10 Second Anime - Yowamushi Pedal - Episode 6

Yowamushi Pedal - Episode 6

The road race novices are scared of the broom wagon. Naruko does a great impression of Onoda. And Onoda finds his gears.

The cycling club begins its Welcome Race, and it's actually a pretty nice 60km course. You've got a warmup neutral portion through town, a long flat course to the base of the mountain, pretty steep grades up to the top, a technical descent, and rollers to finish the race. There will be a support vehicle, but it also doubles as the sweeper, so if the captain thinks a cyclist is going too slow, he'll be picked up, and won't make the competitive team.

They start off, but the van is late, and the captain tells Onoda he'll have to start with his mommy-bike. Onoda thinks that's odd, since it's the only bike he has. And he's just a little nervous to be riding in a group. One of the first years doesn't think he'll be able to keep up with Imaizumi and Naruko, so he breaks away in the neutral section, which is against the rules. I'm sure he'll be picked up on the mountain section. Meanwhile, the other first-years are scared to death of the broom wagon, and flinch at any van passing them by.

On the flats, Imaizumi and Naruko ramp up to cruising speed, grudgingly impressed with each other. The Onoda group starts to accelerate as well, but the mommy-bike only has two gears, compared to the others' twenty, and Onoda gets dropped. When he drops his chain trying to catch up, the Kanzaki Bike Shop van approaches, and Onoda thinks it's all over for him. But no, they were supposed to deliver an actual road bike before he took off, and only caught him early to hand it off. It looks like a nice lugged steel frame, specifically a chromoly alloy (クロモリ). Onoda mounts his new partner, and he takes off.

This week's cycling porn is about smooth shifting.

With only two gears, a 40 pound bike is a liability even on overpasses. Imaizumi shows us how to get in the big ring without torqueing your knee: shift to an easier spinning gear, then shift to the big ring. Your knees will thank you, and your chain will last longer. Two things I'm thankful for in this episode: 1) that sparking crap is gone from the shifting animation, and 2) the newbie main character stops on the road because he threw his chain and a support vehicle was there. No staring up into the sky wanting to give up, like some other cycling anime.