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.

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.

今日はモリコロパークのサイクリングコースを紹介したいと思います！

This park is an amazing cycling facility nearby our home in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture Japan, which is just east of Nagoya.

愛知県の長久手市にあります。私たちの自宅からほぼ５キロだけでよくここに遊びに来ます！

The Morikoro Park cycling course is open only to bicycles, and completely closed off to all other pedestrians. It is a very wide path with lots of space for safe cycling, and the course is about 5.1 km in length.

There are distance markers along the course, as well as rest areas and even restrooms, along with many other park attractions that you can stop at. Eventually, this park is also going to turn into a Ghibli theme park of sorts..

One extra thing to be aware of on this course is that you must stop and get off of your bike after each lap and walk back over to the start if you want to do another lap.

More information about the Morikoro Park Cycling Path Usage

This course is free to use if you bring your own bike. There are also lockers that you can use for free to store your valuables.

You can also rent bikes (kids or adult size) for 100 yen ($1) per lap.

You must wear a helmet on the course, and sandals must have an ankle strap.

Once you arrive, make sure to sign your name on the sign in sheet, and write the number of laps you completed next to your name once you finish so they know you are no longer on the course.

Access to Morikoro Park

Most people go by driving over with their bike, or riding over, but there is also a train stop right at the entrance on the LINIMO train line which connects at Fujigaoka (the end of the Higashiyama line).

The post Morikoro Park Cycling Course モリコロパーク サイクリングコース appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

今日のビデオでは愛知池のサイクリングロードへ行ってきます！

It’s rainy season in Japan, which means rain & clouds almost every day. I’ve also been sick with a cold for the last few days, but there was a break in the rain and some daylight remaining after work, so I decided to maximize this time and go out for a quick spin around one of the cycling paths nearby us at Aichi Ike (愛知池).

The course is only a few km ride from our home in Japan, and it is blocked off from the main road, so it is nice and protected from motorized vehicles.

The course follows around Aichi Ike (Aichi pond), and there are a bunch of scenic views along the way.

It is only a few km long, and you also need to be careful with your speed. Fast riding is not allowed on the course, so you should not use it for hard training. Only for casual / recovery rides. It’s also a nice place to come for a cycling date 😉

There’s also a nice roadside cafe along the cycling path, so you can stop for a quick snack.

One of the downsides of the course is that there are 3 barriers that you need to navigate around. In the past, they were not rideable, but currently all three are rideable.

This path is very close to Aichi Bokujo (愛知牧場) or Aichi Farm, which has some pretty great ice cream. Hopefully we’ll come back on a sunny weekend for another ride and get some ice cream then. Unfortunately today we had little time and the rain started to come down, so we were only able to get one lap in.

愛知池 サイクリング Aichi Ike Cycling Video

The post 愛知池 サイクリングロード Aichi Ike Cycling Path, Japan / Rainy Season Has Come 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.

Racing around the Christmas and New Years holidays is always very difficult for me since I tend to lose control of myself and stuff myself with lots of delicious food rather than train and maintain a proper diet.

I still had one last race of this Tokai CX cyclocross season, which just so happened to be my local race at Aichi Bokujo　(愛知牧場), which is a farm that is only about a 20 minute bike ride from my house. Aichi means my prefecture, and bokujo means farm.

As the name suggests, this race was held around the Aichi Bokujo farm. It turned out to be a great venue since it is family friendly, and so many people brought their entire families, resulting in a large number of spectators.

Since this was only my second race in the C1 category and I flatted and DNF’d out of my last race, I was stuck with a last row start.

The course had numerous sections that were single file only, especially on the loose sandy / dusty switchback descents.

Luckily, this also meant that there was a significant amount of climbing each lap, which was nice and wide for passing.

The first few laps, I tried to rest in the technical parts and sprint up the hills as hard as I could. I ended up passing quite a few people, and by the halfway point I made my way to a top 5 position group.

Overall, the atmosphere of this race was fantastic! Every lap, countless people were cheering me on, and I kept hearing my name from the race announcer as they blasted techno music, so I kept getting pumped up and pushing myself harder to try and catch the leaders.

Although I had the 2nd and 3rd place riders in my field of vision, I was burned from my previous efforts of sprinting all out on the hills, and I wasn’t able to close the gap by the end, so I rolled in at 4th.

I’m happy to say I accomplished my goal of returning to cyclocross, and that was to get my upgrade to cat-1 and get a top 5 finish. Hopefully next year I can continue to get stronger and get back on the podium and get some new Tokai CX glasses to add to my collection.

Speaking of adding to my collection… They had these awesome Aichi Bokujo (愛知牧場) cyclocross t-shirts!

So of course I bought one. I went with the safe choice of black, while Zac went with the flashy red. As expected of Mr. BMC Japan.

Race day video

Up until now, I had been relying on my good friend Bradley to make the race day VLOG videos, which I always looked forward to. Unfortunately, he recently left Japan, and this led me to try and attempt to make my very own race day VLOG.

I still have a lot to learn about video editing, but it was a fun first attempt. Check out the race day vlog for Aichi Bokujo here!

The post 2017 Tokai CX #6 Aichi Bokujo C1 4th 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/

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