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!

The post Thuong’s First Race! Aichi Bokujo CX 愛知牧場 東海シクロクロス 2019 appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

Because of the category upgrade, my race time increased from 40 minutes to 60 minutes. In addition, about half of today’s course is covered in deep sand, meaning lots and lots of PAIN and running. To make things even worse, one of the long sand sections was uphill..

Honestly, most of the races up until this point this season have left me frustrated and with leftover energy. This is mostly due to poor / narrow course design and limited courses that were not very challenging. That was not the case today as the course was very wide open and gave me plenty of chances to power my way through.

My goal was a top 10 finish and I was able to finish pretty close to that goal with a respectable 11th and only a few seconds off. I finished the race completely depleted of energy and with a broken shifter from all of the sand, but deeply satisfied with leaving everything out there.

Even more motivated now to continue with my training and look forward to the next race!

CX Race Results
https://data.cyclocross.jp/race/7018

東海シクロクロス第4戦ワイルドネイチャープラザ
砂地獄と呼ばれているレースにC1デビュー挑戦してみました。
今シーズンの今までのコースはほとんどすごく狭くて力を出せるチャンスはあまりなかったですが今日のレースは違います。逆に力を使い切っちゃいました（笑）。久しぶりに全力で走れて嬉しいです。次のレースも頑張りたいと思っています。

The post Riding in Sand at Tokai CX #4 東海シクロクロス 第4戦 ワイルドネイチャープラザ appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

IRC CUP 第3戦　東海シクロクロス
新城　ふれあいパークほうらい

After some bad luck in the first two rounds, my luck finally started to turn around with no major problems and I was able to finish in 2nd place behind the Japanese Junior MTB national champion.

Official race results / リザルト
https://data.cyclocross.jp/race/6907

The post Tokai CX #3 Shinshiro 東海シクロクロス 第3戦 新城 ふれあいパークほうらい 2018 appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

東海シクロクロスの第２戦各務原アウトドアフィールドでC2カテゴリーのレースで挑戦したかったですが運が悪かった。レースの前にスポークが壊れてレース中にもフロントディレイラーが壊れてしました（泣）。

しかし、トレーニング相棒のヒロキさんが良いレースを走りました！ホールショットもできたし大半のレースは1位で走っていました。夜練の成果かな。ですが、残り２周のところでヒロキがコーナーで転んでしまった。最後のスプリントで５位を取れました。実はトップ１０の選手は３０秒の差しかなかった。まるでクリテのようなレースでした。

次のレース頑張ります！

Unfortunately, I had a series of bad luck today, including a broken spoke before the start and pushing my front derailleur outside of my big chainring in the second lap.. I tried to push the derailleur back in place, but I couldn’t do anything without a tool.. So my race was over after only 10 minutes 🙁 This was a first for me, but it’s my own fault for shifting up while sprinting in dusty conditions.. Lesson learned..

My training buddy Hiroki had a pretty good race, taking the holeshot, and riding in 1st position for most of the race, but unfortunately he got caught in a crash with another rider on a dusty corner with 2 laps to go.

He still managed to sprint for 5th place though. Actually, the top 10 were all within about 30 seconds of each other.. The course was very short, narrow, dry and fast, so it was kind of like a dusty and rocky crit.

Despite our bad luck today, we’re both looking forward to the next Tokai CX race!

Here’s a video from when I raced here 2 years ago made by my buddy Brad where I made my debut in the C1 cyclocross category here in Japan. Unfortunately, I had bad luck that day as well..

The post Bad Luck at Tokai Cyclocross #2 | 第2戦 東海シクロクロス 各務原 2018 appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

1年半のレース引退はもう終わった。久しぶりにレースを挑戦してみました。東海シクロクロスの第一平田リバーサイドプラザ。

My goal was to get in the top 5 in the C2 category, but it unexpectedly ended up raining all day and turning the course into a mudder. With just my regular clincher tires and last row start on a narrow course, I was barely able to move up and ended up finishing mid-pack. Not the result I was hoping for, but it was a lot of fun to be back.

目標はC2のトップ5に入ることでしたが雨のせいでコースがドロドロになって私のコーナリングは全然ダメでした。ちょっとがっかりしたけどやっぱりレースは楽しいですね！次のレースをもっと頑張りたいと思います！

Tokai CX INFO (東海CX)
http://gcf-fukyu.p2.weblife.me/cx/
RACE RESULTS – 2018-11-04 東海シクロクロス#1　平田リバーサイドプラザ
https://data.cyclocross.jp/race/6462

Because of the rain, I mostly stayed in the car to stay dry. We didn’t have any rain gear or umbrellas, so I wasn’t able to film as much of the other races as I would of liked.. Next time I’ll be more prepared so I can film more of the awesome cyclocross scene here in the Tokai region of Japan.

A big thanks to Rika as well for bringing me some Rolos all the way back from Michigan!

After suffering from a disappointing result, my motivation is back and even higher than before.. Looking forward to the next race!

The post Tokai CX #1 Hirata 2018 東海シクロクロス 第1戦 平田 appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

I participated in this race last year in the C1 elite category and managed to finish close to the podium in 4th place. That day was also my very first attempt at making a cycling vlog, and was the beginning of me discovering my new passion of making cycling videos.

Here’s a little blast from the past, me filming last year’s race..

In today’s race, however, I am not participating. I just came to watch the race and cheer on some friends, and of course film some video.

The new video is at the top of the page. Last year’s video is below. I hope I was able to improve my video editing skills a bit over this last year 😉

The post Aichi Bokujo CX 2018 Day 1 愛知牧場シクロクロス appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

After finishing in 2nd place in the Cat-2 race for the last two races in the Tokai CX series, and only the winner being able to upgrade to cat-1, I was hungry for redemption and victory. Today’s race was at Hirata riverside plaza, which is a venue I often come to for criterium racing. The terrain is very flat with some long straightaways and open to the wind. Perfect for my style of power riding.

With my two 2nd place rides, I was the top ranked Cat-2 rider, which gave me the #1 number tag.

Myself and Shuta (one of the top Junior racers) broke away early in the race, and never looked back. I tried attacking him a couple times, would get a little gap, but he would catch back up in the more technical areas. I figured I could out-power him in the sprint, so I decided to ease up on my attacks and just ride together for the last few laps and conserve my energy.

Since the pace started to drop, one other rider did manage to catch up on the last lap, but it wasn’t a problem since I was able to lead the last technical area, which allowed me to lead out the sprint. I was confident that if I led out the sprint, there wasn’t enough time for anyone to pass me, and… luckily I was right!

Turns out, we were technically in different categories since he is a Junior, so I didn’t need to beat him to get my upgrade, but I’m still glad we fought it out like a normal race.

This was my first time winning a race since I starting racing again after quitting a few years back, so it felt really good to be able to win again. Also, I finally received my upgrade to Cat-1, so hopefully I can still be competitive in that field. It might be a while until I win a glass again, since they’re only given to the top 3 spots in each category.

Here’s my collection of Tokai CX glasses so far.

Thanks to Kikuzo Photo for the awesome photos!

The post Victory at Tokai CX #3 Hirata appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

At last, cross season is here! A few weeks ago, I committed to racing CX this season by buying a new cyclocross bike from Planet X.

My region of Japan is known as the Tokai region, which mainly includes Aichi, Gifu, Shizuoka, and Mie prefectures. We have a cyclocross series called Tokai CX, and today was the first race of that series. Luckily, because of my past experience, I was able to start at Cat-2, rather than starting from the very lowest category and working my way up like everyone else.

I entered this race after a solid block of training, having just started to race semi-seriously again, so I came hoping for a win. Especially since I wanted to quickly upgrade to cat-1, and the only way to do that is to win a Cat-2 race.

Although I had a last row start, I was able to quickly move up by powering through the heavy mud on the course.

Definitely helps to be a power rider on a muddy course.

I quickly worked my way through the field and then attacked off the front by the end of the first lap.

After about halfway through, one rider managed to bridge up to me.

We mostly stayed together for the rest of the race, but I got gapped a little bit as he attacked through the last muddy section before the finish line on the last lap.

Looking at this picture, it’s clear I didn’t have the best tire choice for today. I’ll have to stock up on some mud tires for the next mud race..

Although I didn’t get the win I wanted, it was a great race and it felt great to race CX again. I’ll just have to train harder so that I can get my upgrade next time!

All in all, I very impressed by the Tokai CX community and vibe. It felt great to have so many people who I didn’t even know cheering for me. I forgot how much I loved CX, and I can’t wait to race some more in the rest of the Tokai CX series.

Thanks to Kikuzo Photo for the great photos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maekawa0717/

The post 2016 Tokai CX #1 First Cross Race in Japan appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.