Are you ready for Gourmet Century Ride Asuke, JAPAN 2016?

　Some of you already know that we had a blast riding event last year in 2015 here in JAPAN. We had no idea how everything turned out till the end of everything and realized it was something we had never ever experienced before. It has been a year, but still deep in our minds, we have something explosive that cannot be held down tightly. Now, it is a time to blast everything out again.

　You can buy a ticket (entry starts from April 1st) and get some details at http://gourmetcentury.com/ride/?project=nagoya-japan.

　Don’t hesitate to buy ticket though if your heart tells you exactly what you want to do. As we are receiving so many calls and e-mails for this event and a lot of hotels are booked already now, and also considering what happened last year when we open the entry.

　To those who may want to know what happened last year, we are going to provide you a diary of GCR Asuke 2015 below. I hope something will click your mind and let yourself come over to Japan at this time.

Gourmet Century Ride Asuke, Japan 2015

Text : Hiroki Ebiko / Photo : Eri Tanaka & Dylan VanWheelden

It was way beyond a point of any other riding events,
like a beautiful movie from oldies,
a perfect fantasy world on that spot.

I am a rider of SimWorks XC Racing, and was able to participate in this riding event as a supported rider. I actually took a day off from my work because I really wanted to feel the same way as I read on the articles of GCR in Portland. It was my mystery and at the same time it was my fantasy world.

This is a simple riding event, just eat, ride and eat again. Those who love to eat and ride, this is like a heaven given by gods. Usually, when we go out to the mountains or any other places in the nature to ride, we don’t have any specific route and specific meal times. However, this GCR Asuke provided us a great route and amazing dishes. How can you possibly deny what they offer? Hella nope. I just ride and eat, moreover supported by SimWorks!!! I don’t think I can find any better heaven than this though.

I was heading toward the main site comfortably even though it was long-distance driving because of the excitement… Sorry, I lied. It was pain in the ass. I listened a soundtrack from ‘The Neverending Story”. As you already know, I was heading toward ‘Fantasia’.

It was a midnight already when I arrived at the rendezvous point, Hyakunenso inn, and I slept for a hew hours and woke up around 4:00 a.m.

It was drizzling and hazy weather in the morning.
I had sat there just waiting for the breakfast and sun light.
and walking around and checking the others’ bikes.
It was amazing to see all these bikes which were…

80% of steel bikes, and 70% out of it were all hand-made.
So many Cielo frames.
Sportif bikes were major part of it rather than Racer.
Which meant that most of the people who were staying at this inn were explores.

Do you know a word of ‘phototaxis’? Let’s say, a beetle flies toward a light. It is a behavior that a living thing moves toward a light. Yes, what I am saying is that we are the beetles gathered around GCR light.

After I met with all the supported riders, and went for the breakfast.
I kept praying like a buddhist monk in my mind saying, “Don’t eat too much. Don’t eat too much.” However, it was gone with a wind.

No matter how my stomach screamed like a man who couldn’t breath, I needed to stick with my mission. I had to ride at the end of line in order to keep an eye on all the participants and have them get done on dinner time. After I escorted all the participated riders in the morning, I still could not be patient to eat more so that I ate some cantaloupe before I activated my own Garmin, and tied up my shoelace on Quoc Pham shoes again.

Now I could see some blue sky between clouds.

I rode my bike on the road mostly flat and re-checked a map when it became a gentle hill.
All of a sudden, the yellow wagen beetle stopped right next to me and a driver and a passenger gave me a huge smile. Yes, these people organized this GCR event and I was very much glad that they also had really fun together.

Before long, a steep hill came up on me and didn’t see any houses around anymore. Finally, I reached to the group which was riding at the end of line. It seemed like they tried to adjust their cleats on a road shoulder and they were actually having fun with that trouble. I remember that there is a line in a book saying, “You should welcome a new trouble with a new feeling of despair.” For me, I think I would say that we should welcome a new trouble with a new feeling of expectation.

Right above their heads while they fix their cleats, sunlight filtering through trees came down on a road and started being dried out.

Some of the riders pushed their bikes on a hill, since we had to climb long enough to feel exhausted. I sometimes encouraged them with a blend of ‘booing’ and gave them some information of a lapse of time and a distance to the peak point, then headed to the first rest point at Dandoko Lake. When I reached to the first rest point, they gave me this square cute biscuit and I felt that my stomach answered me that he needed this sweet snack immediately.

An altitude was around 900m, It was hard to be there wearing only a jersey because of the strong wind.

After this peak point, a road became a long down hill. I regretted myself that I didn’t bring a jacket with me. I was waiting till everyone went down, then it was my turn to go. The road I rode on was crumbled down and it was getting worse and worse. Moreover, a bunch of curves was waiting for me while I was going down. This is something that you might need to have some skills to avoid a severe accident, but it seemed that nobody didn’t crash so that I felt released on my duty.

After you finished going down a hill, I had a lunch break at Harehare-an which is right next to a 15m waterfall, called Narusawano-taki.

On most of the route I rode by, I heard a sound of water. Sometimes, it sounded very gentle, and other times, it sounded fierce and wild just like our heart beats.
I had a lunch with a high volume voice to have a chat with other riders because of the sound of waterfall. Now, after all these heaven stage, we needed to get back to a hill climb hell.

It wasn’t hard like at the beginning, but still it gave us a trial moment with a full of stomach.
We started not talking each other.
Since I was a supported rider, so that I needed to bring the atmosphere up to the best. I mean, I just needed to talk with the riders. Whatever I talked about, I didn’t remember, but now again, I faced a long down hill. Luckily it was only 30km down hill with a second rest point.

I still heard a sound of water at the last rest point. This delicate Japanese confectionery with a sound of water was perfect match. I could say, it was much better than drinking beer though.

I started riding again after this last rest point, and the rest was only 20km down.

On the way to the goal, I was just only thinking about beer and dinner. My pedaling emotional level was pretty much high to feel all the good rhythm inside of me like dance steps. Mossy road, gravels, puddles, sun started going down, a noise of tires, murmuring of a stream on my right side, all riders who I met today, and this incredibly comfortable speeding. It was like a fantasy movie.

I escorted all the riders to the goal at Hyakunenso inn, spent sometimes about talking whatever happened on the way back here, prepared for a dinner party. Then, it was time to explore a long night.

I actually thought that this GCR Asuke spent too much money or too much effort and wondered how all these men who organized could survive after this. However, I didn’t see any people around who had angry faces nor even suffered at all. After all, I didn’t have to worry about anything at all.

I talked to locals there, and they could not wait to say, “Whatever I know in this bicycle world, it had never been this much fashionable and moreover people had so much fun! It completely blasted my mind.”

The best words ever I’d heard.

I was very glad to participate in this event with everyone together.
From this best words, I realized again that people are watching us, so that we have to be careful about how we behave on the road.

Pretty much sure that we had the best day ever on earth together.
I hope I could re-create that day again.

Now, what do you think about this GCR in JAPAN? You started feeling like coming to Japan right? Why not? Next article will be about the food they served in 2015. Ready your beer mugs on your hands and let’s get hungry together.