Mountain Biking
Apart from touring and just riding my crossbike on paved roads, I also like to do some mountain biking on dirt roads and fire trails. When I was an Assistant English Teacher (AET) in Ohira Village, I had plenty of opportunities to go mountain biking up in the Mount Izumigatake / Funagata area of Miyagi Prefecture. Unfortunately, I no longer have my MTB as I had it taken back home to Sydney. This is in preparation for when I will leave Japan.
Dave (on the left), Chris (on the right) and me entered a three-hour MTB endurance race back in June, 1999. We did it as a team of three and we got in 12 laps in three hours. We came 14th overall out of about 38 starters. By the way, our team was called Team ALT.
Dave and me with Tatsuo Sato. Tatsuo is one cool dude and a great bike mechanic. He has a bike shop in Sendai and I am one of his regular customers. Looking up the hill is part of the race course, on an open slope of Izumigatake Ski Resort.