This past weekend Ya-Chan and I headed down to Kyoto in the middle of the night to get to the Red Bull Holy Ride race. Seeing it was just the first day of Obon, one of the biggest national holiday weeks in Japan, we left at 2am arriving at 7am...good timing, and we hit no traffic jams.

We were a bit tired, and Ya-Chan being the trooper that she is, drove the whole way as my personal chauffeur, mechanic and main support person. Upon arrival, we checked out the race site and walked the course which consisted of a 400 stair ancient stone stairway leading up to the famous Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine in Kyoto. So stoked that Red Bull could pull off this great location, especially in the middle of Obun... well done!!

The stairs were really slippery but not as steep and narrow as I had expected so I was a bit relieved. However, I knew that it would be really difficult not to crash on this course because of its traction. The stone stairs were very damp and resembled the conditions of the North shore in Vancouver. They never really dry out due to the heavy moisture in the area.

We were only allowed one practice run, then into the qualifier. The practice run was pretty scary first time to ride the stairs and test the traction. The straight aways were really fun, you could get a better rhythm when you leaned far back on the rear tire and just powered through the stairs. The corners were a different story.. super slow and super cautious.......

Since the race was open class only, which means no separation of elite, sex, etc.. just one big class, I came 76th in the qualifier out of 124 racers......I never made the top 32 cut off for the semi-finals. Only our world cup dh athlete Mio Suimasa could pull that off. You go girl.. she was knocked out in the first round but she showed fantastic girl power.....way to go girl!!! I ended up 3rd in the women's category so I was super stoked with that and the fact that I had a clean run with no crashes!!!!!!

It was such a rush, great organization, great people and a great race!!!!!! Thank you to all who supported me and organized this great event!!! Especially to Ya-Chan, Kouji and my sponsors....love you!!!!! I will be practicing stairs now for next year's event.. hopefully at the same place and same time. You rock RED BULL!!!!

Here are some of the great links from the race!!!

Ya-Chan's photo shoot on flickr!!

My photo selection on I web album I, album II

facebook photo gallery

My official race report on the Specialized Twitter Blog....

The finished product by artist Yoshimasa Kuboto San....I purchased it and now about to get it framed..

Artist Yoshimasa Kubota San and my portrait......thank you Kubota San.. I love it!!!

now you can get an idea of it's true size..

Join Shot-Project's Hori San and Sweet Riders's Karey Watanabe for a fun downhill and jump session on August 11th, from 10-15:00pm at Hakuba 47 MTB Park.

We will be riding from 10-12pm in the morning on the upper dh trails as well as practice the race course for the upcoming X-Session Asia Event on Aug 21st, 10.

Then we will break for a pizza lunch from 12-13:00.....mmmm, good.

From 13:00-15:00 we will work on the jump course located down below near the parking lot.

It will be an action packed fun day!!!

Sign up today....5 hours for only ¥6000, which includes a full day's gondola ticket and lunch!!

Bike Rentals are available, either from Sweet Riders or Hakuba 47 (Sweet Riders bikes are limited so put your request in asap!)

Looking forward to riding with you!!

Karey and Hori San


To register contact:
Karey at info@sweetriders.com
OR
Hori San at info@shot-project.com

Today I took guests visiting from Canberra, Australia out to Japan's Downhilling resort, Fujimi Panorama. We had an excellent day exploring the trails and Tarita and Devin ripped it up. Devin is an x racer, with tons of downhilling skill and Tarita saddled up to give it a try as well. Great job guys.. was a great day rippen it up with you both!! Cheers till next time we ride together!!



Here is a video made by Kousuke Terda from Backyard Garage at Fujimi Panorama..... thanks Kousuke! Riders are Kousuke, Devin and Karey........

Photo taken by 中尾亮宏

I was able to race and finish in XC elite this past weekend. It was so hot and humid, I thought I was going to keel over in the heat several times during the race, but somehow kept it going to finally finish a race without getting timed out. 4 hard long hot laps!!!!! Yeah, I did it!!!!

How random is this?? Walked into a cafe to get some dinner before class and all of a sudden this Japanese artist is doing my portrait on newspaper.. what a cool experience and I love the finished product!!! Thanks to Yoshimasa Kubota San... you can find his link here!!

More photo's here