Today I put the snow tires on my Van, I am hoping that it was a bit premature as I still have a couple more weekends of riding booked and would love to finish the riding season properly. Now the riding is super fun with most of the leaves on the ground , it makes for a magic carpet ride! Hopefully we will have a few more warm days before winter really sets in before I put the bikes away for another year.
I woke up this morning and my legs felt tired, I wondered why and then thought about the ride I did yesterday. I met my clients at 9 in the morning and we were climbing into the forest right away. At 12:30 we stopped for a Soba Noodle lunch and were back on the bikes by 1:30 . Rode all afternoon and got back to our cars at around 4:30. Our pace was good, always able to talk as we rode but 6 hours of MTB riding will make anybody's legs tired. At least 50 kilometers and 1400 meters of climbing probably more and no breaks , 2 very strong fit Gals.
I am now 14 years into Freeride Adventures and in the last few years have really noticed a big increase in female riders here in Japan, not girls just tagging along with their boyfriends, but girls who ride because the love it.
I had a chance to race the Fujimi Adventure MTB race last weekend, it is a 40 kilometer loop that includes a very hard 15 kilometer climb right at it's start. I was happy to be able to enter this race as it is very close to my home and has'nt been held since the 2011 Earthquake, which also happens to be when I last raced. The climbing is the challenge on this course and once I got my beer gut over the first climb I was able to enjoy the fire road downhill and then the last 7 kilometer ride down Panorama Ski Areas C-course. I highly recomend this race for anyone wanting a good challenging race . The first climb takes you up through private land that is only open for the race giving racers an great chance to see into the Southern Alps of Japan from a great vantage point. The course is not a technical course(one crazy rider rode it on a full carbon road bike) so any reasonably fit rider should be able to ride the course within the time limits. Look for this race sometime next year as I was told they were going to do it again.
I have quite few groups of riders who come for a ride once or twice a year. I really enjoy meeting them again and seeing how much better riders they all seem to be getting. Its also interesting to see some customers meeting and joining into different groups over the years. Once such group sent me this link to a video they made when they last visited us, over the years I have watched them all become realhard core MTB riders, not just Downhill, or XC, they just enjoy riding anywhere, anytime and anyway. Check out their video
The weather has been very strange this year, it has been very hot in the Mountains and quite dry. When it rains it pours, not very good for the trails or the riding. When one months worth of rain falls if 2 hours it turns the trails into rivers, a good time to avoid riding off road. We got caught out last week and were lucky enough to be able to get off the trail and wait for the rain to stop but for 10 minutes it was quite a downpour. It cooled down a bit but once again I am sweating at 1300 meters today as summer wants to hang around a little longer. Soon my favorite riding season should be here but for now
It cooled down a bit but once again I am sweating at 1300 meters today
as summer wants to hang around a little longer. Soon my favorite riding
season should be here but for now the mountain is still green.
