Sunday 4 May 2014

"Chicken legs" Södertälje 300 km

The time had come for another 300 km brevet, this time starting from the, for me, new start in Södertälje. I had felt a bit tired already the day before, so I wasn't too sure what to expect on this hard route.

Once again there was a big interest in the ride with 34 registered riders, which was great! Sitting in the petrol station waiting for the start Danne and I didn't know many of the others, so we realised it would be an interesting day with interesting group constellations. Already on my first lead out of Södertälje I realised that I had chicken legs today. They ached and burned and felt generally like they would have preferred to stay in bed.

Chicken legs, so chicken they hid in shame. 

Åsa and Henrik had really improved the starting 70 km with new bits around Enhörna and Åkers Stykebruk - really pretty, roller coasty roads. Cool! For some strange reason we ended up with only five in the front group by Stigtomta, where we had a short, but not stressy stop.

 
 A road with trees.

In Stigtomta it was also getting a bit warmer (I think the top temperature even hit 10 degrees!) so I decided to expose the chicken legs to the sunlight. This scared them so much that they suddenly felt alot stronger, which was nice. 

 Ahhh, there you are! Knee warmers down at the ankles felt kind of sexy.

We lost Mattias on the long, frustrating, headwind road by Jönåker and ended up at lunch with only four of us. I continued the chicken theme with a big lunch of grilled chicken with potato wedges at the charming Oscarshäll Café. This fuelled me up for the beautiful roads around Kolmården with beautiful coastal villages and all the small, steep hills.

 The picturesque Strandvägen along Bråviken. Ominous clouds starting to build up.

After Nävekvarn we had finished with all the nice bits though. The last 100 km or so are pretty boring on this ride and soon it was only Danne and me left, which sort of limits the opportunities to talk rubbish. We rode hard, with long, even leads and with some good tailwind we averaged 40 km/h for a long time. Mysteriously the wind turned for the last 30 km, it started to rain and the temperature dropped down to about 5-7 degrees again. But the finish was in sight, we just put our heads down and ground through the last km's.

Thanks everyone for a hard ride. Thanks Danne for the company until the bitter end. For three years in a row now I have ended up this ride with only one partner - it really is a far more selective route than Täby 300 km. Far more elevation, always someone bonking around Jönåker, steep hills and then the psychologically difficult bit at the end. Despite riding alot harder than last week we ended up with a time exactly one minute slower :-)

Not a ride for chicken legs!

/Toni

2 comments:

  1. Hade varit kul att köra södertäljes 30 milare, men man kan inte få allt här i livet. Får nöja mig med att ha cyklat en hel vecka på mallis istället.

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  2. Hur kan man välja Mallis istället för att nöta mil efter mil i hård motvind på den så fina gamla E4'a? Synd att ni inte kunde vara med!

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