Format of the race. There were three races starting at once - 2 hr, 3 hr, and 6 hr. Additionally, there were team, solo, and family races in each time frame. Family members could be as young as 13. This was the hardest part of this race. It was an open race with no pulling anyone out. So there were riders ALL over the course at any given time. More about this in the race commentary.

Course layout. The course started at the left side of "Main Straight" on the map.

The race went counter clockwise on the map. The course is uphill at about 1% from Moss "S" through the end of Mike Knight Corner. Likewise, it's downhill from there through Revolver Corner, a quick uphill through Hairpin Corner. It flattens out from Hairpin Corner to right about where "Backstretch" is marked on the map. It plunges downhill through the Attwood Curve (this is REALLY a fun ride here).

Race started late - by about 30 minutes. Children's races went just prior to the adult races. October 9th is "Sports Day" in Japan, so the event was part of the "Sports Day" events.

I didn't know any of the riders at the event, so I positioned myself for the start at the front. I found the #1 tag for the winner from last year and hopped in behind him. The race started rolling for 100 meters and then off we went. Speeds quickly went to 37-40kph on the uphill stretch. The first turn at "Last corner" was probably closer to 3-4%. That was the slowest turn throughout the day at about 35kph for our lead pack.

I started out about 4-5 riders from the front. A lap into it and I knew this was going to be a long day. We were quickly making pace at 40-45kph on the back stretch and getting a feel for the course. A lot of the riders had not had a chance to ride the course yet and you could see the non-verbal "let me feel this out" with much of the pack in the tighter turns.

One time early the 5 riders in front of me took off unexpectedly out of the "Mike Knight Corner" so I did the obligatory bridging. This was the second most painful event of the day. They had taken off like a shot, and I just wasn't expecting that.

After about 3 laps I realized I was doing something wrong. I was taking entirely too much of a pull. I pulled off and let about 15 riders get by me and settled back in. The "peloton" was typically made up of 30 riders from across the event categories. After about 6-7 laps there seemed to be a more settled in "routine" of how a lap was going to occur. From Hobbs Corner to Revolver Corner was mostly downhill, and the pace would pick way up. We'd be at 50-55kph. The group would go from straightline out to a pack coming through Hairpin Corner. On the backstretch it became obvious that was the "drink water and down a gel" stretch. After about 300 meters on the back stretch, you'd better have gotten your water because as soon as the course tilted downhill we went from 40-45 kph up through 55kph. My max speed for the day registered in at 60.7kph on the last lap dropping into the Attwood Curve.

Turning was a major deal. I was a little worried about my turning ability but found out that I wasn't as bad off as I thought I would be. The accordion effect was definitely felt when I was 15-20 riders back. As we rolled into the second hour I started to move 1-2 riders up each chance I could. When I got to about 10 riders from the front, pacing out of the turn got tremendously easier.

I also got a good test of mashing huge gears to bridge a gap. About an hour and a half through, the fella in front of me dropped way off the fella in front of him coming out of the Attwood Curve. A gap of about 50 meters opened really fast. I stood up in about 53x14 and got across the gap, pretty okay. But it took me about an extra 100 meters to do that. This was the most painful move I had to make of the day. When I settled in behind the next guy, my legs were on fire.

As we came through the finish maker at 1hr 44min, it was obvious there was some setting up for the finish to occur. At our pace, we'd have 3 more laps to go. No longer was the "Last Corner" slow. The front stretch went from 37-39kph to 41-43kph. The "Last Corner" went from 33-35kph, to 37-39kph. If you looked at your water bottle on the back stretch, you were going to get dropped.

Two teams were obviously setting up for the finish. Okayama Racing Team and Washu Racing. Okayama Racing was the team who had last year's winner. They moved two riders out in front and started setting a non-stop blistering pace. Speeds did not drop out of the turns like they had been and if you weren't peddling through, you were going to get dropped.

The last lap started at 1hr 56min, and it was off to the races. All of the riders from the 3hr and 6hr races disappeared and the numbers at the front were all from the 2hr event. I was hanging on tight around 12-13 riders from the front, we were settled in single file now.

We came through Attwood Curve at the max speed for the day and didn't slow down. As we rounded "Williams Corner" a decision needed to be made. The racer with the #1 helped me make mine, he went to the inside, while the single file line went outside. I followed in behind the #1 and as we came up to "First Corner", we came screaming in behind two old ladies participating in the 6 hour event, had to slam on breaks and break off around them. No chance of making a sprint now because we'd had to completely lose momentum heading to the finish line. The single file line of racers exploded to our right and took off. I mashed as hard as I could to get back in file but came across the line a dissappointing 30 seconds back from the leader, 14th overall.

I learned a lot from today. I'd never raced this style before. It's the first time I've brushed shoulders this much, which was pretty discomfitting. I feel good about my power out of the corners. I still have a lot of work to do on race strategy. I burned a lot of energy early on, too nervous about missing a break away - reality is, on this course, a break away would be nearly impossible with the turns the way they were.

Overall stats for me:
14th place overall (2hr Team/2hr Individual times combined - will find out overall individual time when the times are posted on the net, hoping for top 10)

22 laps @ 3.7km each
81.4km
2hrs 1min 45sec
Avg Speed: 40.1kph
Max speed: 60.7kph

My HRM froze up on me. Probably a good thing because I kept looking down thinking - "Only 159bpm? I'm doing awesome!" Took me two or three laps to realize it was frozen :P

One more race this season for me on the 28th, then finally done.

Oh yeah, I learned something else too. The saying "it's not all about the bike" is so true. There were some folks out there with some really great equipment. Five thousand dollar bikes with two thousand dollar wheelsets and the Dura-ace to boot. My Roubaix Elite with stock wheels and ultegra worked just fine to keep me close enough at the front for my first race of this type. I'll worry a lot less about the bike set up and more about the workouts now than I had before.

VW

Well, could it be?

A trip to the other side of Honshu put me at the northern most tip of Shimane Prefecture. The city: Matsue. The reason: 140 km ride/race.

Day one wrapped up after hitting the onsen and the local festivities with an overnight crash in the rental van. Another reason to be around 4 inches shorter would be the tremendous increase in comfort when sleeping in things like cars. I probably could have slept outside in the bivy sack and the sleeping bag, but rain was in the forecast and I didn't want to take any chances. The up side to going to bed as the sun set at 7pm was that the check-in for the ride was 5am-5:30am. The ride was to start at 6am.

I took a drive the day before the ride through the first 15km of the ride. The route map showed some pretty steep climbs, but they didn't compare to what was coming. Climbs of 3, 4, and 5+km at 8-10% grades throughout the whole first 15km. It was nice that they had the 10% down hills too, but every time you go down hill all you can think about is .... "We're going back up at the bottom!"

So... checked in and the ride began on schedule. I was not making the same mistake I made at Kunisaki. I got right up at the front and was the 8th person out the "gate." We sorted ourselves into a single file line knowing that at the 2km mark the climbing was going to begin. I waited to see if anyone was going to attack and head up hill, but everyone seemed content in the cool temperatures to just kinda pedal together up the climb. We got to the top, and coasted down the other side. No one dropped into a big gear and took off, we just kinda.. well.. coasted. We started up the second 10% grade (we knew it was 10% because of the sign... of which we'd see many through the day). About half way up, the "ride staff" that was at the front end turned to me, and asked if I understood Japanese. With a negative answer, he said in English that he wasn't going to go any faster so I should feel free to pull around him. I smiled and said "Not yet, lots of climbing to go." No one else seemed intent on passing yet either so I figured they probably knew the course better than I.

When we finally got to the top of climb #2, I found myself riding the brakes to stay back so I decided to see what everyone was going to do. I let go of the brakes and dropped into the tuck. I quickly passed the ride staff guy and settled into a 53x12 rhythym on the decline. Up and down over the rollers I didn't pay any attention to the back and figured I'd check where they all were when we got over to the flats.

At the 15km mark the course turned northbound and leveled out. I checked behind me and nobody followed. This kinda worried me because I knew there was quite a bit more climbing to come and was wondering what the plan was. I settled in at about 39-40kph on the flats and went on my way. The flat section between this point and the 45km mark was fantastic. It was mostly with a tailwind and I kept it in 53x17 or 53x16 at a steady pace.

The great thing about being out in front is that you get your own personal "motorcycle" of sorts. The lead out motorcycle stuck out in front of me from anywhere between 100 meters and 500 meters depending on what was coming over the next hill. The only time I saw another rider was at the 47km checkpoint. I had pulled out of the feed station with some more water. The route doubled back on itself and I passed a rider that was about 500 meters from the checkpoint. At this point, I decided I'd better keep the pace up, but at least if this one guy caught me, I could hop in behind for a break.

The ride commenced an up and down trek from that checkpoint through to checkpoint 4. From sea level at the coast to 300 meters above at times, the scenery was fantastic. There were a lot of workers cutting back the brush along side the road that dropped the pace down quite a bit. The rolling terrain kept taking me from 39x23 to 53x15/14 and back. I never got to the top end of my 53x12 because the roads were way too windy and the brush on the ground would have been pretty treacherous. My personal motorcycle did a job of keeping the workers off the roads, but even then I had to avoid a weed eater every now and then.

Even after checkpoint 4, it was one more climb before a long stretch of flats. Unfortunately, this long stretch of flats was slow because it rolled over to a multi-use path of sorts and I had to avoid those annoying poles placed in the middle of the road to keep cars from driving down the path. This was the first time of the day that I felt like we turned into the wind but it was pretty short. It was also time for the rain to start. It never really rained very hard, but it rained hard enough to be annoying.

The last 15 kilometers were a mirror image of the first 15 kilometers. I'm convinced now why you don't see a lot of %grade signs around Japan. It's because all of them are in the Shimane prefecture - and they ALL say 10%, whether up or down. If I had to count, I'd say we biked over 10-12 "hills" that were marked as 10%. And they don't mark the hills that are short.

When I finally rolled in the 140km course (my cyclocomputer only shows 134.64km) I had again not seen another cyclist since checkpoint 1. I came across the line at 10:36. I didn't see another rider come through until 11:07. I'm floored at the amount of time between me and the next guy, but I'm not going to complain! I'm not sure if this was more elevation climbed than the Tour de Kunisaki back in May, but I know one thing. At least 3/4 of the hills we climbed today were way steeper than anything we climbed in Kunisaki. I don't think I've spent so much time in 39x23 in weeks.

A first place two weeks in a row is fantastic. We'll really get a test of the mettle next Monday! Last year's Aida Circuit first place winner averaged 40.9kph for 2 hours. If we hop in as a group, I know I can stick that pace. Now it's just sticking to the group.

VW