Markerna runt

After being sick and not riding anything last week ended in a perfect way. Me, Emil and Karim left Stockholm for Vänersborg and Dalsland for a small event. Me and Emil drove from Stockholm after work on friday and met up Karim who had been in Gothenburg in Vänersborg. Stayed at a simple hotel before the adventure.

Saturday morning we met up with the rest to ride up to the middle of nowhere and stay at a cabin for next day. Saturdays plan was 227km and almost 50km on gravel. Started like this:

The weather was perfect and the tempo felt pretty easy to so just enjoying. First gravel section before one guy thanked for him and left back to Vänersborg:

Riding on small roads in the middle of the forest with new people is a fun way to see new places and get to learn new people. Came to Ed and had lunch at the restaurant

We rode along many lakes:

And when being 10 riders riding for so long we didn’t have much problems. But Karim had a flat:

And we splitted the group in two, one group going shorter and we where 6 left going the big loop. Including going to Norway:

In Norway we stopped at a store and got typically Norwegian cycling food. Icecoffee, Kvikklunsj and boller:

The big gravelpart started and my Specialized Roubaix Pro 25/28c tires managed it perfect:

And so did Emil in the middle picture. Me, Emil and Even (the guy on Emil’s wheel) dropped the others on the gravel and had to wait on top of a very long and steep climb:

And finally we got back to Sweden:

And passed a car graveyard in the middle of the forest:

We had more gravel in the sun:

But finally reached the asphalt and a big bridge:

Stopped on the bridge to wait for the others as it was just me, Emil and Fredrik left 😉 The others came and we hit a new gravelroad:

After a while me and Emil had dropped the others once again and it had been starting to be darker. We decided to go alone the rest and did:

The route ended on a gravelroad somewhere without any houses or signs. Met Even after a short while and tried to follow the road without success so rode back. Met the others and nowone knew where we should go. After a while we could call and then we met a guy explaining the road. was 5km wrong and on the wrong gravel road 😉 Rode in the dark and I think I never been as happy reaching the final destination and coming inside in the heat. Celebrated my longest ride with thai food:

After a shower, a nice sleep and breakfast it was time to go back to Vänersberg. Choosed the shorter route (130 instead of 152km) We rode easy with all together most of the time so just showing the great autumn pictures instead of a lot of text: