Hi
I was there too. Very well organised I must say.
Those of you there may have passed me, I was the guy on the pink Brompton. 11pm start time, finished in 17 hours 15 min. Felt pretty good at the end considering how little training I did. Although I did the training on my fixed so that might have given a little boost.
Here's a little review for those not there:
I started from Motala around 11pm, it was still kind of light out. Groups of 60 riders start every 2 minutes. It ends up being a pretty spread out group, never too bunched up. The first couple of hours were quite nice, about 10 degrees. It got darker to almost complete darkness, I think it may have clouded over, but my headlight worked great. There was a pretty strong headwind, so I latched on to the end of a draft train that wasn't going too quick for me. I knew I wasn't all that fit so I had wanted to take it REAL easy at the beginning but fighting that headwind alone would have killed me. So I rode that for a while. The first 80km were uneventful, just headwinds and darkness. At the second rest stop at Granna it started raining and got pretty cold. Quite miserable. But by the third stop at Jonkoping (3am ish for me) it had started to get light, and the skies were clearing, but still chilly. Had my meatballs and mashed potatoes there. Pretty good.
Side note: At all the rest stops you could get buns that were a little sweet and flavoured with cardamom. There was coffee and tea, warm blueberry soup, warm honey water, sometimes bananas. Also energy drink, fruit drink and plain water. Porta-potties were at all the rest stops too.
After Jonkoping it started raining again, and it was on and off until Hjo, the next big rest stop, where we got lasagna. Hjo is at 180km and I was feeling OK, but a little tired and the usual aches and pains. I had tried to save my energy for the first half and it seemed to be working. I forgot to mention that as soon as we left Jonkoping and started heading north, we had a pretty good tailwind which was a life saver for me I think. For the west side of the lake (heading northwards) I was by myself, I didn't need to over-exert myself trying to keep up with drafting the speed demons. But with the tailwind I was able to keep up a steady 25km/h pace, which for me is pretty good.
The clever thing they did (those Swedes!) was place the rest stops closer and closer together the further the ride went on. So as you get more and more tired your next mini-goal isn't quite as strenuous to get to.
As I got to the northern tip of the lake and turned southwards I was expeecting a horrible headwind for the last 45km or so, but by some strange device it felt like a tailwind for that bit too. It could just have been that energy boost you get when you know you're almost home. The third little rain storm hit about then too, but didn't last too long.
There were no major hills along the way to speak of really. I did my training in Essex and north of London (my old standby is Walthamstow to Cambridge and back) and there are bigger, steeper hills on that run than in Vatternrundan. I think it would be quite feasible to do it fixed, but for myself I would need a bit more training than I had this time.
I would certainly recommend the ride to anyone, and if you commute by bike in London regularly and throw in a few longer weekend rides then it's very achievable. If you do more, and proper training it might even be fun. But the feeling of accomplishment as you cross the finish line and get the medal around your neck is pretty special, no matter what your finish time.
Daniel
Hi
I was there too. Very well organised I must say.
Those of you there may have passed me, I was the guy on the pink Brompton. 11pm start time, finished in 17 hours 15 min. Felt pretty good at the end considering how little training I did. Although I did the training on my fixed so that might have given a little boost.
Here's a little review for those not there:
I started from Motala around 11pm, it was still kind of light out. Groups of 60 riders start every 2 minutes. It ends up being a pretty spread out group, never too bunched up. The first couple of hours were quite nice, about 10 degrees. It got darker to almost complete darkness, I think it may have clouded over, but my headlight worked great. There was a pretty strong headwind, so I latched on to the end of a draft train that wasn't going too quick for me. I knew I wasn't all that fit so I had wanted to take it REAL easy at the beginning but fighting that headwind alone would have killed me. So I rode that for a while. The first 80km were uneventful, just headwinds and darkness. At the second rest stop at Granna it started raining and got pretty cold. Quite miserable. But by the third stop at Jonkoping (3am ish for me) it had started to get light, and the skies were clearing, but still chilly. Had my meatballs and mashed potatoes there. Pretty good.
Side note: At all the rest stops you could get buns that were a little sweet and flavoured with cardamom. There was coffee and tea, warm blueberry soup, warm honey water, sometimes bananas. Also energy drink, fruit drink and plain water. Porta-potties were at all the rest stops too.
After Jonkoping it started raining again, and it was on and off until Hjo, the next big rest stop, where we got lasagna. Hjo is at 180km and I was feeling OK, but a little tired and the usual aches and pains. I had tried to save my energy for the first half and it seemed to be working. I forgot to mention that as soon as we left Jonkoping and started heading north, we had a pretty good tailwind which was a life saver for me I think. For the west side of the lake (heading northwards) I was by myself, I didn't need to over-exert myself trying to keep up with drafting the speed demons. But with the tailwind I was able to keep up a steady 25km/h pace, which for me is pretty good.
The clever thing they did (those Swedes!) was place the rest stops closer and closer together the further the ride went on. So as you get more and more tired your next mini-goal isn't quite as strenuous to get to.
As I got to the northern tip of the lake and turned southwards I was expeecting a horrible headwind for the last 45km or so, but by some strange device it felt like a tailwind for that bit too. It could just have been that energy boost you get when you know you're almost home. The third little rain storm hit about then too, but didn't last too long.
There were no major hills along the way to speak of really. I did my training in Essex and north of London (my old standby is Walthamstow to Cambridge and back) and there are bigger, steeper hills on that run than in Vatternrundan. I think it would be quite feasible to do it fixed, but for myself I would need a bit more training than I had this time.
I would certainly recommend the ride to anyone, and if you commute by bike in London regularly and throw in a few longer weekend rides then it's very achievable. If you do more, and proper training it might even be fun. But the feeling of accomplishment as you cross the finish line and get the medal around your neck is pretty special, no matter what your finish time.
Daniel