It’s less than a month to the Tour de Tohoku, and I’ve been desperately awaiting gaps in the heat to get in some practice rides. José let me know he’d be ready for an early ride today, to get out and back before the forecast high of 33C. We planned to meet at 7:30 at Nihonbashi, and I got a bit of a late start, finally getting on the road at 6:50 on Hornsby. (I still need to sort out Kuroko’s front brake after the full pad-and-rotor replacement last weekend.)

I got to Nihonbashi at 7:35, with a message that José was on the way. We soon met up and then José took a couple of minutes to apply sunscreen before we continued along Eitai dori. Then it was a stop at the usual convenience store just before reaching Arakawa so José could make up for his missed breakfast.

Despite these breaks, we were making good time. A headwind down the Arakawa to Tokyo Bay slowed us a bit, but we still arrived at Disneyland at 8:48.

Unfortunately I wasn’t careful enough propping Hornsby up against the stone planter, and she had a spill. When we resumed riding again I was brushing soil off the hand grip, and at the next stop I confirmed the frame is indeed scratched up. My bad. I did a similar drop with Kuroko within the first month of ownership, as I recall (at Haneda on that occasion).

I invited José to go ahead on the climb up the bridge back over the Arakawa, and he pedaled past me but then held station about 10m ahead. He no doubt was feeling the effects of not having ridden since we visited Teganuma in March.

From the bridge we rode the shaded nonbiri cycling route through Shin Kiba until we reached Wakasu Seaside Park, where we stopped for Nana’s world-famous onigiri at a park bench that was not exactly in the shade.

Recharged with energy, we reached Tokyo Gate Bridge shortly after and topped up on water before continuing back in traffic towards home.

The sprinkles started just as I left José at Nihonbashi, and it was soon streaming down rain. The shower only lasted about 15 minutes, though, and the sun was coming out again as I reached Kudanzaka. I felt quite a bit fresher than I had the two previous times I rode home via Budokan, and I climbed Kudanzaka without incident.

At Chidorigafuchi, with the sun starting to blaze again, I checked the time: 11:10. I messaged Nana I would be home between noon and 12:15, and set out again. I was relaxing at this point, fighting off a headache and aware of puddles and potential slippery pavement following the cloudburst.

There was no skidding on the way home, but I came to a stop on a downhill behind an electric bus taking on passengers, and had to climb the following uphill with less than half my usual momentum. Not a problem in Hornsby’s lowest gear. It was only on the start from the next stoplight that the chain tried repeatedly to slip into the next gear. I’ll have to adjust that before the next hilly ride.

Through Yotsuya I was playing cat-and-mouse with an older (i.e., possibly my age) rider on a single-speed bicycle. I’d stopped at a light several lengths ahead, only to watch as he passed the line of traffic on the right and came back across to rest ahead of me on the other side of the crosswalk, where he leaned over his bars and started coughing his lungs up. I was debating asking whether he was OK when the crosswalk turned green and he crossed over to the opposite side.

I’d thought that was the last I’d seen of him, but I heard a commotion from the opposite side and turned to see him sprawled in the street against the curb, traffic stopped to avoid running him over. Several pedestrians were helping him to his feet and he righted his bicycle and retrieved his bag. The light changed and I crossed in the direction I was going. When I looked back to see how he was doing, he was nowhere in sight.

For the remaining few kilometers, the ride was much less eventful. The sun was starting to dry me off. I still felt good on the rise over the tracks at Shinjuku station, powering my way over the climb but thankful for the brief descent that followed. I was watching my progress on Garmie, wondering if I’d round off the ride at the end to reach 60km. I decided I would if it was less than 1km. In the end I came in at 58.45km and I’d had enough. At 11:47 I messaged Nana that I was home.

I brought the ride in at just under five hours total elapsed time. On a moving time of 3:10:04, I averaged 18.5km/h. Much to my surprise, I found I’d posted a couple of personal bests on the day, primarily when I was riding back from the bay and had the wind at my back.

Hornsby has some scratches in her beautiful grey metallic finish on the rear seatstay and the fork. Scratches are inevitable, but of course I’m a bit sad to see it so soon. If there’s any bare metal showing I’ll make sure to get some primer down on it. And I’ll try to find some touch-up paint that’s a good enough match that nothing will show short of a close inspection.