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11 September race
written 16 September
Tour of Hokkaido - Stage 1
Yesterday when I finished work I zoomed home, got changed, picked up my bags and got a taxi to the station. Then I got a train to Minami Chitose (where I spent the hour there at a factory outlet centre) thence Obihiro. When I arrived there I immediately went to the opening ceremony which had started about a half an hour ago.
I hadn't missed much! There were some speeches, we were introduced to the audience and finally we were free. It was good to see the team again. We drove to the Washing Hotel, had dinner at the buffet, I had a massage and went to bed at about 10.
This morning we got up early, had a great buffet breakfast, got the stuff ready and rode around the river paths with the team (Kazu san, Abe chan, Uchiyama san, Miwa san and I) to warm up.
I was really nervous at the start, which was good because it mean that I was ready. As the Hokkaido team we got to line up at the start of the bunch, in front of the TV cameras and crowd.
At about 5 minutes before the start, there was a big earthquake! The ground moved slowly but quite a lot, and all the trees and power poles were swaying. It lasted for a couple of minutes and felt quite uncomfortable. Like being on a swaying ship.
Then we started! There was a group of citizens in front of us and one of them wasn't very fast, so the 5km took about 15 minutes.
I love the sounds of the end of the parade. The motorbikes with red flags go ahead a bit, the red flags go away and they are replaced by green flags. There is a flurry of clicking as people changed gears, some cheers and suddenly we are all doing 45km/hr, chasing the first breakaway attempt. Yeah!
This was a really long day, the longest race I have ever done. I will spare you the blow-by-blow account. In summary, although the course guide showed lots of hills, they weren't very steep nor long. I stayed out of the wind really well and saved energy. The pace was fast but reasonable.
The pace up the first of four hills was pretty fast too. The descent afterwards was really uncomfortable as there were gaps across the road at 10 metre intervals, making it difficult to drink or rest.
I had drunk all of my water and was getting a little thirsty when we reached the feeding zone. The two bottles were very welcome.
Then the road headed up and I saw the first attack ahead, so increased my speed in anticipation. Good idea. I just struggled to stay with the first group which itself split into two. So fast! I was riding really smoothly but my heart rate surged up to 194 BPM. I took it a bit easier after that and stayed with the second group.
The descent following that was awesome, a really smooth road with beautiful winding corners. A lot of fun! Then another few painful km uphill and the KOM point. The next descent was really long - 45km. As we were flying along, trying to catch up with the group ahead my legs started to feel crampy, but I somehow managed to save them by drinking regularly, eating a couple of powergels and pedalling smoothly.
We caught the group with about 10km to go but there was still a group of 5 ahead. No rest! The two hills just before the finish were very taxing, I got dropped on the first one, managed to work with a handful of others to catch up just at the start of the last one and simply could not keep up with the finishing surge. Those guys are strong!
With no need to red-line again I rode the final 2km at my pace and finished just after Abe san, about 2.5 minutes after the winner. Extremely satisfying, it was a long day. Everyone finished OK but Kazu had broken a pedal just before the feed zone and did the last 80km alone.
Stage 1 - Obihiro to Shibecha cho
Stage place = 39 (+2.26)
Overall = 39 (+2.26)
Distance = 211 km
Bike time = 5hr 20min
Avg speed = 39.4 km/hr
Max speed = 75 km/hr
Avg HR = 155 BPM
Max HR = 194 BPM
> 180 BPM = 26 min
2008 total = 10858 km
ecstaticTour of Hokkaido - Stage 1
Yesterday when I finished work I zoomed home, got changed, picked up my bags and got a taxi to the station. Then I got a train to Minami Chitose (where I spent the hour there at a factory outlet centre) thence Obihiro. When I arrived there I immediately went to the opening ceremony which had started about a half an hour ago.
I hadn't missed much! There were some speeches, we were introduced to the audience and finally we were free. It was good to see the team again. We drove to the Washing Hotel, had dinner at the buffet, I had a massage and went to bed at about 10.
This morning we got up early, had a great buffet breakfast, got the stuff ready and rode around the river paths with the team (Kazu san, Abe chan, Uchiyama san, Miwa san and I) to warm up.
I was really nervous at the start, which was good because it mean that I was ready. As the Hokkaido team we got to line up at the start of the bunch, in front of the TV cameras and crowd.
At about 5 minutes before the start, there was a big earthquake! The ground moved slowly but quite a lot, and all the trees and power poles were swaying. It lasted for a couple of minutes and felt quite uncomfortable. Like being on a swaying ship.
Then we started! There was a group of citizens in front of us and one of them wasn't very fast, so the 5km took about 15 minutes.
I love the sounds of the end of the parade. The motorbikes with red flags go ahead a bit, the red flags go away and they are replaced by green flags. There is a flurry of clicking as people changed gears, some cheers and suddenly we are all doing 45km/hr, chasing the first breakaway attempt. Yeah!
This was a really long day, the longest race I have ever done. I will spare you the blow-by-blow account. In summary, although the course guide showed lots of hills, they weren't very steep nor long. I stayed out of the wind really well and saved energy. The pace was fast but reasonable.
The pace up the first of four hills was pretty fast too. The descent afterwards was really uncomfortable as there were gaps across the road at 10 metre intervals, making it difficult to drink or rest.
I had drunk all of my water and was getting a little thirsty when we reached the feeding zone. The two bottles were very welcome.
Then the road headed up and I saw the first attack ahead, so increased my speed in anticipation. Good idea. I just struggled to stay with the first group which itself split into two. So fast! I was riding really smoothly but my heart rate surged up to 194 BPM. I took it a bit easier after that and stayed with the second group.
The descent following that was awesome, a really smooth road with beautiful winding corners. A lot of fun! Then another few painful km uphill and the KOM point. The next descent was really long - 45km. As we were flying along, trying to catch up with the group ahead my legs started to feel crampy, but I somehow managed to save them by drinking regularly, eating a couple of powergels and pedalling smoothly.
We caught the group with about 10km to go but there was still a group of 5 ahead. No rest! The two hills just before the finish were very taxing, I got dropped on the first one, managed to work with a handful of others to catch up just at the start of the last one and simply could not keep up with the finishing surge. Those guys are strong!
With no need to red-line again I rode the final 2km at my pace and finished just after Abe san, about 2.5 minutes after the winner. Extremely satisfying, it was a long day. Everyone finished OK but Kazu had broken a pedal just before the feed zone and did the last 80km alone.
Stage 1 - Obihiro to Shibecha cho
Stage place = 39 (+2.26)
Overall = 39 (+2.26)
Distance = 211 km
Bike time = 5hr 20min
Avg speed = 39.4 km/hr
Max speed = 75 km/hr
Avg HR = 155 BPM
Max HR = 194 BPM
> 180 BPM = 26 min
2008 total = 10858 km
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