10 Second Anime - Yowamushi Pedal - Grande Road - Episode 23

Yowamushi Pedal - Grande Road - Episode 23



Manami surpasses his limits while Onoda finds strength in camaraderie as they fight for the finish line.

Heh.

Everybody has to make a final appearance before the winner crosses the finish line, even all those guys who "died." Those guys are still kids, but just because you empty yourself for your teammates or for victory, doesn't mean you just have to quit the race. You can get back up a few minutes later. I have big respect for Shinkai and Tadokoro because they "died" for their teammates, but they still kept pedaling and were able to complain about the last climb like pro sprinters.

 

That's right Arakita. Maybe you shouldn't have pulled that little guy with the glasses out of the peloton. To be fair, he would have found a way to chase you down anyway. That's the kind of racer Onoda turned out to be.

 

500 meters to go can't be that far, can it?

Ah whoops! That looks pretty far! This kind of terrain reminds me of the Giro summit finish on the Monte Zoncolan Mick Rogers won last year. That was steep!

 

Sugimoto was always a nervous nelly, but his not being able to look at the finale of the race because Onoda was there tickled me so.

I hope he does find the courage to watch Onoda cross the line, winner or not, although from a comedic writing perspective, we could get a nice reaction out of him as the tension is built up to a release when we do find out who won.

 

Sakamichi! Listen to your mom!



Hai! Too bad Mrs. Onoda didn't tell her son to win, instead of just doing his best, because then we would have had a foregone conclusion.

 

Onoda's conception of how his mom would have reacted to his riding so fast was probably more realistic.

But after seeing him with his club at the hotel two nights before, even Mrs. Onoda knew there was a lot more going on than an anime club riding their bikes around Mt. Fuji. On the other hand, that description of Team Sohoku wasn't too far off by the end.

 

I was overcome with emotion when Onoda finally saw that little dot of Manami on the road. I knew he wasn't slumping over because he saw how far away he was. It was relief and joy. If Onoda can't see you, he doesn't know how fast he has to go to catch you. This just might be a weakness to exploit in future races. But once Onoda sees you, he goes faster and his legs are lighter, because he's just so happy to ride with someone else. It's even better for him if you talk about anime episodes or sing anime songs.

 

Hey, there's still room on the podium for one more. Makishima knows that and so does Toudou.

Is this another year where a Hakone rider misses out on the win because of shifting mistakes? Fukutomi kept shifting in the wrong direction under pressure from Kinjou last year and this year Manami ran out of cogs before the finish line. He was able to summon monster growth during the last part of the race, gaining magic wings to replace the fragile feathers he had before, but that decision to race on his last gear might cost him.

 

Well, we won't know if it cost Manami the victory until next week. Until then, it's Onoda and Manami locked in battle, frozen in time.

Cycling porn.

This week, we saw different strategies in cadence and shifting for our climbers, plus one last look at our future pro sprinters. Shinkai's Cervelo and Tadokoro's Specialized served them well. They were both strong enough to bury themselves for tempo to deliver their teams to the bottom of the last climb, and still recover enough to form a gruppetto to finish the race. That's experience for you.

 

For Manami and Onoda, we're seeing the difference between a power climber and a cadence climber. A power climber's body exerts and recovers differently than a high cadence climber's. Pushing that big weight over feels easier than trying to turn over a lighter weight much faster. Unfortunately for Manami, he doesn't know how to shift tactically for his pedaling style. Onoda was on his largest cog before doing his double-tap sprint shift, which meant he still had 7 cogs to go before he ran out of gears. Manami landed on his 10th to challenge himself, but he was already on the small chain ring. The only way to go faster in that situation is to pedal faster, but his power climbing style doesn't fit that. He would have to down shift several gears, shift over to the big ring, then start shifting up again to find a faster gear to sprint. Doing all that would mean losing speed for several seconds, and Onoda would pass him and win.

 

It's a good thing this show isn't that realistic with the gear shifting anyway. The noise from the chain rubbing while on the small ring cross-chaining to the 10th cog would be so loud, Onoda and Manami wouldn't have been able to hear each other when they were finally riding together.