I had done the Vättern-Rundan, a 300k bike “tour” in Sweden, twice before. It is a very large event with about 18.000 participants. Any decent Swede has to complete this race (and a few other events like the famous skiing event Vasa loppet) at least once in his or her lifetime. So you see a lot of people that do not use a race bike but rather a “regular” touring bike, even some mountain bikes. All of this is to say that the focus of this event is on “completion”. Times are taken, but more of a way to make sure that people complete the race and are not left on the course rather than a results list with a specific ranking. This leads to a quite relaxed atmosphere – almost everyone takes their time at the well stocked aid stations to eat and drink.
The way they start this race is quite unique. The first group starts at Friday night 8pm, and then every two minutes another group of 60 people or so is sent on its way. The last group leaves at 6am Saturday morning. The finish line is open until midnight Saturday night. This leaves almost everyone a long time to finish the race.
Before the race
This year, there was a group of six people from my local club going to the race. We left early Friday morning for the 8 hour trip to Motala, Sweden where the race starts and ends. We were going through some pretty bad weather with lots of rain and wind, but when we got to the Vättern lake, it had at least stopped raining.
For those that do the race for the first time, the first time you see the lake the size of what you are about to do hits you. You arrive in Jonköping at the southern tip of the lake and you can see a bit of the eastern and western “coast”, but definitely not the northern end. Then you drive another hour (in the car, mostly on the freeway) to get to Motala .. and you still haven’t reached the northern tip! And you know that the next day there is a bit of work in front of you!
Once we got to Motala, we took our space on one of the campsites that are set up for the event. Basically, every little area of lawn is taken over by campers, with official sites at least getting a couple of porta-pottis. The area we had was nice and not very crowded, it looked like some people decided not to do the race because of the “nice” weather.
We collected our “Nummerlappar” (race numbers), prepared our bikes and had our dinner (pasta cooked on camping cookers).
The we managed to catch two to three hours of sleep before having to get up again.
Getting up, going to the toilet, having a cup of coffee, a little bit to eat .. not much time to do the things in order to get ready to start. It got a bit hectic, but we managed to get down to the start area just in time before our 1.58 start. It wasn’t raining, but all of had put on all clothes we had, including long finger gloves and booties.
The first 100k: Getting wet, cold and miserable
The first hour in the dark is always fascinating. Red lights in front of you as far as you can see, and the same thing in the back with white lights. It was cold, but quite bearable with all the clothes. When we hit the first aid station, it was slowly getting less dark, but no sun you could discern.
Soon after that, it started to rain. Soon after that it started to pour down. Soon after that my clothes were soaked, my feet were wet and I started to get cold. The rain continued and I was getting colder and colder. By the time we got to the second aid station, I had tried to warm up on the uphills by going a bit harder – but I still started shaking.
On the downhill after the aid station, I was shaking really hard. The rain continued and the uphills were not long enough to add some warmth. By the time we hit the first long stop in Jonköping, I was seriously in doubt how long I could continue in this fashion.
The second 100k: Feeling better
Luckily, eating some mashed potatoes and sausages helped a bit. Then I got the real “life saver”: Volker (who was part of our group) had an extra, extra large rain jacket that he could lend to me. It was like a sail, but at least I wasn’t getting any more wet and the wind wasn’t going directly through my clothes any more. Also, there was a long uphill and I started to feel a bit better.
By aid station #4 (~135k) all doubts of finishing had disappeared and I was back to okay. Too bad that my Ergomo had enough of the rain and started to misbehave - a few k’s later IT froze completely. (Luckily, after drying the unit when I got home, everything is working again). This way, I don’t have reliable power and speed data after 100k. Until then, I was going at an average speed of 29k/h, and I estimate that I didn’t get much slower after that.
The next aid station in Hjo was another long break with a meal (lasagna, salad, milk etc.).
By now the rain had stopped completely and even though we still had some grey clouds, for the rest of the course the streets even dried up. After the big meal (went for an extra portion of lasagna!) I started to get really tired. Another “life saver”: Coming towards aid station #6 I stopped at a gas station and bought a Coke. After that, I was okay for the rest of the race.
The last 100k: Making it
Not much happened for the last 100k. At this point in the “long races”, if you’re not in big trouble and/or trying to go as fast as possible, everything is just one long drag. You try to play some games to entertain yourself (how much longer to the next aid station, to the finish etc.) and I stopped quite often to pee. I also tried to shoot a couple of pictures in mid-race.
I took another nice long break at the last aid station, hammered a bit until I reached one of the other guys (who had not stopped) and pretty leisurely went with Enno to the finish line.
All six of us had finished the race, and we pretty much got to the finish line within a few minutes. Those that were a bit stronger than others took some extra time at the aid stations, so we all went through the course more or less together. Nobody was totally shelled or out of it, so we walked a bit to get some food – of course the sun had come out by now.
All in all, a very nice weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment