Originally Posted by anikuma
Chilly weather, that started about 2 weeks ago. When winter hits I sorely miss central heating. Well in Akita-ken there is one kick ass LBS. Best I've since in comparison to Joker lbs in tokyo and a few in morioka and sendai. The community foreign and local is pretty strong. In the chokai classic there were over 450 finishers in the full road bike race. Not including the those who didn't meet the time limits, or the MTN bikers. or the half course racers.
I've always wanted to do Chokai bit it's just too far away from Tokyo
The biggest of the hill-climb classics is Norikura with 4,000 riders! I guess we can say there's a health bike culture here. The problem is the police, who simply will not grant permission for open road racing or centuries. Even the Tour of Japan which is on the World Cup circuit is not a proper road race, but rather a series of criteriums in different reagions.
Of well, the mountains are always there and the leaves are turning...