Really windy
I got a day to ride.
I was going to go out to the hills for a long ride.
I called friend Kishi san.
He suggested we ride the flat Ara river.
I knew there were cold winds this time of year. It didn't seem like a good idea so...
Perhaps because I knew we could work together and wouldn't have to worry about each others fitness as much. It seemed like a good idea however...
I had a concern for I heard this service road that parallels the river and has been used by local cyclists for years has been the scene of a big bike ped accident, and that after the accident there was a speed limit of 20kph for cyclists. I was sad about how the wide open road that in some sections was nearly abandoned had been taken from our limited selection of areas to ride. But Kishi told me not to worry about the speed limit and it is fine to ride the river service road. I considered.
So.
Temps in the high thirties but a wind chill near freezing, we went to the river.

Kishi San always gets me into trouble with rides. This would be no different as it was very very windy. We were chugging in the drops keeping it around 28kph. Kishi sat at a downwind angle to me because of the strong cross breeze accompanying. The coldness caused tears and slobber to dry instantly on one side of my face to the other as we turned by the levies and over the bridges that cross the river. We had been hoofing it for about an hour and a half and took a break. It was the first time we could hear each other speak since leaving my place. Our arms and necks were almost as tired as our legs.

I saw one of the best uninterrupted views of Mt. Fuji I'd ever seen, however I was so involved with focusing and controlling my bike it just didn't occur to me to get a photo. We eventually turned off the river road and headed through some flat farming/ suburban sprawl areas. There were times of just howling gale winds but we were too invested in the effort and we just kept going. We went to a hilly area that is very popular with racers and we climbed steep sections and went down flying descents with the tail wind and other riders. It was fun but we were already tired from over two hours of resistance riding and called it after two laps. So now it was time to return in the tail wind.
Haha
This was so easy and fast. Sometimes fun sometimes very technical. Smooth and speedy approaching close to 50 constantly. We quickly retraced our rout through the suburbs and on to the trail. On one flat long undisturbed section of the course we had it rolling at 52 for a good spell. It reminded me a bit of the Coral Hollow back side but longer . We stopped for some drinks and giggled and gaffawed over the easy speed we had.



Returning back over the bridges and the cross winds were even worse. Through one of the many gates to prevent scooter use a huge crosswind slammed my hand into a steel poll and almost cause me to crash. The final section through Tokyo district in the tail wind there was no way we could do twenty as we were doing twenty eight without even pedaling. From this photo you can see how the danger makes it necessary to limit the speed.



Finally getting off the course we sped down the highway egged on even faster by the following traffic. I was home in a blink of an dry eye.