Randonneuring Explosion In Japan
Jersey Guy
the worldwide ACP points ranking behind the U.S.? It's not France
(3rd), Italy (4th), Australia (5th) or Brazil (6th). It's Japan. Not
only that, but Japan had no ACP points at all as recently as 2001 and
nearly doubled its total points from 2008 to 2009. If its growth rate
continues, it might pass the U.S. in 2010 and become No. 1 in the
world.
How did interest in Japan grow so quickly? It doesn't seem as though
interest spiked in 2007, so I would assume that Japan is
underrepresented at PBP, perhaps due to travel issues, compared to its
overall interest in randonneuring.
I would love to read about this remarkable growth in the American
Randonneur (paging Mike Dayton?) or hear from people in the group with
brevet experience in Japan. I didn't see much about it in this group
when I searched.
Jud
New Jersey, U.S.A.
DrCodfish
another Japanese rider then. At PBP 07 there were quite a few (100
some I think?). That's pretty anecdotal, remember I'm slow so ride at
the back and usually don't see many riders who finish in the low mid
to low 80's or less. I too noticed that they are getting after it.
There will be a Japanese 1200K this year, I'd love to go but there are
financial and fitness issues blocking my way.
By the way, some very classy bikes (as wellas bags and other
acoutremont) along the French classic design are coming out of Japan.
Yr Pal Dr Codfish
Mike Dayton
I know of one rider who is heading to Japan for an event this year.
I'll see if I can wrangle a report out of him.
Speaking of reports, I'm always looking for interesting write-ups, so
please keep them coming, as well as photos, equipment reviews, "What
We Ride" features, interviews, etc.
Thanks,
Mike Dayton / Raleigh, NC
Editor, American Randonneur
Richard McCaw
2009 results a couple of weeks ago. I am going to Japan in April to visit my
son and hope to do a 300 km brevet while I am there. The Japanese are
requiring their riders to do a 1200 km Brevet this year to get priority for
going to PBP next year. Lots of competition around the world for PBP slots
in 2011. We are fortunate here on the west coast to have Masayoshi Kobayashi
in our San Francisco Randonneuring club. David Thompson lives in Tokyo and
Jun Sato in Southern California. They are all very helpful and knowledgeable
about the brevets in Japan. Mark Thomas is planning on doing the Hokkaido
1200 km brevet. This would be a great 1200 km to consider doing this year.
http://aj-hokkaido.sakura.ne.jp/1200_1ST.html
Richard McCaw
richar...@sbcglobal.net
Cell: 408-838-9863
Home: 408-448-2899
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mccaw
Jud
New Jersey, U.S.A.
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PCH Rando
Last year Jun and Naoko rode our old tandem that we rode PBP 2007 with
on the PCH Randonneurs Fleche. After that experience they bought a
new coupled Comotion tandem with belt drive and completed several PCH
Randos brevets on it.
They are now back in Japan, but can not ride the tandem on brevets.
Apparently it is illegal to ride a tandem on the road in Japan. I
heard this same thing from Tomo and Kaz a tandem couple from Japan
that we talked to in Paris at the start of PBP. From what I
understand, many people ride tandems in Japan and no one enforces the
law against riding them, but the ride organizers know of the law and
will not allow tandems on brevets. Consequently, if they want to
qualify for PBP on the tandem they have to travel out of the country
to do so.
I believe Tomo was interested in trying to get the law changed and
wanted to know from some US riders what they did to get cycling laws
changed here.
Greg & Lisa
On Mar 9, 8:13 am, "Richard McCaw" <richard.mc...@sbcglobal.net>
wrote:
> I also noticed the surge in Randonneuring in Japan when reading the RUSA
> 2009 results a couple of weeks ago. I am going to Japan in April to visit my
> son and hope to do a 300 km brevet while I am there. The Japanese are
> requiring their riders to do a 1200 km Brevet this year to get priority for
> going to PBP next year. Lots of competition around the world for PBP slots
> in 2011. We are fortunate here on the west coast to have Masayoshi Kobayashi
> in our San Francisco Randonneuring club. David Thompson lives in Tokyo and
> Jun Sato in Southern California. They are all very helpful and knowledgeable
> about the brevets in Japan. Mark Thomas is planning on doing the Hokkaido
> 1200 km brevet. This would be a great 1200 km to consider doing this year.http://aj-hokkaido.sakura.ne.jp/1200_1ST.html
>
> Richard McCaw
cris.co...@gmail.com
> I rode for a bit with a woman from Japan at PBP 03, and I recall a
> another Japanese rider then. At PBP 07 there were quite a few (100
> some I think?). That's pretty anecdotal, remember I'm slow so ride at
> the back and usually don't see many riders who finish in the low mid
> to low 80's or less.
I remember intermittently passing and being passed by a dozen of the
same Japanese riders throughout the first two days and at some point
we formed a small cluster and they, in halting English, and I, in even
more broken Nihongo, started passing each other compliments and
questions on each other's bikes. I told them that it was impressive
to see so many of their countrymen at PBP and one of them sort of
explained that a few Japanese riders from the 2003 PBP took it upon
themselves to establish some local clubs in 2004 and 2005; and things
sort of took off from there.
That's kind of secondhand and through loose interpretation ... but
generally speaking, given a cultural affinity for cycling and outdoor
adventure, it shouldn't be a surprise that they should take to
randonneuring. If anything, the surprise is that it's taken them so
long to get into it.
Alex Greenbank
Not all countries submit every ride to ACP for validation.
The UK has a long standing agreement with ACP to validate most
of its own events in non-PBP years. This changes this year as far
more UK events will be ACP validated in order to maximise our quota of
places for PBP 2011.
The 2009 UK results were:-
http://www.aukweb.net/results/2009/stats1.php
5605 x 200km rides alone.
So that's at least 20202 points (~450 of the 600km+ rides were
London-Edinburgh-London 1400km but I've counted them as just
6 points).
But the UK only submitted rides worth 1671 points to ACP for
validation.
Ta, -Alex
Alex Greenbank
Gah, two points I failed to make...
On Mar 10, 9:16 pm, Alex Greenbank <a...@greenbank.org> wrote:
> On Mar 9, 10:08 am, Jersey Guy <j...@henryhand.com> wrote:
>
> > I just got my 2009 Results from RUSA.
>
> Not all countries submit every ride to ACP for validation.
So I wonder if they're just submitting more of their rides if
they've been validating their own before.
> So that's at least 20202 points (~450 of the 600km+ rides were
Not all of those would have been claimable via ACP as some
are non-calendar 'DIY' rides, and some completed at a slightly
slower minimum average speed (14.3kph) than the usual
15kph that ACP demands.
Ta, -Alex
George Swain
While this is not really what you're after you may find it
interesting. Rapha has begun a feature on epic rides in Japan that
will undoubtedly cross pollinate with randonnuering along the way.
Here's the link to the website. Great visuals. I'd love to ride there
at some point!
http://www.rapha.cc/rapha-yonretto
George Swain
http://thehudsonvalleyrandonneur.blogspot.com/
Charles Coldwell
Kinki and David Thompson from Minato Ku representing Audax Japan Chiba
registered for the Cascade 1200 in June.
--
Charles M. Coldwell, W1CMC
"Turn on, log in, tune out"
Winchester, Massachusetts, New England (FN42kk)
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