I woke to a pleasant morning around 5am in Otsu, Japan. The sun was shining and the temperatures were in the high 20's*C. I crawled out of the rental van and looked out the back toward the beautiful lake. It was a gorgeous sunrise. A handful of fishermen (and women) were lined up a long the water hoping to catch some fish in the morning. Some of the folks looked like the same ones who I'd seen the night before laying out their fishing poles with bells attached to them to wake them up if they caught something. This was all before the downpour that occurred around 8pm that had me shut up inside the van and sweating like mad in the humidity. But, after some text messages and a phone call to the wife, I found out the storm wasn't going to last long and I woke up to the wonderful calm after the storm.

I got myself up and going and pulled out the granola I'd picked up at the Jusco the night before.

::: INSERT YESTERDAY HERE :::

Since I only got to send a brief text message from the cell phone yesterday, here's pretty much how it went:

The drive to Otsu was much quicker than I expected. I arrived in Otsu and found the start/finish points by around 11am. I got my bearings and set off with GPS in the center column of the rental to recon the first 60k of what looked like mountain roads before finding something to eat. The roads were definitely mountainous - more to follow on that in the ride report. When I got near the mapped out 1st checkpoint for the ride, I saw signs for Kitsuki Spa/Ski Resort.

Not to be one to pass up a chance at a new onsen, I quickly put on my onsen radar and got myself slightly turned around. Never fear! I finally found the onsen I was looking for and got myself a 400yen bath and relaxation. It felt good on the sore back and behind after driving for about 6 hours at this point. Supposedly there was a hot spring here someplace too, but I couldn't find it without walking around the whole resort naked. Instead, I took what I could find and went with it.

After leaving the onsen, I followed the route back down to the lakeside and headed south toward Otsu. When what to my wondering eyes should appear, a Starbucks sign, 1 kilometer to go - uh.. never fear! (ok, so it was a crappy rhyme) I found the parking lot in what appears to be the largest Izumi discount store I've seen - for you American's, think Super Walmart. I took to the feet and walked to the Starbucks a block down the road. Ahhhh..... sweet taste of paradise. (actually, it was lemon passion tea - but if you get Starbucks and an onsen in one day, it's pretty close to paradise).

Following Starbucks and a spaghetti dinner at the restaurant next door, it was back to Otsu. I picked up gas, some McDonalds and got some groceries for the next day at the Jusco... oh yes. I was saying, granola at the Jusco the night before.... back to today.

::: End Day One Narrative, Re-Start Day Two :::

After grabbing myself some granola, I got myself arranged and made way to the end point parking lot. It wasn't so far away, but it gave me time to figure out that the sign on the parking lot I was in DID in fact say 200yen first hour, 100yen every hour after that. One night of camping in a rental van = 1200 yen.

I ended up pulling into the parking lot around 6:15am, entirely too early. So I watched a number of riders show up in all of their gear. It's always fun to watch Japanese involved in every hobby. Regardless of how good they are, they own the top of the line. In the states, guys dressed in full team jerseys get poked at and often ridiculed. Here, if you're not in Phonak this year after Landis' victory (or... I hope victory), you're just not serious enough.

When it was all said and done, I got ready to go and was at the start point around 7:15am for an 8am start. One thing about organized rides in Japan is I have no idea what the organizer is saying before we get started. For all I know, he's saying "Oh btw, we're cancelling and we're just going to ride up three blocks and go home." I'm sitting there and smiling either way. I think there were about 80 riders there, but I'll know for sure when the brevet results are posted in the next couple days.

I got started a little late because I'd forgotten my reflective belt. A nice staff member let me borrow his, so I set out at just a few minutes before 8am. The city roads were decent, and traffic wasn't so bad. Especially when you compare this brevet to the one in Sakai earlier this year. Now that was bad traffic. But all in all, it didn't take long to get up off the main city streets into the mountain side roads.

The mountainside roads were a bit treacherous. A lot of rain the night before made the roads very slick and the roads we were on were barely big enough for my van the day before. The moss was growing pretty much all over the roads, so speeds were down in the low 20kph range. But once we cleared those roads, it opened up and dried up. Then we began the ascent.

The only real climb of the day was straight up at what averages to be 5.6% grade, max of around 11% grade. Only lasted about 5 km, but it was enough to hurt. Everything after that was fantastically downhill or on the flats around the lake. This accounts for the near 32kph average over the 206km total. On the way up the main climb, I passed and then picked up another rider who followed me over the top to the first checkpoint. He spoke great English and stayed with me the rest of the day.

My fellow rider and I took turns pulling from checkpoint 1 to checkpoint 2. After we left checkpoint 2, the rain started to come down. Unbeknownst to me, my ride partner stopped to put his rain jacket on. I noticed this when I dropped a lens out of my sunglasses (which were subsequently lost). While I was picking up my sunglasses, three other riders, 2 guys and a gal, caught up to me and the - now 5 - of us continued on and rode together the rest of the day.

We rode in the rain for the next 70km, in and out of the checkpoints. We came across the north side of the lake and three of us were trading pulls pretty regularly. Fortunately, it appeared one of the riders knew exactly where we were going, so I didn't have to pay so much attention to the GPS on the aerobars, but more attention to keeping the wheel spray out of my eyes from the guy in front of me. If for no other reason, I'd trade out pulls just so I could see more.

Here I'll note that the three newest arrivals to our ride group were great riders. The gal, wife of one of the guys, sat in the whole time. But, at no point - regardless of pace - did she fall off the back. One of the guys sat in and seemed to struggle a little bit. I'd picked up the pace a bit southbound as we came out of the fourth checkpoint. We had a great north wind, so I was moving along steady at about 40-41kph. When I came to a stop light, my first ride partner pulled along side and said "We can not help pull at your pace, so sorry." While I'm not sure this was accurate, it felt good. Then I turned to see that we did in fact drop one of the guys, so for the rest of the day the husband and I spun at about a 35-36kph pace at the front letting the other three sit in.

While I'm glad I had the 12x25t cassette for the climb, I sure wish I had the 18t cog from the 12x23 for all these flats. I could not find a cadence that was just right to keep the 35-36kph pace. Next time I do this brevet, I'll ride the 12x23 and just suffer through the first part.

We cleared 160km at right around 5 hours and 10 minutes, and when we pulled into the third checkpoint, we got there before it was open. The husband ride guy called ahead and checked in for us, giving all of our ride numbers. We grabbed some food and got back on the road. One thing I loved about riding with these folks was their break times weren't took long. It was get the food, get the water and get the heck back on the roads.

For the final 40km, husband rider and I traded back and forth pretty fairly when we could. Ride partner #1 pulled back to the front after sitting in for the last 120km and decided to pull at 42+kph for a stretch. Hopefully I wasn't the only one in pain, but I was quite relieved when he turned the corner into the headwind and died back off. By this point it was almost time to call it a day so husband rider took the lead to take us back into the city.

We pulled into Otsu and the end point at 7 hrs and 20 minutes of total time, on/off bikes. The pace averaged out to be 31.6kph over 206km. We covered what I think was some of the flattest terrain I've seen yet in Japan. The entire last 140km was flat as a pancake, except for a roller here or there to go through a tunnel. The last 100km though was completely flat. I debated whether I'd do this ride again, but I'll definitely do it again and hope to take some other riders with me. If we'd had some folks that could have kept the 40kph paceline moving from the third checkpoint on, what a fast ride we could have had. In the end though, the pace was perfect for the day.

Thanks to the riders who dragged me in along with them and let me get some pulls in myself. I'll post names here as soon as the ride results are posted. They each told me their names, but rather than butcher them here, I'll wait a day or two and post. Look forward to seeing others out there next year!

VW

I made it to Otsu very early, around 10:30am. I found the start and finish points quickly with the aid of GPS. Ican't imagine doing any of this without GPS.

I finished a route recon next. Found out the roads for the first 50km are in pretty rough shape. Also found out I'd need to swap off the 12x23 for 12x25 cassette. There's still gonna be some pain climbing.

Lunch was Starbucks and spaghetti. Dinner: McD's.

Also hit the Kitsuki Spa(onsen) during the recon trip.

VW

Time for a new saddle this weekend. It's sexy and white but stiff as a board. I did 15km on it today. It's comfy in all the right areas but it'll take some getting used to.

I wasn't going to take the chance, but I figured what the heck. I'll review it this weekend as I blog my brevet on Saturday.

Oh yeah. It's a Specialized Toupe (143mm).

I finally got back out today and rode. The last week has just been downright horrible. Two reasons it has been horrible for riding.

1. Rain, every day. Last week, only two days it didn't rain. I got 190km in those two days.

2. Floyd Landis. No, it's not horrible because of Floyd Landis, but watching the Tour de France kept me up until almost 1am every night last week watching Floyd Landis do the impossible. It was awesome! Now the Tour de France is over, and I can go back to getting to bed with more than 4 hours of sleep available.

Today, I got out and rode again. Weather forecast: Overcast with chance of overnight rain. So, at 10am, I'm on the roads. Last I checked, 10am was not overnight, but it still rained on me almost the entire ride. Amazing. Simply amazing. It's been "rainy season" since the second week of May. Even the Japanese people I talk to are sick of the rain. Landslides are taking out roads, homes and everything else in sight. For the third time, "sun" is in the forecast for next week. We're all crossing our fingers.

Today's ride I took some real slow time to get out and pace out my 50km. I took some mountain-side roads to get a few pictures and had to take it slow anyway from the slick roads. One thing the rain does for us is provide us with an amazing greenness that rivals anyplace else in the world I've been - except maybe Singapore. I stopped and snapped a couple of pictures. I mostly wanted to focus on the roads I ride, but I stumbled on a set of waterfalls that just took my breath away so I captured that too.

This first one is right smack in downtown Iwakuni. I love the roads like this.


The second one is a creek that comes right down along side the road over a small spillway. Today it just grabbed my attention a little more.


This third one I took looking back on the road I came down, but just struck me how utilitarian the "yards" are. Not a speck of place to play hide and seek, but rice in every direction.


Finally, this road goes up into the mountains - mostly obscured by the clouds today. It's a heck of a climb to go up that way. A couple sections at 20% grade and mostly over 10%. Once you get into the valley on the other side, the climbing doesn't end. Great ride, but not on today's schedule. Got the 200km ride coming on Saturday.

Woohoo! A break in the rain.

I got just over 100km in today since I had the chance to use the break in the weather. By the looks of the weather forecast, I'll still get right up to 300km in this week. 100km today, tomorrow is a 90km day, and then Sunday will be a 120km day. Lots of riding for me, but I need to round out the distance or I'll start getting antsy.

Now on to the story....

I rode pretty hard today, and actually had to ride in the small ring for a good stretch of flat thanks to a 15-20kt head wind. As I type, the winds remain out of the west at 11-15kts. As I was passing about the 15km mark, I was debating whether or not to take the entire coast road for the full 100km, or if I should just say screw it in the wind and do a 50km day. You already know how it panned out. Here's why.

About four years ago, when my wife and I moved to San Diego, I met and got to know her Uncle. This guy is amazing. He's done just about every type of adventure sport there is and has run both a whitewater rafting business and a Grand Canyon/Sonoran Desert guide business. He's a professional photographer and has been a college professor in that field of study. You might even say he's the one that got me into road cycling. I hadn't been on a road bike in years, but we rode the MS150 with my wife's aunt and uncle on a tandem and I knew right then I was hooked. It was almost another two years before I bought the Roubaix I ride now, but the plan was formulating then.

Aside from all the things he's done for himself in his life, he's been a giver the whole time. That's not to say he's just a philanthropist who doles out money to every charity that comes around. He gives to people what they need. Most of the time, it's support, a smile, or in my case - it was just taking me along for the ride. He came along at the perfect time for me. He loves my kids, loves my family. His almost incessant calm became an attribute I've watched with intense study, because there are so few people who have it. Not only does he have it, I think he patented it. It's amazing - and I think for his wife - almost infuriating at times. By the way he has treated our family, you'd assume we were related by more than just a couple of wedding bands from our wives.

Last year, the giant of the man stumbled. He had a stroke that came out of nowhere. This isn't a guy who lived a lifestyle that would've predicted it. It just happened. It's not fair that it happened. For months, I think I've been in disbelief that it happened. Worst of all, I'm on the other side of the world and can't do much to return help in any way. Nearly nine months later, recuperation has been slow, and the man whose incessant calm was rivaled by none has seen the worst of days.

So, why all this story? Because at 20km into a ride that was expecting to last almost 3 more hours, I wanted to call it quits. There was no prize at the end of today's ride. It wasn't a race, and the only other rider I saw on the road today was going the other way (with that awesome tailwind I so wanted to turn around and grab). No one else would have cared if I'd turned around today. Heck, no one would have cared if I hadn't gotten on the bike at all. But at 20km into the ride, it occurred to me there was something I could do for Denny. 6000 miles away, and there was in fact something I could do. I could just keep riding into the wind. I could drop it in a lower gear, start grinding out a cadence and keep going.

Keep going Denny. The ride won't always have a tailwind. In fact, the wind might turn around on you and you'll never get a tailwind. Even if you have to use a lower gear, it's about grinding it out. The best thing about it? At the end of the day, you see your wife and she asks, "So how was your ride?"

Today, my answer? I rode for Denny.