It’s been about 2 years since I last lined up for a cycling race, but that streak finally came to an end today in Japan at the Coupe de AACA race.
二年ぶりの初めてのレース！
Photo: Catarina
Photo: Catarina
Although I barely rode a bike at all in 2014, since moving to Japan this year, I have started cycling fairly regularly. This was not out of desire to race, but out of excitement to explore a new place, see more things, and meet meet new people. It’s also a bonus that there is some excellent riding with some big mountains fairly close to my new home. I learned about a nearby race that was taking place about 40 kilometers (I’ve switched to kilos since moving here) away, and I decided to go check it out. I started to toy with the idea of participating in the race, but part of me really did not want to. Mainly because I hadn’t been training very seriously or often because of the rainy season, but I also I didn’t see the point in competing in a race when I felt that I could not win. I found out that the race was actually full up on registration, but that there was a chance to participate by showing up and being put on a wait list.
2014年には自転車をあまり走っていないけど日本に引っ越した後毎週走ってきた。理由はレースじゃない。ただ新しい所を自転車で探検したかった。そうしながら友達が出来たらいいんじゃないと思った。ボーナスもある。それは自宅の近くに素晴らしい道と山がいっぱいある！
とにかく、近くにレースもあると聞いたから見に行った！参加するかなと思っていたけど今はそんなに強くないと思って勝てなかったら参加の意味がないと思った。だけどやはりちょっと参加したかった。
Japan / AACA Racing Categories
A friend from the Michigan cycling community who is in Nagoya for the summer, Alex, also joined me for the ride to the race. Once we arrived, we could not resist the temptation to race and we decided to put ourselves on the wait list for the 1-2 race. For this particular series, there are 4 main categories:
- 1-1 / US pro/1/2
- 1-2 / US 2/3
- 1-3 / US 3/4
- 1-4 / US 4/5
Since it was our first race in Japan, we were not able to start in the 1-1, so we put our names on the wait list for the 1-2 race. We had to wait until 15 minutes before the race start time to find out if we could participate or not. Luckily, there were enough no-shows that we were able to enter. Unfortunately, we only had about 15 minutes to complete our registration, pin our numbers, and get to the start line. Normally, this would have been fine, but we thought we had 30 minutes so we were a bit slow. With 5 minutes remaining we pinned on our numbers and sprinted to the line, just making it in time.
日本で最初のレースだから１－１のレースが出来なかった。そうして１-２のレースのキャン待ちに名前を書いて、レースのスタートの１５分前に「オッケ」だった！よーーーし！行くぜ！ギリギリスタートラインに間に合った！
Kinan Coupe de AACA number 20
Photo: Catarina
AACA Course and Location
The AACA race series has a few different locations, but today’s race was next to a large river. It was nice and flat with 2 long straights and 2 wide U-turns. It was about 5 kilometers per lap, and in total only about a 32k race. We started in the back row, so my goal was to get up to the front quickly and try and conserve energy until the halfway point. I have been doing a few harder efforts recently, but nothing really in a group, so I wasn’t sure how well I would hold up. I ended up making my way to the top 15 within the first lap and held my position fairly comfortably. With this course I benefited a lot from my cyclocross experience. It was a lot of quick accelerations with the U-turns, which I really like.
レースコースは川のそばにあった。平たくて長いストレートと１８０度の曲がりもあった。昔のcyclycrossの経験があって良かった！
Photo: Catarina
Finish & Impressions
Once we reached the halfway point, I was feeling very comfortable so I decided to try and launch a few attacks to test myself. Most of the time, no one would go with me, but I wasn’t feeling strong enough to hold off the field by myself, so I would soft pedal until the field caught me. The humidity was really strong this day and after my efforts I was starting to really feel the effect of that. Also, I had run out of food from my ride over to the race and I was starting to lose my energy, so I needed to make sure I rode smart. I sat in until 2 laps to go and then then launched an attack which was followed by another rider. We got a small gap, but we were quickly caught as we went into 1 lap to go. I tried to hold a position near the front so that I could contest the sprint, but I ended up not having much energy left and died in the last 100 meters, finishing about 6th or 7th I think. The race average speed was about 42k/hour (26mph). Despite my weak sprint, I was happy to feel very comfortable with a decent race pace.
レースの半ばあと気分は大丈夫だったからアタックをしてみった。でも湿度が高すぎだったから力が出せなかった。あと２周ころ二人のbreakawayをできたけれどすぐにつかまれた。あと１周グループスプリントだ。６位か７位か取った。
What did I gain from this experience? I have now raced in 5 different countries (US, Canada, Puerto Rico, China, Japan)! I realized that I missed racing and being a part of that community. I do not plan on racing regularly anytime soon, but I am starting to consider picking my training up a bit more and possibly participating in a few more events.
Link to today’s race on strava
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ve been failing with my blogging since coming here, but with my University work, freelance work, Japanese studying, and minimal riding, I have not had too much time to write. One thing is for certain though, I am keeping busy and enjoying my new life. More updates to come soon!
変な日本語すみません！
