Golden Week

Is the traditional May holiday in Japan, where three public holidays fall in a row, giving people a five day weekend. This is the first year in eight that I have NOT gone to Nagano to ride DH since coming to Japan (with the exceptions of 2005 and 2007 when I was out of the country). I almost went, but the new financial reality combined with the new physical reality meant that I needed a quiet time. Funnily enough, it also coincided with a new meteorological reality - it's rained steadily for the last two days. I might have gone to Fujimi yesterday if it weren't for that.

Anyway, I DID still ride, both DH and XC - DH in Shinshiro on the Sengen course with local rider, ALT supervisor extraordinaire and all round fast guy Mike S. No photos sorry, coz, well, I didn't take any. Maybe next time. Maybe. I'm starting to get the Goose (my orginal DH bike, come back to the nest six years later) dialled and starting to remember how to ride DH, ie. go really fast and jump off lots of stuff. It was fun.

Today I rode a little bit of XC locally on the SS, headed out in a brief gap in the rain, and found another new track in Kura-ga-ike which is super narrow singletrack and a bit of fun. Again, no photos, as it was not camera friendly weather, but here is a photo of my SS taken a few minutes ago, because as we all know, a post without a picture is no post at all...yes those are pink bits...not that there's anything wrong with that...

As you can see, my writing skills are only exceeded by my photographic flair. Certain readers of this blog may recognise this frame...