado Toge or Jimba San, the first climb of the day. Normally this is the target of a ride from Tokyo, but todays its just a warm up!

TCC Initiation

So, my blog starts here. The first effort for this blog was putting the google map together of all 88 temples. Now its done, O can refer back to it many times later.

So now to the training. And its a tough initiation ride around Miura Hanto with the guys from Tokyo Cycling Club. I normally do this ride from Yokosuka around to Kamakura, bike in a bag at the train station both ends.

The Half-Fast crew are going for a leisurely 60km ride along Arakawa with 3 planned beer stops on route. Something tells me today the ride today is going to have a contrasting objective. I knew what I was getting myself into very early, (should have read the "high intensity" description on their website) as we were out of Yokohama station at 40kph as soon as the lights changed to green.

No let up down to Misaki, but at least we did get a stop for tasty tuna dumplings by on the jetty. Miura Hanto is still a scenic ride at high intensity, but it passed in a flash and soon enough we were back in Yokohama. Don't know how I managed to hold on, the Trek 7.3 got me around safely and on to Kawasaki and back up the Tamagawa.