Training Report - Mt.Tokachidake (Mt.Tokachi) 3

Tesseract came back the day before to Hokkaido from the mainland of Japan where he's doing his studies. So this is the first time he rides on snow in this season. He wears a new pair of gloves and he put shoe covers triple. This day, his clothes weighed more than 3.0kg (cf. Kenashi Pass 15). And he didn't bring his cap which has a viser that causes fog on the lenses on the goggles. Moreover, he brought a new face cover which has a reputation of not fog the lenses.


Dr.K's equipment is unchanged.


High mountains tower in front of us.


The Mt.Furanodake (Mt.Furano) entered the view.


These mountains look like the Hymalayas.


It seems strong winds are blowing on the slant of 2000m of altitude.


The line of mountains' ridge is beautiful.


We are approaching the altitude of 1000m with the view of Kamifurano in the background.


The Mt.Furanodake is in front of us.



Tesseract is passing a steep part where the gradient is 100 per mill.
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Dr.K's climbing. We see his climbing has improved.
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Tesseract's approach to the summit.



Tesseract asked to Dr.K:
"Can you ride standing on the pedals on this steep uphill of 14 per cent gradient?"

Dr.K responded:
"I don't know."

Tesseract:
"Ok, I'm gonna show you how to do it."

So Tesseract showed to Dr.K how to ride standing on the pedals in this very steep part of the climb. Here, the gradient is around 140 per mill. If you don't displace the centre of gravity properly, the rear wheel spins at this gradient. The important, you displace your centre of gravity backwards. Then you stretch out the thigh so that the saddle doesn't hit the thigh.
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Dr.K tried but he couldn't. His rear wheel is spinning. As you see, his centre of gravity is too forwards. If you compare this with that of Tesseract, you see the distance between the leg and the saddle is about 10cm greater than his. This too forward centre of gravity causes the spinning.
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He said:
"I can't with studded tires of Nokian!" (cf. Studded tires)

(Don't blame the tires! However, it's true that Nokian tires have disadvantages.)

We rode seriously just last 2-3 hectometres to the summit.

Tesseract arrived first at the Mt.Tokachidake Hot Springs where the highest motorable road during the winter in Hokkaido is situated. Its altitude is 1280m.


Dr.K arrived 40 seconds later.


He's indicating the Mt.Furanodake.


He's indicating the Mt.Furanodake as well.


Hard rime is beautiful.


We wore face covers and we commenced to descend.

Tesseract goes ahead in the downhill as usual.
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Dr.K can't keep up the speed.
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Tesseract's passing this corner blocking the rear wheel's rotation.
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We had planned to visit the Fukiage Hot Springs but we weren't very motivated to ride more. So we descended directly. During the descent, we lunched in a restaurant. After lunch in the restaurant, we resumed our downhill.


Tesseract goes ahead again as always.
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Dr.K tries to minimise the loss but the gap is already 35 seconds.
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Tesseract won the descent and Dr.K arrived 3 minutes 20 seconds later at the foot.