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.

First, some background information

This race was a large international MTB world cup style race with both a men’s and women’s field with riders from over 30 different countries. It was an invitation only race, with most countries bringing their national team members. Luckily for me, it was the end of the MTB season and start of the CX season and many people were focusing on CX, so there were some spots available on the US team, which I was fortunate enough to get chosen for.

The race was in Guiyang, which is the capital of Guizhou province in Southwest China. Having never been to China before, I was beyond excited about this opportunity. I even needed to apply for a visa to attend this race, which was a first for me.

Upon arriving in China, it quickly become apparent how much money was being put into this event. Not only did the organizers fly everyone in, but they also put us in a 5-star hotel for the entire week of the race. In addition, the entire city of the event was covered with numerous advertisement posters (like the one above which some unfortunately included George Hincapie on a TT bike..). It was a level above anything I had experienced before at a race.

This picture is of the hotel we stayed at, called Renaissance. We had a room on a pretty high floor, so the view was amazing.

My roommate and teammate for the week was Joseph Maloney, someone whom I regularly competed against in the MWCCC (midwest collegiate cycling conference) races.

After arriving, we both unloaded our bikes and got ready for the next day’s course pre-ride.

On the left was our translator and assistant for the week, Candy. Center: Joseph Maloney. Right: me

The Honorary Parade

The day before the racing started, we had an honorary parade, which was us basically riding around the city with a rolling police escort and road closure.

As you can see in the picture, there was some serious talent at this race, including the female MTB world champion!

This parade was actually a really cool event, since many local people around the city were cheering as we went by. A lot of people even asked for my autograph and to take pictures with me (thought that’s not all that rare as a tall blond guy in Asia..)

After the parade, we were able to take a bus back to our hotel with our bikes.

I also received my race number!

The course was close enough to the hotel that we were able to ride to it. Like everything with this event, the course decorations and setup was top notch!

On the race day, there was a large opening ceremony event where they announced all of the riders from each country.

They even had giant flags for a representative to carry from each country. Joseph ended up being our flag bearer.

Next to us was the Swiss team, who were pretty friendly.

We even had cheerleaders! That’s a first for me at a cycling event..

Race results

Did I mention that this course was the most technical course I had ever ridden in my entire life?? There were some sections that had extremely steep drop offs, which was something that I was not used to having since I mostly just raced in the US Midwest region.

However, after watching some of the others ride, and after some practice runs, I was able to ride the entire course without any problems.

There were actually two races, short track and cross country XC. Unfortunately, the short track was designed poorly and had a very quick bottle neck at the start. I had a near last row start in a 100 man field and by the time I got through the bottle neck, the leaders were already close to approaching, so my short track battle didn’t last long.

In the cross country race, I was doing quite good, and moved up from my near back starting spot to a top 30 position, but on one of the last laps on the short course, my wheel flatted on one of the big drops, and unfortunately that was the end of my race.

On a plus note, I got a pretty cool looking wound and my mtb handling skills and confidence greatly increased from this event.

For some reason, Joseph and I still had some energy at the end of the race and decided to duke it out with a push up contest (which I won btw).

Overall, it was an amazing trip and experience for me. Even though I’m 4 years late with this blog post, I still have many fond memories from this trip and am very grateful to of had such an amazing opportunity. I’d also like to say a special thank you to the amazing volunteer staff with this race (who was mostly local university students)

That’s it for this adventure.

BTW, this all happened in the middle of the school semester, so I had to skip a week of classes to attend this race, but thankfully my teachers were understanding and lenient with my assignments. Never a dull moment as a student athlete..

The post 2013 Guiyang International MTB Invitational Race appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

The race was held at the Hirata Riverside Plaza, which is the same location as the local monthly training crit (平田クリテ) is held. There just so happened to be a race this day as well, which I was planning to enter, and then enter the sfiDARE Crit afterwords.

Because I wanted to participate in both races and I don’t have a car, I had to ride over with my road bike as usual, and Kodama-san lent me one of his spare track bikes, a Giant Omnium.

After a solid top 10 finish in the Cat-1 race of the regular crit, it was time for the main event!

The first lap was supposed to be a “free lap” for people to get used to their bikes and riding in a pack on fixed gears on the course. One person didn’t get that memo and decided to attack. Other people went with him, and that left me dangling off of the back trying to get used to my new bike. Luckily, after a few laps of getting used to the bike and the course at speed, I was able to put in some hard attacks on the long back straight and eventually catch up to the front group and then attack off the front.

I was able to get a gap briefly, but was brought back into the group by Kodama-san and Jasmin, who were fresh on form from travelling to the Red Hook Crit in Brooklyn, NY. Eventually, it came down to the three of us, with Jasmin taking a last lap flyer, and Kodama and myself playing cat and mouse to see who would chase and lead out the sprint. He ended up leading it out, and I was able to come out around him at the very last second in a very narrow sprint finish.

Needless to say, I had a blast and was really happy to be able to perform well in my first fixed gear criterium race.

This race wouldn’t be possible without Kodama-san and his wife, who have both made significant strides in bringing fixed gear racing culture to Japan through the sfiDARE Crit.

Thanks to everyone who participated, and I’m excited to see how this race will grow in the future!

みんなさん、お疲れ様でした！

sfiDARE Crit Race Day VLOGS

Full race day, Hirata & sfiDARE Crit

sfiDARE Crit Full GoPro Race Footage

The post Victory at sfiDARE Crit! Japan’s First Ever Fixed Gear Criterium appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

SPYDER BUKAK Race Day

The race format was a hill climb done in similar fashion to 4-cross. Groups of 4 riders would start together, and the 4 riders with the overall fastest times would qualify for the final heat, which was where all of the prize money was. Normally, I am more of a sprinter and not so much a hill climb kind of rider, but I can usually do pretty well on climbs up to about 5 minutes. Looking at previous times from this race, a winning time was a low 6 minute, so I felt that there was still a chance for me to do somewhat well.

I was very impressed at how professionally this race was put together. From the glass racer sign in board, to the starting stage, to the portable restroom playing classical music, to the live results board, everything was just overall very smooth and well thought out and put together, which was great to see.

I particularly enjoyed this rider sign in board made from glass. I’ve signed numerous rider sign in boards before, but this was definitely my first time doing it on a glass one! Fancy!

Right before the start of my heat, they conducted a mini interview with me about my cycling history, which was apparently broadcast live in Korea (which my other friend in Korea just so happened to watch).

My heat finally was underway! Derek told me that the guy in green was the winner from the previous year and to just follow him. My strategy was to just try and sit on and save energy for the first half, and then see if I had anything left for the finish. Luckily, the pace wasn’t too bad for the first half and I was feeling confident I could sprint out the second half of the climb. Unfortunately, when the guy in green started his attack, the other rider in between us did not react, so my chase was a bit delayed and I wasn’t able to catch him before the finish line.

I ended up with a time of 6:48, which put me in 5th place overall.. Which was one spot out of the final round, the podium, and the money.

Chris Uburti ended up having the fastest qualifier time with a 6:17.

He then went on to win the final round by dominating the sprint, which was a sight very familiar from our collegiate racing days together..

Fun random fact: Derek, Chris, and I all used to race in the MWCCC (MidWest Collegiate cycling conference), and all used to race for the same US domestic elite team, RGF/Panther. Thought the team split into two teams when I joined, and we ended up as rivals rather than teammates.

The SPYDER BUKAK race continued to impress with the level of quality of the awards ceremony. There was a proper awards stage, DJ, professional announcer, and even a KOM jersey for each race winner.

These trophies were also pretty massive and weighty. I think Chris had to check another bag on his flight just to get this home and add it to his trophy rack.

There was also a pro Men’s division in today’s race, but apparently the pro racing and amateur racing is completely segregated in Korea. If you’re curious about why all of these professional cyclists are showing off their legs / cycling tans, be sure to watch the full day’s video here:

SPYDER BUKAK CLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP 스파이더 북악 스카이웨

Race GoPro Footage

More information

http://www.spyderbukak.com/

The post SPYDER Bukak Climb Championship Race in Seoul, Korea 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, after finally getting my upgrade from my win in the last Tokai CX race, I have my C1 (cat-1) debut race here in Japan! My broken thumb was starting to heal, and I have been able to train more lately, so I was feeling good about my chances today.

Today’s race was at Kakamigahara Outdoor Field (各務ヶ原アウトドアフィールド), which was a nice big park near the Kiso river.

The course itself was pretty nice, including a good mix of long power straight sections as well as some more technical twisty sections. One area of concern was the large number of rocks on the course, which made a risk of crashing or puncturing pretty high.

Since this was my first C1 level race, I was stuck at the back row, but luckily the field today wasn’t too large, so it wasn’t too big of a problem.

I stuck to my usual strategy of taking it easy in the start and relaxing in the technical areas since they were backed up with traffic anyway, and then would attack and sprint in each of the long straightaway sections.

My strategy worked pretty well, and I found myself attacking the group for 3rd place. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, the first two position riders were already out of sight.

About halfway through the race, I felt my rear tire go flat and that was the end of the race for me since I didn’t have a pit bike or spare wheel to use.

At first, I assumed that I had pinch flatted due to the rocks, but after I inspected my tire, I found that it was a thorn that punctured the tire. Oh well..

In any case, I’m happy that I was able to accomplish my goal of fighting for a top 5 position. Hopefully next time I can stick around until the end though.

Race day Tokai CX VLOG

Bradley was also out at today’s race and made a video for the day’s events. Check it out here.

Photos were taken by
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maekawa0717/
and
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132570324@N04/

The post 2016 Tokai CX #4 Kakamigahara C1 Debut 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.

A couple of weeks ago I had a really bad crash while training, and that really set me back both physically and mentally. My biggest injury was a broken thumb, which didn’t mean I couldn’t train, but I simply lost all of my motivation to train and ride for a while. The second race of the Tokai CX series was coming up, and although I had already pre-registered, I had already given up on going to the race. That was, until the night before when I went out for a Birthday dinner with some cycling friends. They convinced me that I should still at least come out to the race to watch, so I messaged my other friend last minute to see if he had space in his car, which he luckily did.

The course was located at a park called wild nature plaza (ワイルドネイチャープラザ), and it was at least 50% deep sand like the above picture.

Once I arrived at the environment of the race, my negative mood lifted and I decided that I still wanted to try and see what I could do in the race.

Thanks to my 2nd place finish in the first Tokai CX race, I had the number one tag and a front row start.

I had a pretty good start and was the first person to enter the deep sand section.

I tried to maintain my position, but each lap I was gradually losing ground due to my recent drop in endurance from not riding.

Some riders who passed me where also on mountain bikes, and it looked like they were able to ride parts of the course easier than I could with my CX bike.

In any case, I struggled on and still managed to keep myself in a top 5 position and keep most of the people in front of me within sight.

About halfway through the race, I started to get a rhythm down, and decided to try and push myself to my absolute limit and try and catch as many people as I could by the end.

By the last lap, I worked my way up to 4th, with 3 people still ahead of me, 2 of which were still within my field of vision, so I continued to dig deep..

During the last lap, I caught and passed 3rd, and going into the very last corner, I caught and passed 2nd, edging him out in a sprint.

1st place was still about a minute ahead, so not even close. Although normally I’d be pretty upset with getting two 2nd places in a row, considering the circumstances, I’m very happy to be able to get back on the podium. Especially with racing after two weeks of no riding and with a broken thumb.

Today’s result and being surrounded by the environment of Tokai CX helped to lift my spirits again and motivate me to look forward to the next race!

I was pretty cooked by the end of the race, my average heart rate was 190 BPM! …. Ouch…

Nothing that a chocolate banana protein smoothie can’t fix. Thanks Bucyo Coffee!

Bradley also came out to film the race events, so be sure to watch his video on the day!

The photos used in this post were taken by
– Kikuzo Photo
– Muto Photo

The post 2016 Tokai CX #2 Wild Nature Plaza appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

We met up at Nagoya Station at 6:30AM to have enough time to mingle and watch the start of the race. Once the race started, we were able to follow behind the sagwagan for a couple kilometers through the neutral start! All good things come to an end and we were kicked off the course once the race started so we made our way to the spectator area. After a couple hours of spectating, eating, and checking out the sponsor booths, we headed back home to Nagoya. All in all, about 140 km with perfect weather. Definitely going to go back next year!

We finished of the day with a stop at Cycles Bike shop and fueled up on some ramen at a nearby Chinese restaurant. Perfect end to a perfect day.

Ride Start

I rolled out from Nagakute at 5:45am to meet up with Dave and Bradley at Nagoya Station at 6:30am. We took a pretty straight and flat route West towards Inabe (in Mie prefecture) and had a lovely cross-headwind most of the way out. We managed to get to the starting area before the start of the race, so I went to find my old teammate Alder for a quick chat before the start.

Cruise and Alder (riding for Attaque Team Gusto)

Alder and I were teammates for our Division 1 college team, Lindsey Wilson College in 2009-2010. We used to clean up at all the local cyclocross races. We then moved on to different collegiate teams and became rivals on the US pro circuit as well. The last time we met was when we were both racing the Joe Martin Stage race in the US in 2013. While I retired from racing to pursue other life experiences, Alder has been getting a lot of international race experience. He spent the last year racing in Australia and this year is now racing in the Asian UCI circuit. Oh what could have been.. Anyway, we wished Alder good luck for the start and then the action began!

Inabe Stage Start!

Arashiro Yukia (the legend of Japan) at the start of the Inabe stage of the 2016 Tour of Japan

Start line – 2016 Tour of Japan Inabe Stage

Once the race started, we were able to follow along behind the sag wagan for the neutral start, which had some awesome local support!

The sides of the roads filled with cheering elementary/pre-school children

Although we were not in the race, literally hundreds of children and other people were passionately cheering for us as we rode through. It was quite the experience which I’ll never forget.

Map for the Inabe stage of Tour of Japan 2016

Once the race officially started, we were no longer able to ride on the course. Luckily, we acquired a course map from another rider who had a spare and we made our way to the finish/spectating area.

Inabe Spectating Area

Spectating area for Inabe Stage

The race finish and spectating area was on top of a mountain and had a really cool atmosphere. They had a large truck TV which was live streaming the race, along with a bunch of vendors selling food and cool products.

The popular Sakura Pork sandwich from the very popular Bucyo Coffee booth

Inabe Finish

The finish line for the Inabe Stage – 2016 Tour of Japan

The long day break of 3 riders which dropped to 2 in the last lap ended up winning the race, which was exciting to see. While those two did not sprint each other, the sprint for 3rd place was quite exciting with a Team United Healthcare rider tearing it up (no surprise there). Anyway, once the race was over, we began the journey back home.

Inabe Stage KOM – Tour of Japan (Bradley, Cruise, Dave)

All in all, it was a fantastic day!

The post 2016 Tour of Japan Stage 4 – Inabe appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

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！

The post First Time Racing in Japan and First Race in 2 years – Coupe de AACA appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

A few weeks ago I raced the Storm the Greens race in Louisville, KY. I hit my brakes a bit too hard going into the first turn and was dead last… great start like usual. I spent the whole race jumping up from group to group until I was only chasing the last 3 lead riders. I got within 30 seconds of the leaders and 15 seconds of 3rd place. 2 of my teammates took the top 2 spots and I ended up taking 4th. It would have been cool to sweep the podium, but unfortunately the curse of constant 4th places continues..

The following 3 weeks consisted of maybe 4 or 5 training rides, none longer than an hour. I was crammed with school and work, which was really starting to take a toll on my riding time. Daylights savings making it get dark at 3pm certainly did not help either.

I decided to leave school a little bit early so I could make it back to Michigan for a longer Thanksgiving break which, and it’s been a great trip so far.

Of course, my first stop was visiting my friends in Ann Arbor to watch the Harry Potter midnight release! After that, I went back home to Rochester Saturday afternoon to check out the Bloomer cyclocross course and make sure I still knew how to ride my cross bike. I had only done one cross ride since the Storm the Greens race so I was a bit nervous about racing. Luckily for me, the course was fully marked and I was able to get some good practice in.

My family’s house backs up to Bloomer park, which is really convenient for when races are hosted there. It was great to see familiar faces from the Michigan and Tailwind racing community. It’s been so long since I’ve done a Tailwind race and it was such a great feeling to see the old usual crowd. The temperature was a bit colder than what I’m used to in KY, but It was perfectly comfortable for racing. I’m always a bad starter and this was no exception.

“Cruise missile is launched!”

Anyhoooo, I managed to work my way up to a group for 4th place and I tried to conserve my energy there for most of the race while watching them attack each other. I would get gapped a few times, but I just kept my own steady pace since I knew I would blow up if I did all of the accelerations with my current fitness. After the halfway point passed by I decided to do an attack of my own and went in pursuit of the 3 people up the road. I was able to close more than half of the gap to the leaders in a short amount of time. To which, the race announcer was screaming “THE CRUISE MISSILE HAS BEEN LAUNCHED!” Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to maintain that pace with my current fitness and while I managed to get frustratingly close to Burke for 2nd place, I then proceeded to blow up and go into survival mode. I fortunately managed to recover a little bit after easing off my pace and was able to hold off the chase group to take 3rd. Thank you muscle memory!

A little history with this race/venue..

Bloomer Park was actually my first mtn bike race (beginner men 15-18 in 2006) and my first cyclocross race (Cat-4 in 2007). I actually haven’t done a cyclocross race in MI since 2007, so this was a very special day for me. This was also my first cyclocross race in MI on an actual cyclocross bike.. It truly felt great to be around the old crowd and I’m glad that I was still able to be somewhat competitive considering my lack of training recently. Mark P is a great guy and has been super strong this year. Tom is always an insanely strong rider and for me to be able to finish up there with those 2 means so much. I always dreamed of making it to the podium one day in elites in MI when I started racing and I’m glad to have finally accomplished this goal. It’s just not the same when you race out of state, it is such a special feeling to come back to where it all began and see how far I’ve come.

2010 Bloomer CX Men’s Elite Podium

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