00:00 Lillehammer - Race Start
01:58 Vingnes Bridge Group Pick Up
03:24 Vingnes - Vingrom
07:17 Vingrom - Biri
11:43 Biri - Gjøvik
16:35 Lena - Minnesund (w. stop Skreia)
30:37 Minnesund - Frogner
33:35 Frogner - Gjelleråsen
38:15 Timer Stops
38:51 Last pedal strokes
There’s two ways to see this tour. #1 ride or #2 race. We ended up sort of in between #1 and #2 which made for some interesting and entertaining events and circumstance.
We planned for completion in 7 hours or less. Ralf thought it wasn’t very ambitious. I thought it was understated realistic but wasn’t sure. The result was a sort of middle ground where the pace showed that we could have been significantly more ambitious, but that the time eventually showed that it was realistic when we came up with far too many antics and cowboy stunts.
We rode with a large group from Lillehammer to Nordlia. We agreed in advance that we would rather stop at Ralfens place in Nordlia (ca 50km in) than at Skreia where the actual stop was. We therefore dropped our field, and never caught up with them again. We rode completely cowboy-style from Nordlia to Skreia (80km) and drove past quite a few cyclists who were more or less standing still. We burned significantly amount of matches. We also made a quick stop at Skreia, but ended up behind groups that were initially significantly slower than us, even though there were only two of us. We hung on to them and left them behind when we felt like it. Then we hang on to a group with good pace, but then Ralfen had to pee, so we dropped away. From then we hanged out to a new group dressed in red, and was asked in passive form by the leader to take lead which I did. The result was that I left them behind because I didn't check if they managed to hung on. Ralfen saw the situation, pulled up beside me and said «let’s roll». Off we went. Perhaps not particularly solidary on our part, but we were at this point between a rock and a hard place. Either hang on to groups that rode slower, or ride duo and try to collect faster groups.
We didn't pick anyone up.
Beyond Biri (ca 35 km) I noticed an increasing screech from the gears. Got more and more worried about it. I lubricated the chain in Nordlia, but it was the gear system itself that needed oil. Saved the day at Minnesund thanks to a responsible official with oil in hand.
When we left the red clothing group in Skreifjella (90 km), I noticed muscles on my right leg start to be painful It happened last time I cycled 100 kilometers as well. I have investigated it, and could be about "quad pain", the seat is a little too high. That is possible. I greased up with Voltaren without it having any particular effect. Fortunately, it didn't get any worse than being able to cycle almost normal with pain.
Eidsvoll-Jessheim (100-130km) was relatively hopeless. Some hills at zero speed, zero muscle strength. Intake of energy gels did its part so that we could give some speed again. Ralfen led a good group nice paced cyclists into Kløfta (150km). Everyone dropped us from the stop at Kløfta before we could react to it, but we didn’t quite bother.
Towards the finish, there were more hills than expected, and in pure "safe mode" like on Windows 95, we rode it in. Shockingly, we were both pretty good in terms of time right there so that suggests people were tired.
3 авг 2024
