Welcome to round #5 of the Tokai Cyclocross series in central Japan. Today I’ll be racing in the Elite Men’s C1 race and my wife will be entering her first ever cycling race in the CL3 Women’s category.

東海シクロクロス第5戦愛知牧場ステージ1に夫婦で挑戦してみました。
私はC1カテゴリーで、妻は初心者のCL3カテゴリーでした。

Today’s course is at Aichi Bokujo, which is a small farm near where we live in eastern Nagoya, Japan. It is the biggest and most popular race in the Tokai CX series, and also the best course. It’s full of steep climbs, off camber turns, burms, a steep staircase, and of course a heckling section.

Aichi Bokujo CX Course Full Lap

I’ve separated the course pre-ride full lap video to a separate video, which you can watch here

Today was Thuong’s first ever cycling race, which was really exciting for us both.

Race Results

My goal was to get into the top 10, and I was on pace to do that for the first half of the race, but then blew up on lap 5 and couldn’t hold the fast pace any more. I gradually lost some spots, but managed to get a second wind on the last 2 laps and held off a large group to stay in the top 20.

I think my performance was largely affected by my diet lately. Too many end of year parties, most of which are all you can eat.. It’s not always about how much you train, but diet and recovery are also very important. I was quickly reminded of this during today’s race..

That’s it for today, looking forward to the next race!