I rode another Century for January (
on Strava). I am not planning to match or break last year's record of 31 Centuries for the year, as long as I add another 12 months to the streak and bring it up to 100 months by year end. This ride was initially planned as a distance that would give me another century and when the plan slightly changed it would have been a waste to stop 5-6 km short of the distance.
My friend I. is visiting from Australia. We used to go on group rides together a lot before she moved out of Japan a year ago. So our group of friends planned a reunion ride for the west coast of Izu peninsula, my favourite cycling location in Japan. This is the same area where @
Lightchop and I rode the December 2017 Century.
My friends had booked lunch in a seafood restaurant around near half way to the turn-around point and four of them shared this monster sized spider crab.
I drove to Mishima in the morning, with the bike in the back of my Prius while my friends took the bullet train. As I drove on Tomei expressway through the mountains it was drizzling from dark grey clouds, but it had mostly stopped when we set off from Mishima station together.
In the countryside we passed many villagers setting up bamboo bonfires, to burn shrine decorations such as ceremonial ropes braided from rice straw that had been used in the previous year.
After a little over an hour we reached the north coast of Izu and followed it out to the west, to Cape Ose on the NW corner. The sky gradually brightened. Initially we could only see the foothills of Mt Fuji across the water but the mountain gradually became more and more exposed. As we turned the corner and followed the coast south, the first real climb began. There were four climbs on Route 17 between Cape Ose and Toi: two between the Cape and Heda (our lunch spot) and another two between Heda and Toi. This part of the road is very quiet, as most cars will take a bigger road across the mountains from Central Izu to get to Toi and other towns further south.
We stopped at viewpoints and finally caught our first glimpse of the snow-covered upper cone of Fuji. Once we got to Heda, the mountain was fully exposed in its majestic beauty. After lunch we cycled to the pine tree-covered sand bar that closes off most of the bay at Heda and thus protects the fishing harbour against storms. There's a shrine there and two small lighthouses. We took pictures of the beautiful scenery and of our group of friends.
The pace was a little slower in the afternoon. We still had a few hours of daylight, just enough to get to the ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) before sunset, but I had to cycle back all the way later. So at Dogashima, about 5 km from the goal, I decided to say goodbye to my friends and headed back north again.
It got dark about half an hour later. At Toi, the last big town I stopped for dinner at a convenience store. I could take the major road east across the mountains, where there were more cars but maybe chillier, or I could return the way I had come and take the road that had stretches without cell phone coverage but maybe a bit milder. I chose the latter.
I discovered it was a full moon night and Mt Fuji remained visible almost all the way, its snow coverage shining in the moonlight.
About 4 hours after sunset I was wearing almost all the layers of winter clothes I had brought, with temperatures a couple of degrees above freezing. I made it back to Mishima just before midnight, then did a few loops near the car park to bring the total above 160.9 km (100 mi). After loading the bike back into the car, I drove back to the expressway. I stopped for some sleep at the car park of the first expressway service area, until I felt fresh enough again to drive another hour home. It was just before 03:00 when I finally got home.