Brilliant Day for the Fuji500!

on

The sun shone all day and the breeze stayed cool, though a little gusty northwest of Fuji. Still, the Road Gods were smiling, keeping our path clear and perfectly twistilicious!

Being delayed a week by rain meant fewer than half of those who’d registered made it to the start, but for those who did, what a great day for a ride, right?!

The dawn gathering…
The first 5th station run of 35+ hairpins to the top of the Subashiri Trail was a blast. Gorgeous morning above the clouds!
We came, we saw, we “Ooo!”ed and “Wow!”ed. A very comfy 12°c up there but not cold at all, though grip heaters were on.
Tony on the Green Machine heading out to lead us back down the twistython.
Next up: the highest of the 5th station runs at 2400 metres….
The Fujinomiya run from the Fuji Skyline. There were already plenty of cars parked up there at 7:30am, and the climbing season hasn’t even started yet.
Big smiles behind those chin bars.
Tyres were harmed in the making of this post! 😆
Big Red, Ninja Green, Boisterous Orange and Ice-cold Blue, the colours of my people.

Our first stop at around 315 of the 550 odd kilometres to the goal had us meeting Neil at a Lawson’s for a snack around 10am. Soon Arun and Chintan rolled in, too. Then our merry band of tyre melters headed for the clouds again.

1880 metres on a little known western ascent. Behind that low cloud bank, there’s actually a grand view out over the rolling hills and mountain peaks all the way from the Minami to Kita Alps. Oh well, next time.
And then the Subaru Line.

After the B road adventure on the last ascent, the Subaru Line was a dreamy, if expensive (1760yen toll), super cruise up n down.

Peace brothers

Got to see slithers of the last of the snow and a squillion tourists happy-snapping about the rotary with stick waving traffic monitors hobbling around corralling them.  Could almost be a seniors-olympics event. 😆

The S23 Battleaxes did what tyres do very well. 😆
The 5th and final ascent was to the gate on the Subaru Line backdoor at 1845 metres. Great little road and fantastic way to end the hillclimb fest!

Tummys were rumbling and we all needed a timeout so…

Off to Moosehill Burger we went!
Cheers for the booking Chintan and liaison Arun.
Stayed longer than we should’ve, but we were in good company and when we finally swaggered out, refueled and rotund, we were ready for the last three touges on the run to the finish at Dangozaka.

Brilliant Day on the road!

Thanks to all those who made it! 👍 And to all those who didn’t, you’ve got your route maps, so get out there and round some rubber before it gets too hot and the main passes close to vehicles for the climbing season.

Masa, good luck with the repairs. Holger, Beppe, Nanikore, Redbed, GregdaHead, Evan and Rear admiral, I was looking forward to riding with you and hope to sometime soon. Thanks for the heads up letting me know not to wait for you at the start. 👍

Next run is the Mountain Day Twistybutt on August 10. Hope to see you there. If not…

See you on the road!

Posted in

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.