Pedalling for Pleasure
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Summer cycling is a great way to savour the scenic views of the Japanese countryside
Yasutaka Tashiro, a member of the Japanese team for men’s road racing at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and now owner of cycling school, Linkage Cycling, in the Katase district of Fujisawa, has long enjoyed cycling through the rural areas of his native province and taking in the scenery along the way.
He regularly leads groups through the countrywide and on a sunny morning last month, invited five men and women from a cycling class to hit the road with him.
After giving them instructions about the riding and traffic rules, Tashiro led the party out.
With Tashiro riding at the front of the group, they headed for Mount Koma, which straddles Oiso and Hiratsuka in the same prefecture.
On the way, they stopped by a seafood restaurant and a bakery.
After seven hours of cycling, all participants completed the about 60-kilometre course to the mountain and back.
“I feel a great sense of achievement” one participant said. “I really feel great,” another added.
Blessed with nature and tourist resources, the Shonan area along the coast of Kanagawa Prefecture is an ideal place for people to enjoy cycling. Cyclists can take a long, comfortable ride on their bikes or cycle at higher speeds in the area covering Kamakura and Fujisawa.
Along with offering outings around the Shonan area, Tashiro’s school rents bikes and cycling supplies.
When Tashiro was a university student, he belonged to a cycling club, where he started riding a road bike. He joined the club hoping to learn cycling techniques he could use in motorcycle racing, which had attracted him since his high school days.
After making bike trips everywhere from the Kanto region to Hokkaido, he became fascinated by cycling because he could reach a destination on his own – even if the destination was far away.
After graduating from university, he became a professional road racer and won the national championship twice. He was active in road racing as a top competitor until his retirement in 2007.
For the next five years, he hardly rode.
Then, for work-related reasons, Tashiro found himself joining the Haute Route Alps race in August 2013. The seven-day European road race was held along a route in the Alps covering 866 kilometres.
The course for the race is hard going, with lots of dips and inclines, but he enjoyed seeing the beautiful Alpine scenery, chatting with other participants and sharing meals.
While pedalling along on his bike, he experienced joy he had never had when he was a professional cyclist. He completed the course and decided there and then to introduce others to the fun of cycling.
The Shonan area, abundantly blessed with natural settings, attracted the Tokyo-born Tashiro even though he had no prior connections to it.
Tashiro opened the school in April 2014, fulfilling a long-cherished desire.
The school welcomes cyclists at all levels – from beginners to advanced riders. About 600 joined the school in the past year.
“The school isn’t too hard on the cyclists physically, meaning participants can ride on a bike for a while. So I want anyone to feel welcome to join us. I hope helps create a road racer from Shonan,” he says.
