Tour de Iceland

+1 on the wind problem in Iceland!
we drove around clockwise in 2008, partly in a small car and the rest we hired a hilex pickup to basharound the eastern interior.
on the return stretch along the southeasten-southwestern coastal stretch we routinely came across touring cyclists having a hard time, sometimes it would take them days of being 'blown in' before they could move off again. we visited in october and the weather was hard enough to drive in (got her on 2wheels!!!!) just west of hofn (pronounced 'hup') we spent a few hours ferrying destroyed riders trying to get along the road. whilst carrying 4bikes+persons in the flatbed we narrowly avoided a guy riding a racer get blown clean off the bike, scuffed along tarmac infront of us and blwon into the boulder field, it was like being in a hurricane, we went back and with the others tried to salvage as much of his gear from the boulder field as possible (lost maps, wallet, various clothing items and a small bag, not to mention a trashed frame, carbon racer + rocks = fail), put him in the back then drove back to hofn for hospital, reckon he had sprained a wrist.
we dropped the rest of the riders at the other end of the bad straight (about 30km) then went back for another 2 who couldn't fit the first time round.

so yeah, iceland in october = prepare for wind strong enough to blow you AND your bike clean off the road. apart from that, unreal place, literally unreal, and the people are brilliant too, like most nordic's very accomodating friendly and knowledgable on important stuff, reccomend it to anyone. Not expensive either! the icelandic banks going down has pretty much destroyed their economy, at the time we visited stuff was the same price as the UK, or less :D