Snow Biking in Japan

cycling training on snow with road racing bikes with studded tires

Mikuni Pass 42

Temperature: minus 27 degrees Celsius in the KTV (katabatic valley) and minus 18 degrees Celsius at the Mikuni Pass

The radiative cooling was strong although the seasonal winds were a bit strong. He wore ski goggles with heating lenses during the climb. The road was covered hard ice beneath the thin layer of snow. The eyelids stick each other as they have been freezing instantaneously every time he blinked. He consumed 2 of third of bottle content during the first few minutes before it gets frozen although its content was highly concentrated isotonic drink (so called freezing point depression drink). He used fluorine-based oil as lubrication to stand the cold. The oil became a little hard but not like the precedent trainings where the oil was completely congealed. During the interval training on the Kogen-Ohashi Bridge, one of the headlights shut down because of the low voltage caused by the low temperature. He reinitialised it and it started to work again. When he was doing the interval training at 930m of altitude, a truck of snow-removal service came and scattered sand on the ice. Inside the goggles was covered with rime. After reaching the summit, he descended. During the descent, the zipper of the jersey was frozen and became impossible to open or close. The gloves were frozen as well. Every time he touched the face shield with the glove, they stuck each other. He slowed down on the descent as it was too cold in the seasonal winds. One of headlights shut down again. He warmed up the light with the body heat and he reactivated it successfully. The diamond dusts were falling from the sky.

Pictures