Yabitsu, the best hill climb place

Today Brompton and I climbed up to the Yabitsu Pass where was most popular hill climb destination amongst cyclists in Tokyo metropolitan area in Japan. The Yabitsu Pass has an elevation of 761 meters running through the Tanzawa Mountains. The route has 13.4 km  in total distance and an average inclination of about 6% from the foot of the mountain to the top which is ideal for a hill climb training. Cyclists can easily reach there either by train (Hadano Station of the Odakyu Line) or by bike from his/her home.

[data]
route: from Hadano station to Yabitsu pass
distance: 13.4 km
difference in elevation: 680 meters
average inclination:  5.7%

Let's go to Sinjuku Station to get on Odakyu line. It takes about an hour to reach Hadano Station, the nearest one to Yabitsu.

Get off the train at Hadano Station and start to ride. 10 minutes after you can reach the entrance of the route with a torii (Shinto shrine archway) in the middle of the road.

The route is getting hilly more and more. I saw a lot of riders up and down the hill.

Because my Brompton is a little slow, sport bikers leave me behind.

Quite a few riders are coming down. Because traffic of vehicles are relatively small on the road, it's a really bikers' heaven for a hill climb.

Even beautiful ladies go down the hill at high speed.

What a great view looking down to the earth.

When you are blessed with fair weather, you can view even the Pacific Ocean over those low mountains.

 

Already 700 meters up at its elevation. Suddenly I feel cool wind coming. It seems that the wind comes from the other side of the mountain. The pass is close.

There is!

Brompton and I reached the top of the pass, climbing up by 600 meters over!

After the hill climb, down to the station again and visited Hakone where was only 30 minutes by train and I took a rest at one of the hot springs there.

Why don't you try Yabitsu and take a bath at one in the Hakone Hot Springs to enjoy a Brompton ride in Japan?


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