Tour of Sweden – the 1st day
Today we had a buffet breakfast at 7 am, packed up the van and trailer then ran 9.3 miles from the hotel to the southernmost point in Sweden, Smygehuk. We ran in 2 groups, with the front group consisting of Bjorn Andersson, Jonas Colting, Clas Bjorling, Joakim Berggren, Marco and myself. We averaged 7:40 / mile over the sandy path along the coast.
Upon arrival, we made our way down to the water and inched our way in over the slippery rocks, thus baptizing our nation long adventure.
We then changed into cycling gear and were off. Jonas had a GPS mounted to his bike which worked well enough, except it repeatedly tried to send us down dirt roads, so our planned 100 mile ride grew to 114.3 miles by the time we reached the Scandic hotel. That was the longest I’ve ever ridden, my previous best being my 2 ironman bike legs, but it had to be the easiest 114 miles ever. The group was strong and rotating the paceline smoothly. The sun was out and the wind was mostly at our backs for the point to point ride.
Bjorn spent a good portion of the day solo, off the front, doing his interval workout. It was amazing to watch him disappear over the horizon while we were holding 25 mph.
There are numerous warning signs for wild boar, which give way to moose signs when we reach the forests. No sighting of either yet, but apparently the bulk of the boars has trashed many a Volvo and Saab. About half of us are riding Cervelos, and about half are on road bikes versus tri bikes. The roads are smooth and so far the railway crossing have the tracks level with the pavement and perpendicular to our path.
My roommate on this trip is Joakim Berggren, a pro triathlete who is also an officer in the Swedish navy. While I’m writing this in our room, we realized we like the same bands, e.g. Dropkick Murphys, Bad Religion, NOFX, Flogging Molly, etc… Small world!
There’s one woman in the group, Clas’s girlfriend, Kristine. I gather she’s primarily a mountain biker, but she made the 114 miles look easy.
In our group is Pasi Salonen, a legend in Swedish triathlon with several national titles going back 20 years. He came back to the sport last year at 43, placing 5th at the Swedish Championships, completing the iron distance race in 8:53. I flatter myself to think I might give him a race in 2010 at Kona but I don’t think he’s too worried.
