For the first ride of the New Year, I had grandiose ideas about visiting a waterfall at the top of a 14km climb that begins 50km from home. As I was preparing this morning, I realized that the climb (and the return) would add at least 90 minutes to a ride that would already be about 7 hours. And it’s a bit ambitious to think I’m going to cap the first ride in a month with a long (if gradual) climb.

Instead I chose to make it an easygoing day with a lap around Tokyo, a route I last rode on October 30. And it turned out to be a good choice. The route features several short but somewhat stiff climbs (there are no fewer than 5 Cat 4 climbs according to Strava), and each one had me feeling it had been more than a year since I’d been on the bike, rather than just a month.

It was a cheerful, relaxed ride. The sun was warm and I only ran into crowds in Toyosu. I saw the Mario Cart tour at Ueno Park, where I have two strenuous climbs before the final go up Kudanzaka (at Budokan).

Based on a riding time of 3 hours 25 minutes, my moving average was 17.8km/h.