My friend Bradley and I had been training together quite a bit this Summer, and we started discussing possibly going to a race together to see what it was like. We found out about a local race called the Hirata Criterium (平田クリテリウム), which is held once a month and only cost about 1,000 yen (~$10). It was only about a 1.5 hour ride from the center of Nagoya, so about a 2 hour ride for me from Nagakute, which is on the east side of Nagoya.

It was a pretty cloudy day with a high chance of rain, but we had already decided that we were going to do this race rain or shine. Luckily, it didn’t rain during our ride over. This was Bradley’s first every crit, and he managed to stay on until about 2 laps to go. He said he really enjoyed the race though and was motivated to train more and come back again next time.

This was my second ever race since moving to Japan, and also my second race since quitting competitive cycling a few years back. Although I hadn’t been racing much, I had been training with some of the fast local racers, so I was pretty confident in my ability, and decided to first start out in the second highest category, C2.

During the race, it started to rain pretty hard, and I decided to bury myself and test my limit by attacking as much as possible.

Unfortunately, none of my breakaway attempts stuck.

It came down to a field sprint, which I had no energy left for, so I finished at about 6th.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my result. I was able to prove to myself that I can still race hard at the front of the pack, and next time I want to challenge myself in the C1 race.

I also really enjoyed the atmosphere of the Hirata Criterium. It is very relaxed, with lots of people chatting, catching up, and also Bucyo Coffee has their food stand with delicious snacks, which I was more than happy to stuff myself with after the race.

Definitely gonna be back for the next one!

For more information about racing at the Hirata Criterium, click here

Thanks to Kikizu and Catarina for the race photos!

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