04.05.10 - JCF#2: Hakodateyama: Waiting waiting...
Photos by Shuhei Takenouchi
Just like last week, the weather for this race was perfect. So it's been a bonus so far. I couldn't imagine racing in the Japanese mud with my current lack of strength. And Hakodateyama is a fast power course, so although there isn't much single track or recovery spots, it's more like Australia than other tracks here. ie: less long steep climbs.
With a good recovery week and my bike running perfectly, I was ready to go. Apart from some tightness from a 5 hour drive in traffic jams (Golden Week traffic is the worst of the year), I felt ok. And once the gun went off I made sure I didn't lead the race, holding back and trying to keep the heart rate down. That was hard to do on a pedally course like this, with no spots to coast or relax on the bumpy grass and loose gravel of this ski resort hill.
After losing time by getting stuck on a tree root/branch thing, I created a gap to the lead group. All race I fought in the wind to get the gap back, but didn't have the power. In the end I lost sight of them, which made it mentally tough to keep pushing on such a fast course. but I kept it together, somewhat, and rode my own pace, holding onto 6th. Worse than last week, but feeling better physically. My two team mates Shun and Ken, were the next two behind me.
Facing the traffic jams going home will be mentally harder! So after that I'll rest up and finally get into some hard, quality training in the hills above Osaka. The local boys should be keen to smash it up. Next up is Fujimi in 3.5 weeks. So it might be enough time to get things going. Patience is a virtue, as they say.
