MTB Ryder comes good

 Last Sunday night I sat on the edge of my seat watching Canada's Ryder Hesjedal ride the biggest Time Trial of his career to win the Giro D' Italia. Canada has had a few good professional racers, Steve Bauer came close to some big results but nothing like winning the Giro.   With Cadel Evans winning the Tour de France last year and now this, it really brings a lot of respect to the Mountain Bike world. I actually raced against both Cadel and Ryder when they were both starting out in the late 90's and even then it was obvious that they were special.  Just being special is not enough to win a big race though, it took both of them many years of hard work and sacrifice to get where they are now. I congradulate both of them and I hope to see them both battle for the Tour de France !

A good day !

Last weekend we had a group of riders come for a day of riding. The group was an easy going bunch of friends and we had a nice day riding. Kubota-san wrote a nice blog about the day and here are the links to it. He wrote it in 3 sections, 1st the morning ride; http://asaren-kbz.blogspot.jp/2012/05/blog-post_13.html , then lunch at our house;http://asaren-kbz.blogspot.jp/2012/05/blog-post_8262.html and finally our afternoon ride;http://asaren-kbz.blogspot.jp/2012/05/blog-post_8262.html It is written in Japanese but pictures do tell the story ! Thanks for the great ride ,, Paul

Golden Week MTB- ROAD

It warmed up here in Nagano just in time for the Golden Week holiday. The cherry blossoms were still blooming at the begining and the rain held off. Every year the weeks holiday here in Japan helps get me in shape for the coming season, I usually end up riding for 6 or 7 days in a row. Most of the days include a lot of climbing on the MTB. This year though I enjoyed having a couple of Road tours during the week as well. The Nagoya Giant Store came for a day of riding and I had a private group on another day. All my customers were very happy to ride quiet backroads even though it was one of the busiest times of year around here.