Muddy Kyoto Cylocross: The First Two Races
Skill and Concentration Taijo Hino (日野 泰静) -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image datanearby photos
Skill and Concentration
Taijo Hino (日野 泰静)

This post, brought to you at 4am by jetlag, is a continuation from Cyclocross Races: Practice at the Mud Bath. Above we have the very first rider of the first race to make it to where I was at the Mud Bath.

The first race actually was three separate races run in parallel: Category 3 (men who had earned the right to advance from the anyone-can-enter Category 4), Masters 2 (men 40 and over who have done well enough to progress from Masters 3 and Masters 4), and U17, children 17 and under who, presumably, are too old or too skilled for U15.

The boy above, presumably 16 or 17 years old, so totally dominated the course that the next finisher, from any of the three races, didn't come in until a minute and a half later. My friend Andy, who ran a strong race coming in 8th of 54 in Category 3, didn't finish until more than three minutes after the boy above.

The boy had won bronze in the Japanese National Road Race Championships last year, so I guess this short cyclocross race isn't such a challenge. 🙂

It's cute to see his twitter page, which has been inactive since 2012. The tweets then, presumably as a middle-school kid, include things like School starts tomorrow! Winter break tooooooo short and Crepes were tasty today, but also stuff like Today's mountain-bike practice was tough, but I do it for myself.

Andy's Second Trip Through the Mud Bath -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/1600 sec, f/13, ISO 2200 — map & image datanearby photos
Andy's Second Trip Through the Mud Bath
Reverse Angle the mud trail at left leads away from the Mud Bath -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 125 — map & image datanearby photos
Reverse Angle
the mud trail at left leads away from the Mud Bath

As I described in the initial post, the course progresses away from the Mud Bath, then does a 180 and returns back (along the line of cars seen in the background of the picture above), then another 180 away, and finally another 180 to return towards the area next to the Mud Bath. That's where the four riders are in the shot above.

As they pass beside the Mud Bath, they have to climb a somewhat-less-muddy, but decidedly-more-hilly section. I'll call it the Mud Hill.

Antti Approaching the Mud Hill -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 360 — map & image datanearby photos
Antti Approaching the Mud Hill
Bogged Down on Mud Hill -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 86mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 — map & image datanearby photos
Bogged Down on Mud Hill
Andy's Third Trip Through the Mud Bath for the final lap, Andy tried riding through, and succeeded -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 450 — map & image datanearby photos
Andy's Third Trip Through the Mud Bath
for the final lap, Andy tried riding through, and succeeded

The second race of the day involved two categories running in parallel, C4 (Category 4, open to any man with the entry fee) and CM3 (Masters 3, men 40 and above who earned promotion from CM4). German friend Christoph Millotat was racing in C4.

Christoph -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 75mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image datanearby photos
Christoph
Not Christoph -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 360 — map & image datanearby photos
Not Christoph
Christoph -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 560 — map & image datanearby photos
Christoph
At One of the Aforementioned 180° Turns -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 125mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image datanearby photos
At One of the Aforementioned 180° Turns
Mud Hill Again -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/1600 sec, f/14, ISO 3600 — map & image datanearby photos
Mud Hill Again
Straddling Into No-Man's Land between mud hill on the left and the mud bath on the right -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/1600 sec, f/14, ISO 2000 — map & image datanearby photos
Straddling Into No-Man's Land
between mud hill on the left and the mud bath on the right
The “ Not Christoph ” Guy From Above approaching the mud bath for the 2nd time -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/1600 sec, f/10, ISO 1800 — map & image datanearby photos
The Not Christoph Guy From Above
approaching the mud bath for the 2nd time
Nope -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/1600 sec, f/10, ISO 2000 — map & image datanearby photos
Nope

The guy's aggression did pay off, though; he came in 4th in his race.

Christoph Approaching Mud Hill -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/1600 sec, f/10, ISO 3200 — map & image datanearby photos
Christoph Approaching Mud Hill
“ The Competitor ” The guy seen here moves slowly but surely through the mud bath. He did not stop or fall. -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 130mm — 1/1600 sec, f/8, ISO 900 — map & image datanearby photos
The Competitor
The guy seen here moves slowly but surely through the mud bath.
He did not stop or fall.
Christoph's Final Trip through the mud bath -- 桂川緑地公園 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2016 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 102mm — 1/1600 sec, f/8, ISO 1800 — map & image datanearby photos
Christoph's Final Trip
through the mud bath

Continued here...


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