Getting to Nobeyama, Japan, is easy. Get up at 3am. Drive to the airport. Fly from Baltimore to Los Angeles. Switch planes. Fly to Narita, Tokyo airport. Check watch … 23 hours have passed. Purchase Narita Express train ticket to Shinjuku. Switch trains to the Super Azusa No. 29 to Kofu. Switch trains again to the Chuo local line to Kobuchizawa. Try not to fall asleep and miss stop. They don’t announce stops. It’s easy to miss. Especially in the dark. Count down the stops.
Arrive. Check watch … 27 hours have passed. Meet ride at train station. Short drive to house, which is 300 meters from race venue. Check watch … it’s dead. Needed recharging hours ago. Sleep. Wake up at 5am. See spectacular sunrise. Easy.
A race in the mountains at a living farm tourist attraction, with ATV course, horseback riding and petting zoo. How can you not be excited by this? And the race scene in Japan? It’s top notch. The grassroots excitement that got us all stoked about racing cyclocross when we started is alive and well in Japan. Large amateur fields, beer, so much cheering by friends and teammates, killer food vendors and exhibitors. And amazing views. You will be hard-pressed to find a more stunning backdrop to a race than the Yatsugatake mountains.
Rapha Japan does a fantastic job on the venue and attracting top caliber racers. Everything is dialed and the course, albeit compact and lacking elevation, is challenging and fun. Races throughout the day were competitive and the pro races offered entertaining battles in both fields, on both days.
I’ve been playing around with the format for the Crosshairs Television race recaps. I started with SVENNESS-style text cards but for these races have moved to voice-over. If you are still a fan of text, no problem. I’ve loaded in subtitles for each video so you can read along. Just click the CC button in the lower right corner. These are my subtitles not YouTube generated ones, so they should make sense.
Finally, if you like the videos, do me a favor and subscribe to the channel and give the vids a thumbs up. A comment would be amazing. It all helps spread the word.
Thanks for watching … more to come.
Day One Women’s Top 10
| Rank | BIB | Rider | Nation | Team | Age | Result | IRM | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 121 | RUNNELS Samantha |
USA
|
26 | 00:44:05 | 40 | ||
| 2 | 130 | MCDONOUGH April |
AUS
|
30 | 00:44:05 | 30 | ||
| 3 | 122 | IMAI Miho |
JPN
|
30 | 00:44:07 | 20 | ||
| 4 | 124 | KACHOREK Emily |
USA
|
37 | 00:44:31 | 15 | ||
| 5 | 123 | YONAMINE Eri |
JPN
|
26 | 00:44:43 | 10 | ||
| 6 | 125 | KARAMI Miyoko |
JPN
|
43 | 00:45:55 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 128 | MIYAUCHI Sakiko |
JPN
|
42 | 00:46:05 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 127 | NISHIYAMA Miyuki |
JPN
|
37 | 00:46:07 | 4 | ||
| 9 | 137 | MATSUMOTO Rina |
JPN
|
17 | 00:47:32 | 2 | ||
| 10 | 133 | MORRIS Fiona |
AUS
|
32 | 00:47:52 | 1 |
Day One Men’s Top 10
| Rank | BIB | Rider | Nation | Team | Age | Result | IRM | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | HEKELE Emil |
CZE
|
40 | 1:02:43 | 40 | ||
| 2 | 6 | JONGEWAARD Chris |
AUS
|
38 | 1:03:14 | 30 | ||
| 3 | 7 | TAKENOUCHI Yu |
JPN
|
29 | 1:03:34 | 20 | ||
| 4 | 114 | CLARK Anthony |
USA
|
30 | 1:03:37 | 15 | ||
| 5 | 3 | KOSAKA Hikaru |
JPN
|
29 | 1:04:02 | 10 | ||
| 6 | 4 | SAWADA Toki |
JPN
|
23 | 1:03:51 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 1 | MILLBURN Garry |
AUS
|
30 | 1:03:53 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 9 | BRADFORD-PARISH Kevin |
USA
|
35 | 1:04:07 | 4 | ||
| 9 | 5 | MAEDA Kohei |
JPN
|
23 | 1:04:54 | 2 | ||
| 10 | 17 | REDENBACH Paul |
AUS
|
39 | 1:05:29 | 1 |
Day 2 Women’s Top 10
| Rank | BIB | Rider | Nation | Team | Age | Result | IRM | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 130 | MCDONOUGH April |
AUS
|
30 | 44:15 | 40 | ||
| 2 | 121 | RUNNELS Samantha |
USA
|
26 | 45:12 | 30 | ||
| 3 | 122 | IMAI Miho |
JPN
|
30 | 45:32 | 20 | ||
| 4 | 124 | KACHOREK Emily |
USA
|
37 | 45:47 | 15 | ||
| 5 | 123 | YONAMINE Eri |
JPN
|
26 | 46:18 | 10 | ||
| 6 | 125 | KARAMI Miyoko |
JPN
|
43 | 46:26 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 136 | MATSUMOTO Rina |
JPN
|
17 | 46:43 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 128 | MIYAUCHI Sakiko |
JPN
|
42 | 47:08 | 4 | ||
| 9 | 127 | NISHIYAMA Miyuki |
JPN
|
37 | 47:19 | 2 | ||
| 10 | 133 | MORRIS Fiona |
AUS
|
32 | 48:31 | 1 |
Day 2 Men’s Top 10
| Rank | BIB | Rider | Nation | Team | Age | Result | IRM | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | JONGEWAARD Chris |
AUS
|
38 | 57:27 | 40 | ||
| 2 | 3 | HEKELE Emil |
CZE
|
40 | 57:51 | 30 | ||
| 3 | 2 | MILLBURN Garry |
AUS
|
30 | 58:04 | 20 | ||
| 4 | 1 | CLARK Anthony |
USA
|
30 | 58:08 | 15 | ||
| 5 | 6 | MAEDA Kohei |
JPN
|
23 | 58:08 | 10 | ||
| 6 | 10 | BRADFORD-PARISH Kevin |
USA
|
35 | 58:22 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 8 | TAKENOUCHI Yu |
JPN
|
29 | 58:54 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 4 | KOSAKA Hikaru |
JPN
|
29 | 59:07 | 4 | ||
| 9 | 9 | YOKOYAMA Kota |
JPN
|
22 | 59:07 | 2 | ||
| 10 | 12 | BEARD Cameron |
USA
|
19 | 59:07 | 1 |
