September is a great time for riding here in Japan, the humidity drops and the temperature seems to stay between 25- 28 degrees C. for most of the month. I spent a week riding around the Noto Penisula and then into the mountains to Takayama. Fantastic weather, great roads and good company made for a really good trip.
I had 3 Austrailians up here for a week a the start on July. 3 very solid riders who were happy to spend their time riding the Gondola at Panorama and ripping up the trails. I was suprised to hear that in the land down under they were riding 2-3 minute tracks,when you think about how many Aussies are at the top of the MTB downhill game it is hard to understand why there are no fast Japanesee riders, Mio-san excepted. They also wondered why Panorama doesn't make some trails like Whistler has done, this would help with the erosion problems ,slow the riders down and make it more enjoyable. They wonder why the thinking in Japan is "small world not the big picture". My favorite quote " This place could be Aisa's MTB capital,don't they know we are out here?" I had no answers for them ,, who does? Check out this video of the 3 Aussies enjoying a bit of Japanese single track.
Last weekend my customers and I met some cycle tourists on a local climb, it was the first time in over 10 years that I have met any riders on this road. These riders have been riding for a long time and they all looked very smooth climbing up the mountain. Check out the pictures I have uploaded and you will not find any Carbon in this group! Proof that the most important part about riding is getting out the door not worrying about having the latest, lightest gear. I am now inspired to build up a few of the bikes in my basement,,,they are crying out to be ridden again!
Day 6
The town of Squamish was the setting for what many had said would be the crunch of the BC race. This stage is a combination of 2 separate cross country races the Test of Metal and the Gearjammer. The Test of Metal is widely regarded in Canada as the unofficial MTB Championship of the World, the winner of this one day race held in May every year must be an excellent mountain bike rider, Max Plaxton won the race just before the BC Race started this year and along with his partner Andreas Hestler managed to win the stage as well. Today we made it through without any problems but I was really feeling the effects of only 4 hours sleep the night before. After the ferry trip back from the Sunshine coast I had gone into Vancouver for a couple hours before trying to head up to Squamish. A propane leak on the Whistler Highway closed the road until 1 a.m. so what should have been a big nights sleep turned into a stressful evening instead. Our plan was to ride smoothly and pick up the pace on the long logging road climb about halfway through the race,a couple times I had to tell Yoshi to back off a bit and even though we managed to maintain our position we could have done a bit more with this super hard 65 kilometer course today.
A big thanks goes out to the mechanics who worked until 3 or 4 a.m. every night repairing racers bikes, my bike spent the night before the 6th stage in their hands as I had manged to destroy a chainring and chain on the 5th stage. Due to my traveling problems I didn't have a chance to check the bike out at all before the stage start, I pretty well walked up to the service area 10 minutes before the start of the race, begged them to let me "pay you later" and lined up at the start line. The bike was perfect right from the word go and after the race when I paid up I also gave them my thanks. There is a lot that goes into putting a 7 day stage race together, somebody was taking my tent down and putting it up again every night, somebody else was making me breakfast and dinner everyday, when you think there is about 600 people traveling along within the race. A big shower truck was always near the campsite, I never had to wait more than 10 minutes to get clean. The organizers of the race made a few mistakes but were always quick to take the blame and make the corrections, very impressive group.
I have been invited to the BC Race, a seven day mtb race through British Columbia`s west coast. Lots of long hard days on some of the best single track in the world convinced me to put my race face on once again! I am starting to lose my beer belly a very big thanks to all who came for to ride over the last month, we did lots of good climbing and downhilling. Having both beginners and experts come mtb riding, a week on the road in the mountains of Kumano and another weeks road riding on the Noto Penisula has me thinking that I will be able to make it to the finish. My partner in the race is Yoshi T a former xc racer turned freerider who now lives in BC, recently he has been spending more time dropping of of big jumps than racing so I think we will make a good match. The race bible tells us we should spend many hours training together but in truth we have raced against each other a few times about 10 years ago and stage one will probably be our first ride together. Look for our race reports in some publications here in Japan and also on this blog.
Freeride Adventures is pleased to announce that as of January 1st,2008 they will be the distributor for Cove Bikes here in Japan. Cove Bikes based in North Vancouver, British Columbia , Canada are the pioneers of the Freeride movement that has sweep the MTB world over the last 10 years. For more info, go to the Cove Bikes Japan website.
