Snow Biking in Japan

cycling training on snow with road racing bikes with studded tires

Mt.Asahidake (Mt.Asahi) 10

Temperature: minus 12 degrees Celsius at the Asahidake Hot Springs (Asahidake Onsen).

We were at the end of March. The snow was gone below the altitude of 800m. They commenced their training at the altitude of 1000m. First of all, they descended up to where the snow on the road was stable. They did the interval training around the altitude of 1000m. After that, they climbed up to the summit competing in real earnest. At 700m from the summit, K did an apparent attack and Cairn caught him up soon. Cairn led for a while and K stayed behind his wheel up to 300m from the summit. K attacked there in earnest this time, where the road becomes less steep. K won this ascension. They descended up to the altitude where there was no snow on the road and made a U-turn to climb again. Both were already tired on this second climb. So the velocity was much lower than the first climb. Like the first climb, K attacked at 700m from the summit and Cairn caught him up soon and led. This time, as K were tired a lot, he attacked in real earnest only at 250m from the summit. He had difficulties in keeping the high tempo, so he divided the attack in three parts. K won the summit this time as well. They repeated the interval sprint training there. Sometimes Cairn won and sometimes K won. K won the final descent with a gap of about 1minute.

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