Hi

I'm back from stage one of the Golden Week Race Adventure. Three days of trying to outrun gravity. Ouch. Not the ouch of injuries, luckily just the ouch of sore muscles and bones due to too much riding.

New bike is fantastic, wonderful, brilliant, and a whole lot more superlatives. It really, really makes a BIG difference - I think it's going to be a good year on the bike. I have already found myself riding in ways I didn't think possible for me, and I'm not even really used to it yet!

Also got to ride with my friends, which was fun, because they are crazy. And got to ride with Mio-chan, for more about Mio-chan, see below a few posts. Was fun to hurtle down the mountain right behind her, and also to hang out and talk with her. She speaks English really well now, I guess that's no surprise after five years travelling the world to race. Right now I think she's on a plane on the way to Spain to race the first World Cup event of this year.

Saturday night we went out to eat at a TENDON shop, and no, they don't serve tendons. TENDON is a bowl of rice with tempura on top, lightly battered and fried stuff, often prawns, fish and veggies. YUM.

Yesterday my student Kato came up to Fujimi to test out his nerve and his bike, not new, but it has a few new nice shiny bits on it. He did well, had a lot of fun, and most importantly, didn't crash! I got some pictures of him and the course, complete with melting snow, just to make sure we got muddy. On the whole it was hot and dry though, I think I'm very dehydrated...

I'll whack in some pictures now, I may write more tonight before I leave.