Was called up for another out of the blue Noda sprint training tonight. My legs still felt lethargic from Tuesday. 3 riders tonight which is better than 1. Both were stronger than me. 5km warm up, 10 X 3.8km sprints. 5km cool down. (48km). I only won the last sprint. Again I got them tired…tired of beating me. Still managed to hit 56.5kph into the wind on the last sprint. Happy with that!
I hope this is helping me.
The Tour Of Japan on the 24th is going to be a big hurdle. The only race I’ve experienced a serious crash and this is the first time back there in 4 years. To complete this course will put me in a better frame of mind for Hitachi. 2A grade is probably one grade too high for me but at least there should be less novices riding and hopefully it will be safer than the last time I tumbled here.

Here is what happened back then.





There was more blood…both shoulders, both buttocks, both elbows..3 stitches under the eye where the helmet hammered down the sunglasses lense into my cheek.

Here is an account of the crash the day after.

Tour Of Japan bicycle race. I was in the 3rd division (23.5km).
With 5km to go, 4 lanes converged into one lane. Some guy in the middle decided to lose balance and fall. I was on the far right and a chain reaction from the center made everybody move out from the crash…. forcing me onto the non-existent sidewalk. I hit a witch’s hat full on at 40kph cartwheeled over it with feet still firmly placed in the clip on pedals.

First to hit was the top of my helmet which split in two. It also compressed down onto my sunglasses which caused a large gash under my left eye to open up (3 stitches). I then flipped over into a roll and landed in a fetal position… 8 cyclists in all were involved in the pile-up and did not finish the race.

As I lay there on the ground a guy (from my team) in the 1st division race came speeding by and got a puncture. Seeing me lying there he pulled up beside my bike and changed the wheels… from my bike to his.
Aching all over today. grazes on left elbow, back of both shoulders, right buttocks, and a gash in my right knee.
Lucky not to have broken anything…
The best part being my cycle only got one scratch on the handle bar tape…. Cool
Up until the crash I was cruising and feeling fine….