Touringstart

Me and a friend thought about going to the Rapha Clubhouse events in Malmö/Copenhagen this weekend but he cancelled it cause of the weather forecast. I thought of riding alone but when not finding any great places to stay and the weater seemed bad I changed my mind. Instead the plan became riding from my dad in Mullsjö to Stockholm. With a hotel stay in Norrköping after 200km of 380km in total.

Started with Henrik yesterday morning and after some headwind to Habo we got tailwind towards Jönköping. Got ruined pretty quick by a puncture for me by a big stone. Changed it quickly and then kept on in a descent tempo, a long way to go. In Jönköping we rode by Team Sportia and I got a new spare tube.

Henrik dragged me passed Kaxholmen before he turned back home. It was windy but not too much so went pretty good to Gränna. Where I took a look at Vättern and Visingsö:

Also met 4 ”real” touringriders with a lot of packing on their bikes. Kept on pedaling through Uppgränna and to Ödeshög where I had my first stop. A coke and cinnamon bun was the plan and then have a proper meal bit later. Found another tourer, on a Sequoia:

After Ödeshög it all started, looking like this:

Flat and big fields, and a lot of headwind. A lot of headwind. The speed went down and my legs had to push hard to even keep going. Took a lunch in Sjögestad after 140km. Then the wind never ended, got really tired after 170km and was really happy when I saw the flags of Circle K. Red Bull and Twix saved the last part 🙂

206,6km and I arrived at what made the ride a bit better:

A great Grand Hotel and a bathtub 🙂 Map and stats from day 1: Strava. Took some time to get out for some dinner I can say 😉 But got dinner, some candy and orange juice.

A bit later I slept and this morning it was up early to get as far as possible before the rain…

The wind didn’t change so it was a hard start when I got out of Norrköping. Never found the speed and the first 63km to Nyköping kept on forever. In Nyköping the rain started and I checked the map. 1st option was to ride all the 172km home. 2nd option was to ride to Södertälje and take the train which seemed like the best option it wasn’t for the rain. 3rd option was to ride to Gnesta who was closest with a trainstation which worked with a bike.

More or less rain all the rest to Gnesta, but the legs looked more brown in the wet:

After 110km, mostly in headwind I found the centre of good cycling and gravel, Gnesta:

Gnesta feels like the centre of great cycling south (but close) of Stockholm. A place you will come to, pass or ride from some time. If I would get a summer house I would like it to be close to Gnesta.

Map and stats: Strava

Lessons from this: Specialized Burraburra 10liter saddlebag worked perfect, headwind sucks, it’s so much more fun to ride in a group, visa-card touring can be great, this was a nice start of something good.

Rapha 12 Hills

The weekends trio, Damian, Magnus and me went down to Mullsjö on friday. Slept at the best place (my dad’s house) and got ready for the Saturdays Rapha 12 Hills. All on Specialized Tarmac of course and me and Magnus matching in Glassigt kit 😀

Rapha 12 Hills is a ”race” around Jönköping by La Lepre Stanca and Rapha with 12 climbs riding in teams of  2 and stamps on top of every climb. You can do them in which order you like but we did it in the recommended order and original route with one shortcut and one detour that almost went as fast as the recommended.

Many rider that rode out from Spira in the masterstart including Hagen who took some of the pictures riding just after me:

It all started with a long gravelclimb where I had to step of my bike a little because it was so much people all over the road. Except that it felt good and me and Magnus pushed on well down to Huskvarna and got some company by a few others. Rode a bit wrong in Huskvarna but didn’t loose much until we got back and headed to the second climb. A gravelclimb that was really steep and I thought about getting the power forward and keep the grip of my 26mm Specialized S-Works Turbo tires. Rode alone in front of our group so was easy to see the right lines. On the way down from their I had an average of 70,6km/h for a 1km, fast bike 😀

Then it was time for Norra Klevaliden. A climb with an average of 16% the way we did it. I’ve done it many times before but was long time ago and not with a single 46T chainring in front. Felt massive and 46-28 was hard, went all over the road to make it easier in the end but did make it without stepping of. stamped and waited for the rest of the group:

Me and Magnus continued towards Kaxholmen and found Philip and a couple of other guys from Malmö. Rode up to Gestra together which is a really nice but straight climb with a magnifique view:

The 5 of us rode together down to Huskvarna and met a lot of riders on the way down, pretty cool. We rode pretty easy but with good pace, 40km/h in average down to Huskvarna and a little over 30km/h through Jönköping along the beach 🙂 Felt awesome to ride with ok pace and with nice people. Rode up Prinseryd that was easier than I remember and then to Ebbarp. That climb was hard, straight and hard. And met Ricky from Rapha on top:

Great pacing towards the next climb:

The last one before the lunch/coffee break was long but knew about it and not so steep. Felt good and I could keep a steady pace with one guy on my wheel that missed the view 😉

No pictures from the coffee break but we took it easy and when rolling out with got a lot of company and was around 20 guys traversing to Bottnaryd and Mulseryd. Fredrik from Sumo took a great turn at 40km/h and we dropped more that half of the group, including his teammate so he dropped to his teammate 😉 Also dropped the Musetteguys there.

6(?) riders left and the pace was good and everyone took their turns, some more than others. Fredrik and some others came back to us and at Mulseryd we was a good group coming up to Emil and Peter who took a short lunchbreak.

A long climb or uphill to Mulseryd which I hate in a way, feel too weak to ride hard uphill for 8km. Back down it went better and Magnus pushed on well. He may not be as strong as me uphill but stronger on flats and downhill, great partner.

And we hit the gravel again and a gravelclimb I missed, tried to take it easy and didn’t go with Emil on his ”attack”. Stamped and waited for the rest before we sat of to Taberg and the climb I had been afraid of since Klevaliden.

Great work in our group and the speed was good.

Then it came, the climb. Is said to be 7% for 1,2km but when it gets steep the last half of it I was ready to step of my bike many times and walk up. It was super hard when the gradient went over 20% but I did it, all exhausted. 691Watt average according to Strava, 170 in average heart beat so going on power.

The downhill was nice and Tabergsdalen is very easy. Up Georgslid I had done before. Knew it was steep but not so long. But it was way steeper in the beginning than I remember, like a wall. Came up, almost cramped on the way but was okey. Waited for Magnus and then we rolled easy to Jönköping. Took a wrong turn as I used my head instead of watching my GPS 😉 Lost so much time so the others got just ahead of us and we were back together.

The last climb felt easy and was happy to make them all. Back down to Jönköping city and full speed over the bridge to Spira. We did it and I was in the best team (if you ask me). We didn’t win but we had a great day in the saddle.

Todays favorite gear and highest average for an kilometer.

 And my awesome Tarmac. Some may say the Tarmac is just boring allround, some would say 40mm high wheels is nothing. I would say the Tarmac is the funniest bike I’ve ever ridden and the Roval CLX40 makes the ride feel like cheating. Rolling so well with great comfort.

Love this type of rides. Asphalt and gravel on a racebike. With lovely people with racing taking not too serious. And hopefully more pictures from this to share soon 🙂

Map and stats how I destroyed my legs: Strava

Race Across Skåne 2016

My best cyclingday last year was RAAS, wrote about it here: RAAS15

So for this year my expectations was high, maybe too high and the weather didn’t seem to be as good as last year either. This year I knew more about the ride, I knew more people and it was really fun to come to Musette where the start was and meet everyone, including the new owner of my old Allez 🙂

The Ride group started 1,5h before us so just the Racegroup left when I came and a lot of nice people to talk too. And a lot of cool bikes to have a look at, but just one S-Works…

Then the Race started with a masterstart by Emil and Patch leading us out to Dalby:

With the big group rolling behind waiting for the race to start:

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Nice roads, nice people and great tempo made it great. Until around 60km where we had our first crash. A Skodaguy sitting in front came with way to high speed into a 90° corner and lost his front wheel. His bike just slided into a stonewall with him behind with at least a broken fork as result and his race was over. 😦 Not so long after we had a bunchcrash when Carl hit the braking wheel in front of him and we where 3 you came down. Carl got bruses and a couple of broken spokes, Ola got a dent on his Allez (my old) and I who was the last one down just got a couple of scratches on my leg and bartape.

Then we had lunch and met Therese from Rapha in Vitemölla:

On the way back it was some heavy legs in the beginning but we got up to speed in the headwind with some attacks that didn’t worked out. The famous ravin which is a ”gravel” road downhill with really loose sand this year the group got split up a bit but gathered in Blentarp or a bit before that again where the last short stop was.

Then Even crashed with a dear, didn’t see it but seemed not to be to hard as he was riding like before afterwards. Up the long climb and then it feels like a never ending end. The road goes down, and up, left and right and you never really know if Malmö is getting closer. And the rain began, was a lot of rain hurting our sour bodies. Happily it was warm so freezing and no need for extra clothes. And suddenly people started to ride fast, the group got longer and Hagen was up front sprinted and took the win! Was so worth it as he seemed really strong the hole ride and no one seemed to be a match for him.

And we rolled into Malmö, to Media Evolution and the afterparty 🙂 The ride was to an end

My bike was perfect, my body worked good until 162km where I had a dip and it was really fun 😀 Patch did a great job this year too keeping the event awesome 😀

Map and stats: Strava