2014-06-28/29 - Styrkeproven, Norway

Had roller coaster.
Started nervous to the point of being plain scared.
Delt with this by riding aggressively, attacked the mountain, tempo' the plateau, then suffered for it.
Recovered with a largish group.
Started feeling positive when a team of idiots near wiped me out.
Headed off alone and caught some super friendly Danish guys. We worked together forages, and looked after each other. Great stuff.
But at 400km I got sick, by 450 I was bonking so bad I could barely balance.
Dropped off and rode alone in the dark. Wondering if I had another recovery in me.
Recovered enough to tag onto a group. Then to work with them. Then to break away on the last climbs, and finished giving all I had.

21 hours and 28 minutes. Far far better than I had hoped.

Well done, SF. Top effort.

Awesome.

You nailed it - Really, really well done. So chuffed for you.

Cheers guys. I'm pretty pleased with myself. Feck it looked dismal at times.

Massive boast post. Apologies.
But I was gunning it solo, 40kph, down in drops, teeth gritted, for the last 8km. Felt like i was winning the whole thing.

Off to bed ASAP.

Headed off alone and caught some super friendly Danish guys. We worked together forages

That Noma thing has really captured the Danish imagination, hasn't it?

Tough ride where you have to find your own food. :)

Well done!

Good work, SF!

Hope the others have survived D:

I met them at the 440km food station. They seemed well but cold. I'm sure they'll report in but I can say they survived despite JD and coke cargo loading.

Carbo.

Bloody phone.

Strava link to follow. If I started my garmin.

I was the one suffering with the cold..
Stu/Rob went on to record time of around 26 hrs..
After a nap and to get warmed up I rolled in around 30hrs, escorting locals..
Truly epic scenery once again..
We lunched here today. Breath taking views across the citeh..
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g190479-d799302-Reviews-Ekebergrestauranten-Oslo_Eastern_Norway.html

Great time SF.. Hope you got home okay.
I reckon I burnt 14,000 calories.
BBQ this evening in Oslo.
Good to have my appetite back.
Al

Great time SF.. Hope you got home okay.
I reckon I burnt 14,000 calories.
BBQ this evening in Oslo.
Good to have my appetite back.
Al

Well done one and all.

An awesome performance, looking forward to the stories over a beer or three.

Carbo.

Bloody phone.

Strava link to follow. If I started my garmin.

http://www.strava.com/activities/159715198

Cheers guys and glad everyone made it in!

Our team missed our goal by 30 min or so...I'm blaming that damn headwinde from Dombås in to approx. Gjøvik... We got soaked around Skreia and it was about 8C and I had not enough clothes on...so I was freezing. Had a chance to get on a dry wool base layer and jacket and was doing much better for the last 3.5 hours. But man I was teeth-chattering shivering cold for about 1.5 hours there. Easily the worst part of the ride. Or maybe when we got hit with hail on top of Dovrefjell...but that was early so it was kind of fun (sick I know).

But we finished at 18.30.47 so I'm quite chuffed with that for a first time effort.

Thanks for letting me tag on here in the thread. It always help to meet folks like myself, who aren't quite right in the head :)

Cheers ang congrats!!

That pretty darn fast flyor64.

I cant believe how bad everyone experianced the weather. I rode nearly the Whole thing in shorts, SS jersey, Merino vest, and merino arm warmers. Felt fine. had my arm warmers rolled Down enough to get a tan. Put my Wind jacket on for an hour in the midlle of the night. But only becasue the two danes I was with, stopped to. I'd have gladly changed into a polka dot bikini at that point though. I didnt really know what was going on any more.

If you can open this link. It shows me cruising along Dovra in relative Comfort.

http://www.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event.py?event=Sports/GKDE/2014/Styrkeproven&match=1243&name=Lee&new_search=1

DNF - 200km in 9hrs, train waiting for me at Dombas - I was knackered at the start line and my general negativity meant I couldn't imagine myself cycling for another 16hrs+... bah... next time!

Sad to hear that.

I can totally understand though. I think a bit of adrenaline from the descent helped. But the Dombås feed station was a hard Place to continue from. So many km's left.

Sorry to hear that Kristian. I noticed the same thing at Dombås...the holy sheet moment.

Then we hit the headwind and it was just work from there. My form was suprisingly good throughout. Food was the key. I ate every 30 min no matter what. Holy crap, my stomach still twists just thinking about bananas and energy bars...

Here's me. I'm actually considering buying the solo one from the middle of the night. (after I froze my ass off ;))

http://www.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event.py?template=MPX2&new_search=1&event=Sports%2FGKDE%2F2014%2FStyrkeproven&match=664

The old veteran I chatted to at the start said it was all about getting over Dovra cheaply. Then baby steps from feed station to feed station. Which sounds spot on.

If I don't do a multi stage sportive in France next year. I may sign up for the sub 20 hour group. This year's time is definitely representative of all I had. But it's still worth a shot. With faster riders around me, and without the sickness. Who knows.

Sounds like a pretty cool ride. How many riders? What was the fastest finish time - any ideas? For a small fucking exorbitant fee, I can provide towing facilities for the first 24 hours...

http://live.ultimate.dk/desktop/front/index.php?eventid=1977&language=us

Those fast ones are all Team trains....

Record is 12:51:02 but look how many of them there are...

http://www.aftenposten.no/100Sport/sykkel/Handplukket-for-rekordforsok-mellom-Trondheim-Oslo-377920_1.snd#.UcQmsDvQBnE

They should come and ride up and down some A roads like we do.. ;)

Hippy i think we got caught up with those guys at their feedstation, no doubt made them slower by a couple of seconds..
also i suspect not all of them clocked the fast time.. with pace setters peeling off on route..

Al

Massively impressed with SFs effort, very respectable time for a solo ride. Sorry to hear you DNF Kristian, as you say there's always next year.

I have no feeling in a few of my toes, so I think I'll use that as an excuse to treat myself to some tarty shoes.

Eating became a struggle during the latter part of the ride, particularly after that weird minced chicken pasta at one of the feed stops. Thankfully the sunrise made me feel a lot better. I think overall we were very lucky weather wise, I can't imagine how tough it was for you guys last year in constant rain!

And no drinking bourbon before the ride next time. What the hell were we thinking! Strava deets here:

http://www.strava.com/activities/160128461

Edit, I should add we finished in 26:40.

Earlier posts had some links, needed faux-embedding