I'm up to 25 months of at least one 160+ km ride a month. Yesterday I came back with 190 km with 1905 m of climbing, one swollen lip, a bruised knee and 80km of half-cleated riding.
In February I had signed up for the BRM315 Nishi-Tokyo 200 km "Kintaro" brevet, but due to too much snow it got postponed to October 18, 2014 (BRM1018西東京200km金太郎). It will be my last brevet of the season.
The route this year is a little different from last year, so I thought I'd include at least the part that's different as part of my September long ride. Last year's route went from Machida via Rt35/Akiyama to Tsuru, then Rt24 to Doshi and Yamanakako. From there it headed over the Ashigara mountains (where Kintaro was supposed to have wrestled bears, hence the name of the event) and back to Machida.
This year it climbs from Tsuru on Rt139 to Kawaguchiko, swings around the back of the lake, then over to Yamanakako. The rest of the route is the same. I had always only descended from the Fujiyoshida/Kawaguchiko area to Tsuru, but never climbed that way.
I left home at 06:00 and was not really aiming for brevet minimum speed. I just wanted to get the distance and experience the route. At a little before 08:00 I passed the Cherubim bike shop in Machida, where the reception desk will be for the event.
The ride out to Akiyama was uneventful. I had passed the roads there many times on my own, in brevets and with Half-Fast, but one conbini at which I didn't stop to stock up on bananas turned out to be the last one before Tsuru.
I really like the area for its nature, old farm houses quiet atmosphere. The rice harvest has already begun.
I stopped at a vending machine (which are plentiful along Rt35) to buy one bottle of water and chatted to another cyclist there. It seemed the few shops around there were all closed on a Sunday.
A little while later I passed
one small shop on the right and noticed a sign in the window with Kanji that suggested it was open for business. I walked in and saw bunches of bananas on the table. Score!
"Banana-wa ichiban!" said the friendly shopkeeper, who was amazed how many climbs I still had ahead of me. But with enough time and bananas you really can go anywhere
At a conbini in Tsuru I had some coffee and yoghurt, then started the climb up to the Fuji 5-lakes. The road didn't feel as steep as I had assumed it from the fun, fast descent going the other way. Near Tokaichiba station I noticed some waterfalls with unusual rock formations on the left and an onsen right next to it. So I stopped for pictures:
At Fujikawaguchiko I stopped at one temple for some pictures.
(continued)