Crazy fast ride around Kasumigaura

Route: Full circle of Kasumigaura and over to Tsukuba

Bicycle: 137 km

Train: 145 km

Average Speed: 26.0 km/h (!)

Total Ascent: 73 m

Riding Time: 5:30 h

Weather: Sunny, no wind, 4C (but felt warm enough to take the long sleeves off)

I had seen a new Meetup group announcing this ride around Kasumigaura, one of the places on my bucket list. The sell was that this would be also for beginner road cyclists, so I gathered my determination and signed up. 

I had never made the full loop and even in parts I think I had been here only once before, many years ago on one of my first rides with Garmin (RIP). But the lake is definitely very nice and with the sun out it was warm enough to roll down the long sleeves of my winter jacket, albeit I was the only one thinking so. Everyone else was still very much in deep winter mode. 

We set out and had a very high pace going... but just about to be able to stick in there. A few stops on the way were planned, the typical conbini stops to get to a toilet, fill up the bottle and get some quick snack between the teeth and into the stomach. 

A bit later a stop at a local restaurant, famous for its huge Katsukare where we were lucky to get in as a relatively large group for a small and famous restaurant. 

After a quick picture at a road side stop the slowest rider (not me) dropped of and went directly from there over a bridge back to Tsuchiura... while the rest of us set out to cycle around the smaller part of the lake as well. And here the speed really picked up. So much that the front group left us, but luckily a French guy had pity with me and I was sitting in his wheel cycling with all my possible speed and hitting 30 km/h and more. 

The day should have ended after this beer back at Tsuchiura station, but it turned out that there was some major problem with the train line and no trains passed for hours on end. Some of the guys had come by car, so they went back to their car and even took an other 2 with them, the German girl, decided that riding an other 80 km back to Shibuya was her thing... while the French guy and I headed over to Tsukuba, a mere 10 km away to catch a train from there.