cycloWHAT?

How About Some Hardcore

Before the Cyclo Cross Tokyo 2012 race on Saturday, we were introduced, by Daisuke Yano, to the owner of Bonsai Cycle, a special bike shop in Tokyo.

Upon meeting the owner, he told Tim Johnson he made “replica helmets.”

“This one?” Tim asked, pointing to his Red Bull helmet?

“Yes,” he replied, “This one is very difficult.”

We were intrigued by this and looking forward to the opportunity to meet him at his shop, especially since we had also been told, via THE INTERNET, to visit this shop for it’s coffee. Coffee, mmmmmmmmm.

Two days later, our hosts, Hiro Ito, Hideyuki Suzuki, and Koichiro Nakamura, brought Tim, Kaiko Shimura, and me to Bonsai Cycle. It would turn out be a more amazing experience than we could have ever expected.

I am pretty sure that says, “Bonsai Cycle.”

When we had first met the owner, he was dressed in street clothes and a traditional cycling cap. He looked like a bike messenger. When we met him again, this time in his establishment, he was dressed to the nines, in a fine white shirt, sweater vest and bow tie. The pride he took in his business was obvious.

Upon entering Bonsai Cycle, we were welcomed to cyclocross-themed muffins and espresso drinks made by the shop’s barista.

In broken English, the owner explained that, to him, cyclocross was all things brown; Mud, Coffee, and Chocolate.

The muffins were tasty. And brown. And chocolatey.

I am a fan of hyperbole. I do not use hyperbole when I say that I had the best macchiato I have ever had at Bonsai Cycle. The Barista was more skilled than I have ever seen, as was evidenced by her cappucino art.

After sitting with our muffins and drinks, the owner then gave us a tour of his shop.

He then led us to the replica helmets he had made. BY HAND.

First, we saw his Jeremy Powers Team Rapha Focus Edition helmet.

And Tim tried to steal it.

Then he led us to the Tim Johnson Red Bull Edition helmet.

We saw the inspirations for his creation.

And the materials he used to create it.

The visit to Bonsai Cycle was yet another amazing experience in this visit to Tokyo. After finishing off what remained of our coffees and muffins, we headed into the streets of the small neighborhood that housed Bonsai Cycle with Koichiro and headed to Shinjuku for Tempura with Kaiko.

Cyclo Cross Tokyo 2012 GoPro

Some video from the handlebars of Christian Heule during Cyclo Cross Tokyo 2012.

Cyclo Cross Tokyo 2012

Holy crap!

I didn’t realize this, but this was the first ever Cyclo Cross Tokyo, and to say it was a success is an understatement.

We all woke up early to be at breakfast in the hotel by 7am. We were at the course with bikes, wheels, trainers and other supplies by 8 for the 40 minute course inspection, since Tim and Erik had not yet ridden the course.

There was still roughly 1.2km of sand on the course, so there was that. Knowing that, I took great pleasure in not racing.

Crowds were already starting to fill in and there were tents already raised for manufacturers and vendors.

The guys were immediately bombarded by requests for autographs, photos, interviews and introductions.

The prevailing mood for this event seemed was excitement; not just for the fans and spectators, but for the competitors as well. The local, Japanese racers seemed thrilled at the opportunity to race along side some of the World’s elite cyclocross racers.

Cannondale’s Japanese MTB rider, Kazuhiro Yamamoto, and the local Cannondale guys offered their tent, tools, and anything else we needed to make the race go as smoothly as possible. Here, Kazu has his number pinned by his wife, Erina Yamamoto.

Our hosts from Champion System were very busy with the days duties, particularly Ryoji, who was promoting his first ever cyclocross race!

Chiharu was also busy and kept us on task with where we needed to be and when, since we understood none of the instructions and information being called out over the loud speakers.

Before we knew it, it was time to race. Hiroki Ito, Watase Yoshiki and the Cannondale crew helped out immensely by running the spare bikes to the pits while I met the guys to take their gear at the start.

The whistle blew, and the guys headed down the start stretch, immediately into a double set of barriers. On the pavement. Tim almost killed himself, but didn’t, and it was off to the pits for me.

I have some video of the race, but that will have to be posted later since internet speed at the hotel makes uploading video very difficult.

To quickly summarize, a local Japanese racer, Yu Takenouchi, took off like a bat out of hell and put a sizable gap into the entire field, making Ben Berden, and every other racer say, “Oh S***!”

Ben eventually caught Takenouchi, who appeared to have gone out a little too fast from all the excitement of the huge crowds.

In the end, only five racers finished on the lead lap, with Tonkin being the first lapped rider. The final results were Berden, Johnson, Heule, Takenouchi, Driscoll, and Tonkin.

After the race, I caught some photos of the women’s podium awaiting presentation.

Spectators.

And the fun on the podium.

Champion System threw an amazing race, and the fact that this was the inaugural event is extremely promising for the future of cyclocross in this city. This event proved that cyclocross is more than just UCI races and World Cups and SuperPrestige. Cyclocross is what you choose to make it and Tokyo has made something special with this event.

Enjoy these final, few images I think best summarize this great race:

Dinner Before the Race.

Back to chronological order, here…Friday.

On Friday, the rest of the racers arrived in Tokyo: Ben Berden, Tim Johnson, and Eric Tonkin.

Christian, Jamey and I were passing time in my hotel when Berden arrived at the hotel in Daiba late Friday afternoon and stopped by our room to say hello.

Ben’s most pressing question was what we were going to do at night.

He was welcomed to our room by a pant-less Christian, who spent many hours like this on Tim’s bed before he arrived to that evening.

“I can do this because I am Euro.” That is an actual quote. And he’s right.

Local Rapha rep, Daisuke Yano, also showed up to join us for a course pre-ride that would be happening a few hours later.

I sat where I usually do, in front of the laptop trying to upload photos, videos and write posts like this one…

A few hours later, Tim and Eric had arrived, the course inspection was done and we were on our way to another authentic Japanese dinner with our Champion System hosts, Ryoji, Shinya, and Chiharu.

The dinner we had is called Shabu Shabu. It’s basically a large pot of boiling water and oil, into which you dip an assortment of vegetables and, more importantly, delicious, thinly-sliced beef.

I ordered myself a Ginger Ale. It turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever had.

I had told our hosts upon first arriving here, when asked what type of Japanese food I knew and liked, that I loved Tempura. They were thrilled about this, so naturally they surprised us with some appetizers of Tempura fish, shrimp and vegetables.

The Tempura was amazing. Light, clean, and delicious. The shrimp barely required chewing. I don’t know what the fish was, and I don’t care, because it was good.

They placed three large pots of the water and oil mix on our table and beneath them were what basically amounted to gas-fired Sternos.

Then they brought out three large plates of items we would be dropping into the boiling pots.

There was cabbage, Udon noodles, mushrooms, carrots, seaweed, tofu (which is amazing here - more soft and gelatinous that what we find at home), green onions, and more.

Then came the thinly-sliced beef.

Once the water oil was nearly boiling, we received two dipping sauces, a sweet, almost citrus soy sauce and a sesame-based sauce. We also each got a bowl of rice to pair with all the other items. We got the nod from the server to start dropping food in the pots and we had at it.

I had the misfortune of sharing a pot with Jamey Driscoll. He eats quickly. He eats a lot.

After we could eat no more, Ryoji and Shinya had to leave to attend to preparations for the next day’s race. Chiharu asked if we needed anything else and I said we needed dessert. Christian, Jamey and I had stumbled upon a crepe/ice cream vendor earlier in the day, so we went there.

After eating some crepes filled with ice cream and chocolate covered bananas, the fatigue started to show on the faces of everyone and we called it a night.

Saturday morning would be more course time for Cyclo Cross Tokyo 2012 and then the big event at 12:00. None of us knew what to expect, but this being a blog, and tomorrow actually really being two days ago, it would turn out to be amazing and more than anyone could have expected. More on that soon.

Tokyo at Night.

I am going to step out of chronological order on posts here. I have to. Racing cyclocross is, well, racing cyclocross. You can imagine what it was like and I will definitely share my photos and video soon, but right now I have something more interesting to share.

After Saturday’s race, our Champion Systems hosts threw a party and fed us all we could eat. We can’t thank Ryoji, Chiharu, and Shinya enough for all they did for us this weekend. They were great hosts.

After the post-race party, Chiharu brought Tim Johnson, Ben Berden, Jamey Driscoll, Don Kellogg of Clement, and myself to meet new Boston/Tokyo friend, Kaiko Shimura, in the Shibuya neighborhood of Tokyo. Eric Tonkin was too wrecked from the travel and racing and Christian Heule had too early a flight the next morning to be able to join us.

Before getting on the train to Shibura, I followed the advice of a Twitter follower and purchased coffee in a can from a vending machine. You can get almost anything from a vending machine here.

The can comes out hot. Yep. And it tastes better than your Medium Regulah from the Dunks, kid.

We took the train to Shibura.

Once in Shibura, we met Kaiko and headed into the madness.

Before we knew it, it was 2 AM and we were standing in the entrance to a Ramen Noodle “restaurant.” I put “restaurant” in ” ” because I don’t know how to categorize this place. I’m not saying it was bad, I am just saying it wasn’t a traditional restaurant and I have never been anywhere like it.

Something we have seen a lot of here is a system of tickets for purchasing food or drinks. You don’t order from a cashier or server at many places. Instead, you have a ticket machine with images and descriptions of available food and drink items and their prices.

When I asked Chiharu why they did this, she replied, “Because it’s easy?”

Good point.

When it was time to purchase my ticket, I argued with her about what I wanted, but in the end, she decided for me and I ended up with a ticket for Ramen Noodles instead of some other rice and vegetable options.

With our tickets in hand, we walked up a few steps to another panel of blinking lights, symbols and buttons. This board illustrated the current seating availability. There were two corridors to choose from, one on the far right and one on the far left, and each had a few available “seats.”

We pushed the buttons for the seats we wanted and walked through the door to the left.

What we found behind the door wasn’t a row of seats so much as a row of mini cubicles. Chiharu said this was to offer some privacy to “shy” people who may not want to be seen or see others.

We each took our place in a cubicle. On the way to mine, I found one cubicle housing a patron who appeared to havelost the battle against The Ramen.

He was promptly removed from the establishment, his hair soaked in soup.

Once seated, we were given additional paperwork to fill out. This was used to customize our Ramen Noodles to our preferences. Again, I let Chiharu choose for me.

“Do you like spicy,” she asked.

“Yes, I like spicy,” I replied.

You will notice the circle around “Double Spice.” You will also notice the disclaimer that the Secret Sauce may be too spicy for children. What spice had the guy with soup-wet hair chosen?

When the questionnaire completed, I passed the piece of paper through a small opening in the cubicle and I waited.

I also passed my phone through the opening and took a photo of the inner workings of this mystical and magical place.

A short while after passing my customization document to the staff I received my big-ass-bowl of Ramen Noodles and the shade above my cubicle’s opening was dropped.

I could only assume the pile of red on top was “Double Spice.”

Before embarking on this culinary adventure, I delayed the game by filling up my glass of water from my private dispenser in my cubicle.

Then I looked to my left to check on Tim in his cubicle and saw that he had chosen to order a hard-boiled egg. It came with instructions on how to peel it. Everything here has instructions, even the toilets.

I vocally judged his decision, turned back to my cubicle, and immediately proceeded to burn my face off on some double-spiced Ramen Noodles.

It wasn’t long until I realized I had picked the last of the noodles out of the soup bowl with my chop sticks. I asked Chiharu what I was supposed to do with the large amount of reddish broth in my bowl.

“You drink it.”

I drank it.

It was spicy.

It was actually so spicy that my lips are still feeling a little “off” at the time of writing this post, nearly 24 hours after the fact.

Before leaving the “restaurant’ and heading back out to the streets of Tokyo, I used the bathroom, where there was no shortage of toilet paper.

When I went to wash my hands, I saw something amazing.

Just when I thought this experience couldn’t have gotten any better, it went ahead and did. That’s right, that faucet washes its handles itself.

Thanks to Chiharu and Kaiko for giving us a true tast of Tokyo cuisine. I will never forget eating Ramen Noodles in Tokyo, even if I have already forgotten how to get back there.