Can you see this pack of riders??? These riders are Japan's top XC & Road Elite..... and I am at the end of the pack!!!!!! This picture was taken at about 8:20 am, we started at 7 am, ok I must be dreaming right???? NO, I was really there and really rode with these guys!!! I asked Kouji where he wanted to ride the night before and he suggested we ride with the Azumino Group Road Ride because our friend Raita Suzuki had told him about it. Kouji doesn't get many chances to ride with Raizou, so I hesitated, but finally agreed to join the ride. When we arrived to meet everyone at 7:15 am, I was dumfounded as I looked around at the group, all of Japan's elite riders had gathered by chance for this ride. ARRRRRGGGGG, I thought I am gonna die today!!!! So we started our ride to Hotaka, about 40 mins to meet the other Azumino Riders, there was about 10 of us at this time. When we arrived at Hotaka another 15 riders or so joined us, including my training partner Ya-Chan, and Adam, who had just recently won the Utsukushigahara Hill Climb about a week ago. Ya-Chan and I looked at each other and wondered how we were gonna survive this ride????? We lasted until the first climb, Ya-Chan's heart rate was over 180, I knew mine was about the same, and had been for the last 30 mins. We decided to leave the group as the real climbing had yet to begin. Thank god we did. All of those pro's and all of their testosterone brought on a huge training ride competition. Ya-Chan, Kouji(who was still getting over a cold) and I decided to ride to Aokiko and then head back home. Our ride was about 100kms today and we were totally satisfied with the rest of our ride away from the pack!!! We considered it a feat in itself to have lasted as long as we did. Afterwards, we heard that today's pace was much faster than the normal pace because of days special attendees, wow, what a day!!!!

After arriving at Aokiko Ski Hill, we checked out the new baby goats that have recently joined the Aokiko goat family. They were soooo cute!!


My view on the road ride back home from Aokiko!!!