This was the 5th time in a row I’ve done this race and definitely the best.

Perfect racing weather with a thin cloud blocking out some of those harmful UV’s, not too hot and not too cold with not much wind. Perfect conditions for a fast paced day on the asphalt.

There were about 308 teams and our club Semas fielded 12 of them.  Another team I train with Apex who were very helpful and friendly to me during the race fielded about 9 teams.

I was in the RX class which is for mixed teams (men & women). There were about 59 teams in this class, possibly the second largest class. We had 4 men & one woman. Our captain Mr. Suzuki lead by example and executed a perfect plan… (almost perfect). In fact the other teams in our club were laughing at our timetable for the day as the times and lap numbers appeared to be illogical. I could tell though that our captain had carefully thought it out and trusted his theory.

We took a risk on the first lap as there is usually a lot of confusion and often a lot of crashing and our poll position was right back near the end (273).  Every year we get a bad position, probably as our club fields so many teams and we put our application in a bit late. To get up the front you need to apply early. We needed to get to the front no matter what though.  Absolutely vital to be in the front for the first hour.  If you lose a lap or two it’s virtually impossible to make it up again. The risk was to have one of our riders just go as hard as possible to get near the front to the point of going over his heart rate threshold and then pulling into the pit which would be empty and have our pre-warmed up Ace take off for the 2nd lap near the front. The 2nd lap of the race is usually the fastest for the whole day as the leaders take control at the front. The plan ended up being a little wonky but not necessarily a mistake. The pits were littered with spectators still watching the start and our starter had to weave through them to get to our pit crew for the change over. Then our ace was only able to land in the 2nd peloton which was about 200m behind the main one. To make matters worse all our teams missed the front peloton and that was going to make it almost impossible to win anything. Our A team were taken out with a crash in the first meter and that made their campaign a nightmare as well. I repeat, getting in the first group is vital to getting a podium finish. The winning teams stay in that peloton all day.

Our guys in the second peloton took control realizing that if they didn’t bridge the gap the whole day would be fruitless and worked like crazy to bridge the gap back to the main peloton. After about 5 or 6 laps they got there. Semas were leading the group with four of them going harder than Silence Lotto trying to deliver Robbie McEwen to the front. They looked bad though as they worked real hard to get there. Our captain then stayed in the main lead group for the hour which was the original plan. Finally we were back on course and could relax. He also had a chance to get his breath back and draft a lot. He recovered well.

On coming in to the pit for the second change over we were cruelly penalized one lap (just over 2km) for going too fast in the pit lane. This dealt us another blow. Now a lap behind. They were never this strict before and being so early in the day we had to go extra slow in the pits to avoid more penalties. All that hard work to get in the front was now wiped out.

About an hour and 40 minutes after the start it was my turn to have a go.

Luckily as I came onto the track the main peloton was coming up behind me from the main straight and I managed to get in up near the front and do exactly 11 laps as planned. I had my little Canon camera taped to my handle bars and managed to take a cool video of about 2 laps. (from the Dunlop bridge in this clip at around the 8 second mark and back again was 2 minutes 59. A 3 minute lap is quite fast. The fastest lap of the day was the second lap at 2 minutes forty. The normal average lap speed for me over the years has been in groups doing 3 minutes 12+-.

I had three stints on the track and each time I was able to get in near the top end of the main peloton and get some great mileage. Quite often at this race I get stuck alone between groups or stuck in a slower group or cannot hold the speed of the main peloton for more than a lap. This year I could, and on my second stint I was rotating at the front end with about 6 guys doing a few hard pulls myself. (Not my forte).

At about the halfway mark we realized we were in 3rd position for our class and this motivated us all. For the next 2 hours we were going back and forth between 2nd and 3rd position.

With an hour to go we were then switching positions with 1st and 2nd place. 2nd felt good but when we were in first, the feeling was a thousand times nicer. The last 30 minutes there are no change overs and there were two very large groups going very fast. Was hard to tell which group was the main one. These groups swelled in size too and made for a very entertaining finale.

Looking at the TV results screen at the finish it showed us in first place but we were not sure if our one lap penalty had already been deducted.

They finally called our number to come to the presentation area to collect our first prize. Yes!, we did it!!!

My training team friends in the other team also won their class which made the day extra special. Was nice to trade handshakes and congratulations with such a nice bunch of guys. They really helped me a lot during the tougher pulls in the peloton and pushed me to go harder than I normally do. Usually, besides my own team mates, I don’t know anybody else on the course. It was a great comfort to have comrades in another team who were courteous and motivating. My weak pulls helped them and their stronger ones helped me. Both I and them were surprised to see each other win our prospective classes. They had a puncture on the fourth lap of the day and thought they were out of contention as well. Edit: Just found out they had another puncture as well.

Too bad I didn’t get to drink the whole bottle. Just one mouthful. 90% of the contents were sprayed out onto our fans!!!

Finally, a Gold 1st place medal to add to my collection of 3rds, 4ths and 5ths. (not really gold but you know what I mean). Spraying champagne and getting many photos taken made it feel that extra special. Was a very well organized event as is usually the case in Japan.

Let’s hope that’s not the last time I get to stand on the top box of the podium. Hopefully I can do it one day after a solo effort.

Great preparation for the Tour of Japan at the end of the month. It was like doing that race three times in one day.

Heart Rate Data. (N.B) Besides my camera and Polar HRM I also had attached my Cateye and Garmin. The Polar was easiest to use out of the two heart rate monitors. Simple one push and you know if it’s working or not when you see the heart rate. When you switch on the Garmin and hit Start timer you’re still not really sure if it’s working. I did a lap and as I past over the finish line I pushed the lap button and nothing happened. The start button must not have been pushed hard enough. Didn’t have time to set it all up but should be simpler. On the second stint it set a course for me to go home and kept beeping at me to get off the course. Very annoying and I switched it off then. The menu has too many options and when you’re about to start a race and you haven’t used it for a while remembering what to do is impossible.

More photos
2008 Semas at Tsukuba