Comments about the season 2006-2007

As we mentioned several times in the training reports, this winter was extremely hot because of the positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation and El Niño. Many of us rode their road bikes even in midwinter. However the quantity of snow was not so small just a little lower than average. So somehow we could train on mountains.

At the end of February, the lingering snow already became so few and the roads became so wide that we thought the spring had come. We all rode road bikes for two weeks. But the winter began again in the middle of March. The temperature was low like January and it snowed like January. In consequence, the snow rested longer than usual.

We are hoping to ride on snow even in summer. So we are planning to ride in high mountains in New Zealand in summer (winter of the Southern Hemisphere) if we can arrange financially (means if someone sponsers). Winter in New Zealand is warmer than Hokkaido's but the sunshine is less strong at the same latitude as the aphelion is in the winter of the Southern Hemisphere (usually the perihelion is at the beginning of January and the aphelion is at the beginning of July). Maybe we could have more stable snow there when the temperature is low enough.

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