Snow Biking in Japan

cycling training on snow with road racing bikes with studded tires

Mt.Tokachidake (Mt.Tokachi) 127

Temperature: minus 13 degrees Celsius at the Tokachidake Hot Springs (Tokachidake Onsen)

The road was covered with thin snow layer at low altitudes. Cairn set the rhythm of climbing and K just followed him up to the altitude of 1000m. Passing the bifurcation at this altitude, they commenced to climb switching the head. Cairn accelerated at the last hairpin bends. K attacked at the steepest part on the outside of corner which isn’t so steep. Cairn couldn’t keep up the tempo of K and K won the summit. After the first ascension, they repeated the interval training at the summit. There, they encountered a group of Swiss-German skiers. K talked with them for a while in German. On the descent, the snow was muddy and the deep snow took the wheels many times. During the descent, Korean tourists asked them to take pictures together. They have accepted. They resumed the decent and in the middle of it, they encounter Mr.Suzuki, one of members of our group, climbing. They talked for a while. Mr.Suzuki was still riding a MTB (he has modified his MTB to a snow road racing bike afterwards). Cairn and K resumed the descent and Mr.Suzuki resumed the ascension. K won the descent with a gap of about 5 minutes on Cairn.

Pictures







]