Tour of Sweden – day 4
It's late and I'm tired so I'll do my best for today.
We met in the lobby at 7:15am for a trip to a 50 meter pool. It was a nice relaxing workout, followed by breakfast. The favorite was pancakes "stolen" from the kiddie corner, with cinamon and sugar. Then again, maybe grown men blowing off work to cycle for 2 weeks really are kids.
We started our ride at 10 am. Within a couple of hundred meters, I noticed my handlebars were crooked. Sabotage? Who can say. Dev has a lot of friends on Slowtwitch.
We traveled along the eastern shore of a lake, the circumnavigation of which is a 300K classic Swedish cyclosportif. The event, the name of which I can't remember and am too tired to look up, is one of 4 events which make up a year long series consisting of a 30K trail run, long distance swim, big nordic ski event, and the cyclosportif.
Midway up the shore was a touristy village with cobbled streets. Once past the village, we had a touch of wheels but the riders stayed upright, although there was enough contact to put the smell of burning rubber in the air.
We were joined for a while by a female swedish retired pro who was a top 10 at Kona. Sorry, her name escapes me. She's now a Cervelo rep. Go Cervelo!
Our planned coffee break at 150K was preceded by the Bjorn show – 8 or so miles at 33 mph. I was spinning out in my 53 x 12, and that's a 53 Q ring. He truly is a monster. He rode solo all morning only to join us for the shear pleasure of ripping our legs off.
We ended up with 138 miles by the time we reached out hotel. Our bags were in the lobby and within 2 minutes Jonas and Clas had their running shoes on. I joined them for a transition run down to an incredible castle. We ran around it and back to the hotel – a 1.8 mile journey traversed at 6:46 / mile. These Swedish dudes don't mess around. Well, Jonas And Bjorn trying to race a man on his way to the liquor store could be considered messing around.
Clas is my roommate tonight as Joakim's girlfriend has joined us. She's training for the 300k cyclosportif, having already completed the other three tasks.
Clas is a true pro – he's already asleep so I'm down in the bar typing this, kept company by my truest and oldest friend, Guinness stout.
Jonas arranged for a massage therapist again this evening. He is a trigger point sadist! I'll take another 5:45:00 on the bike (BTW, that was our time today, or 22.9 mph) over an hour with him, any day. He promised that Jonas and I would be the strongest tomorrow, thanks to his treatment. Only 240K of rainy Swedish roads will tell.
