I’ve been keeping my eye on the weather for Kisarazu since I was accepted for the Tour de Chiba, and it’s been a roller coaster. Detailed forecasts are at most 10 days out, and for the past 10 days Yahoo has been saying cloudy, no rain, and tenki.jp has been predicting a deluge of biblical proportions.

As Fearless Leader Joe is fond of saying, I’m not made of sugar! Nana confirms from the forecasts on the telly that it’s unlikely to be a hard, all-day sort of rain. So, onwards!

It’s only now, two days (34 hours as of this writing) before the event that the two have come to an agreement: it’s going to be cloudy, and there’s a pretty good chance I’ll be getting wet.

I’m working tomorrow morning, and we’re leaving for Chiba from 1 p.m. So I’ve got the packing done, not forgetting the bib number and parking lot pass. I’ve checked Kuroko’s tire pressure and charged up the lights and Garmin. I’ve made a note of the hotels and the starting location, and I have the entry QR code at the ready.

Despite the forecast of cloudy skies and a healthy chance of rain, I’ve got the sunblock and UV sleeves and mask packed. I still have a stripe on my arm from last week’s ride where I didn’t have one of the sleeves pulled up quite far enough.