kitzblitz' long and hard ride

A long, wet, last night with Grace.

After two weekends in a row with brevets, I skipped this weekend's 400 km brevet from Täby because I felt a need to be with my family and help around home. But halfway through the week I started to panic about not fitting in a weekend-ride so I decided to do an overnight ride from Saturday to Sunday. A bit more than 200 km around half the Mälaren, the same route as our Ötzi rides, also known as "flickrundan".

I have done this solo a couple of times. For four main reasons:

• It frees up both Saturday and Sunday to do other stuff, while still permitting a 200 km ride (the fact that I'm pretty incapable of doing much on Sunday is beside the point! My daughter calls this condition dad's "mashed brain").
• On Sverigetempotand other randonneur rides it's quite likely that one ends up solo at some stage, so it's good to get some solo km's not only into the body but maybe more importantly in your head.
•  Although I've ridden through quite a few nights, it's always good to get some more experience.
• 200 km's is always good training

This time there was a fourth important, sentimental reason: it was maybe a last ride like this with my "old" Pearl Grace and I didn't want any other riders to disturb this for us :-) I do have to mention though, that Roger at Pearl has given me a really good deal for being able to keep both this Grace and the new one that should be here any day now. I'll just have to make sure they get on with eachother.

So. I fluffed around a bit at home yesterday, cooked a big creamy chicken and pasta dinner and enjoyed this with a glas of wine. Once my family was comfortably settled in the sofa with  a big bowl of sweets to watch Eurovision on TV, I quietly slunk out the door with Grace and we departed for our night out just after 8 o'clock.

Cheers!

 

It was good to practice getting night-stuff ready again; lights, batteries (I was trying out whether one battery and the Dinotte 200 would suffice for the night), clothes, reflexes etc.

 



Hopefully what I looked like to car drivers.

 

The first few hours to about Mariefred went like a dream, just the right clothing, fast, good spirits. But it started more and more to feel like riding through a puddle; not really raining, just wet air and continuous spray coning up from the road. Soon my gloves, shoes and  socks were soaked through, but the km's kept drifting by.

 

What I looked at all night.

 

If there are no pics, it didn't happen! Nearly halfway, the bridge in Strängnäs.

However, when it started raining properly, the temperature constantly stayed under 5 degrees and a slight headwind started across the top of Mälaren, my hands started loosing sensation and it started to be difficult to change gears let alone to take any more pictures. Apart from a few short, short pee-stops, I just kept ploughing on. Some roadworks coming into Stockholm confused me and I ended up riding a few desolate, unmotivated circles until I was back in familiar territory in Alvik.

I started sensing the end of the ride, but wasn't very fast anymore which I blame on the temperature. The legs actually felt strong all night and I won every single mountain stage and every blue-sign sprint! As per usual there were no mechanical problems with Grace and she looked after me well. After 225 km's I stumbled off the bike at home, cold, tired, fumbling to unlock the door, and very happy.

Getting lost a few times and being cold, meant it took a bit longer than expected.

 

I had a long hot shower, jumped into bed shivering and slept for an hour or so. Then "jumped" up to get the Brainmash Sunday rolling :-)

/Toni