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@sasmon
I got up at 03.45am on Friday morning, got dressed, jumped in a minicab. Just a small piece of hand luggage and the bike bag complete with bike, and enough energy gels and power bars for the job in hand.
I arrived in good time at Stanstead, for the 06.00 flight to Skavsta, where the lady on the car rental desk persuaded me to upgrade the ford fiesta I had booked to a massive Volvo estate for an extra 12 euros. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and It made it easy to just open the boot and shove the bike bag in without any acrobatics.
The 150 km drive to Motala was quick and easy on the smooth Swedish motorways and A roads and I arrived in Motala well before lunchtime, had a quick nose around but couldn’t be bothered to park up in town, so drove the 16K down the road to the hotel in Vadstena. Once there, I put the bike together, and rode back up to Motala in search of the registration tent, and some pasta. On the wat into Motala, I spotted Brun and his mate Ben in their car, they had driven up from Malmo that morning, so they parked up, we registered, had some food. I bumped into Des (Balmain) by the registration, but didn’t manage to spot him during the ride. I then rode back to the hotel to get my gear together and try and get some rest before the start at 01.56 in the morning.
At about 11.pm I picked Brun up from where he was staying about 40 km further down the lake. We dropped the car back at my hotel, and rode up to Motala about 40 minutes before the start.
The weather had been clear most of the day but just as we rolled up to the start gate there was some light drizzle, so I pulled on my rain jacket which kept the wind and rain off for the first leg of the journey.
I will post some more about the ride when I get a moment.