The Great Trial of Strength 1992

Trondheim - Oslo

The Trial

The Great Trial of Strength is the great annual event for many cyclists in Norway, and was arranged for the 26th time this year. The 540 km (336 miles) from Trondheim to Oslo make this the longest one stage race in the world, where everyone can participate as long as they are at least 17 years old. Many says that this is probably the hardest ride in the world for nonpro cyclists.

During the years the race has become more and more popular among Norwegian bikers, and it seems like it is becoming more and more popular in the European countries like Germany, Italy, England, the Netherlands and of course in the Scandinavian countries Sweden, Finland and Denmark. But the number of women are not very high, only about 200 to 300 out of over 5500 riders this year.

Many foreigners think of Norway as a country with many mountains and a lot of hills, many which may be rather steep for cyclists. Yes, we do have a lot of mountains, a lot of hills and many of them may be steep for a two wheeler. But you will not find many steep hills when going from Trondheim to Oslo. The hills aren't steep, 42x21 are more that good enough to get up even the steepest hill. The total accumulated climbing is much less that you will find on the Paris - Brest - Paris race.

The maximum time a rider can use is 42 hours, which should be more than enough for most riders. Any rider using more than 42 hours will be picked up by the organizer. I don't think that there was many riders that was stopped by the organizer because they didn't manage to get to Oslo within time. Those who can't have given theirself in a long time before that.

The Preparations

To ride 540 km with only a few short stops is hard, and the preparations is very important. The rule of thump say that at least 2000 km is required before the race. But it doesn't harm if you got more milage than that. Many riders that I know, told me that they got only about 1000 km, but they managed to reach Oslo without any serious problems. Many years with experience and good endurance can compensate for the lack of milage. Endurance is an important key is this race when you have to stay on the bike for many hours without many rests.

Since I ride my bikes all the year around, I never stopped training last year. I only reduced the weekly milage during the winter and slowly increased it from February. Since the weather can be rather nasty for road racing, I bought a magnetic trainer so that I could ride my racing bike inside when it snowed outside. But in the long term riding my racing bike inside is rather boring, so I did have some nice rides with my mountain bike out in the snow. I even rode my road bike when it was snowing a bit, but since the road was dry and free of snow it was safe enough to do so.

Compared to last year the weather was very good. From the middle of May we got only sun, sun and more sun with high temperatures. And with such good weather the outdoors training become a real pleasure. I was looking forward to every single ride. The team trained every Thursday and we also participated in local races every Tuesdays and did a lot of individual training during the rest of the week.

Before the Great Trial of Strength I participated in two long race, both about 240 km (150 miles) long. Both turned out to be rather hard because the temperature was so high that my (and many others) body didn't handle it very well. On both races the temperature was the highest in Europe, which is quite extra ordinary. It seems like I'm not able to eat and drink enough when riding in warm weather. This cause my stomach to be upset and after both races I vomited. I also suspect the salt balance was disturb so much that the organs didn't work properly.

My goal was to have at least 2200 km on my racing bike before the Great Trial of Strength. And I didn't have any problem reaching that goal. With a total of 2800 km on my racing bike, about 900 km on my mountain bike and nearly 2000 km on my commuting bike I should be rather good prepared for the big race.

The weather is always a big question; will it rain, will it snow in the mountain (yes snow!) or will it be sunny? And what about the temperature? The weather in Norway is can be difficult to predict during the summer (actually it is more or less unpredictable 365 days a year), so even some days before the race, the it might be hard to tell what weather we will get. And since the race is so long, the weather in Trondheim might not be the same as the weather Oslo area.

This make it very important to be prepared for both rain and sun, hot and cold weather. Extra clothes, rain suit etc. is most important and since some groups won't stop just so you can take on or off your rain suit, you have to learn to take it on/off while riding. 18 hours in rain will cause all your chain lub to be washed away long before you reach Oslo, and a lub-free chain can mess up your gears. I greased the chain before the race. It make it messy, but it keep the chain well lubed during the ride even if it rain from start to finish.

The Days Before The Race

From the bad experience with the two long races earlier this year, I began to worry about what kind of weather we would get on the Great Trial of Strength. If the temperature was as high as it has been during the previous races, I knew that I would never be able to make it. But one week before the start the weather changed, the temperature dropped from 20-30 deg. centigrade to under 10 deg. centigrade and it began to rain (the farmers didn't mind).

The three days before the race I ate a lot to build up as much glucogen as possible. I did not train at all and I made a list of everything I had to do with the bike before the race, what to carry with me and what to put in the luggage bag (the organizer will send your luggage down to Oslo by truck on your own risk, and you can pick it up after the ride). There isn't anything more annoying that being out on the road discovering that you have forgotten something. Or comming out of the shower discovering that you don't have any clean clothes to wear. I checked, I double checked and I triple checked the list just to make sure that I got everything that I might need during and after the race.

I put new sew-ups (Wolber NeoPro SP-1) on my bike and put two spares in the saddle bag. The spare tires have been used previous this year. Never carry unused spare sew-ups, since they got no glue on them and they will be hard to put on. Used tires are much easier to get on the rim and the glue on them will make sure that they stay on the rim much better than unused tires. You don't have the time to put glue on them. Even if you got time to put new glue on new tires, it will take some time before the new glue begin to "work". And if it is raining, new glue won't work at all.

Last year I mounted a third water bottle cage under the down tube just above the bottom bracket. The problem was that I had a large bottle in it, and I was not able to get it out while riding. This year I used a small bottle in it, and I did not have any problem with getting it out while riding. I do not take this bottle out if the cage if there is a lot of other riders behind me or if the speed is high. I always wait until a small hill before I reach for it. And I never put it back to the third cage again. Since I don't need this bottle until some of the other ones are empty, I can put on of the empty bottles in one of the pockets on my jersey to make space of the small one in on of the other cages.

If it rains during the ride, the lub on the chain will washed away quickly, so I put grease on the chain. I also use a big handlebar bag to carry food, an extra water bottle, energy tablets, two CO2 mini emergency inflators, a map showing the profile, distances etc., ID (who am I, whom to contact in case of an emergency, blood type etc.), money and a small book with all important telephone number in case of an emergency. If you give yourself in, you have to phone the organizer and tell them that you give up.

The day before the race, I picked up my starting number. To get the number, one have got a license of NCF - and enough time. The queue to get my number was as long as the food queues you can see on the TV from some counties (you know which I'm thinking of, don't you :-). Foreigners must either show proof of assurance valid for this race, or buy a one time license of Norwegian Cycling Association (NCF). The one time license can be bought when collecting the start number. It cost NOK 50, or about $9.

D-Day

At 7 am my radio next to my bed began to make noise - time to wake up and check the weather. I didn't have to stand up from my bed to find out that it was raining. I got a window in the sealing just above my bed, and I could hear the rain on the window. I laid in my bed listening to the forecast on the radio. It said that it was mostly rain everywhere in the district, but hardly no wind at the moment. The temperature was from 11 deg. centigrade in Trondheim and down to as low as 5 deg. centigrade higher up in the mountain where we have to pass later that day.

After listening to the forecast it was time to stand up and check if the man on the radio was telling the true; and we was. No wind, light rain and about 11 deg. centigrade. Since most of the things was prepared the day before, the only things I had to do this morning was to get a good wash, eat a good meal, make some sport drinks for my bottles and to get "the uniform" on.

With cycling short, thermal underwear (Helly Hansen), tights, jersey, rain suit, gloves with long fingers, shoes with neopreen booties, clear eyegear and helmet (did I miss something?) I was ready to start. With my luggage bag on my shoulder I biked from where I live to the start area downtown, a short 2 km long ride. I tried to spot some of the other member in our team. With nearly 5000 riders in a small area, it wasn't easy.

One of the most important thing is to make sure that your bike is OK before you start. And you have to make sure that it is OK the day before the race. But only 15 minutes before the start I found out that my seat was loose! The bolt that hold the seat to the seatpost was loose and I don't think I would have managed to get very far before the seat has dropped of the bike. But I did have the hex wrench in my saddle bag, so I fixed it in a hurry. I'm very glad that I discovered this before the start and not after!

The Race

The first group of riders started at 9.00 am, and there is a limit of 75 riders in each group. With only 2 minutes between each start, there was a lot of riders in the starting area. Each bike are checked by the organizer before they can start. They check that the bike is equipped with light both front and rear, that you got a helmet and that you don't have any kind of aero-bars on your bike. The group I was in started at 9.26 am. It was still raining a little bit, enough to make the road so wet that I got a good shower from the rider in front of me. With all the rain and moist my glasses began to get misty. It was almost impossible to see the anything clearly.

But the rain didn't last for long. After about 1 hour ride the rain stopped and the road was dry, and the temperature began to rise a bit. It didn't take me long to get my rain suit off while riding. When riding in a large peleton there is no time to stop to take on or off any clothes. You just have to keep on pedalling or you "miss the train". I have never tried to take off my rain suit while riding. The biggest problem was to get the arm on the rain suit below my elbow, but after about 5 minutes of fighting with it, I managed to get the rain suit off.

We managed to pass several other groups with riders. A large group of German riders tried to hang on with us, but they didn't won't to do any work at all. On of my teammates tried to explain how the double pace-line work, but they didn't seem to understand him. The double pace-line did not work very well until we managed to ride away from them at the bottom at the long climb up to the mountain.

There was no wind when we started but at the beginning of the climb up to the mountain it began to blow, and guess in which direction! It was a strong tailwind going in the wrong direction! And it get stronger and stronger as higher up we came. At the top of the mountain we have lost about 1 hour compared to last year. The wind was so strong that we were not able to get higher speed that about 30 km/h (18.6 mph) in average (compared to 36 km/h last year). And on the flats the speed was creeping down to as low as 20 km/h. The wind was sucking the power out of the riders, and a lot of them was really suffering. One of the riders behind me was close to vomiting, and I was told after the race that he didn't make it to the next food station. Many of my team-mates was not able to keep up the speed up to the mountain, so we where only 5 left.

We stopped at the food station on the mountain (at a place called Hjerkinn) after 5 hours and 39 minutes. The food station was not located close the road. We had to take a side road to get to the food station. I made a comment that I wasn't riding a mountain bike. We used about 10 minutes to fill up our bottles and to get something to eat. Some bananas and bread in my jersey pockets and one slice of bread in my stomach, and then back to the bike again. Something that I learned from last year is to taste how strong the sports-drink is before filling up my bottle. My opinion is that they make it too strong, but as long as I knew about it, I could add some water.

You won't find many steep hills during the race, and the steepest hill is the one going down from the mountain to Dombås. Normally we do about 70 to 80 km/h (43.5 to 49.7 mph) down the hill, but the strong headwind reduced the speed to about 40 to 50 km/h (24.8 to 31 mph). The riders in the front of the pace was not able to keep the speed any higher, while the rest of us was use the brake most of the descent. At the end of the descent there is a 180 deg. sharp turn, which I didn't know about last year (and it was just before I crashed). This year I managed to slow down to make the turn without any problem.

The road does turn a bit after Dombås, so the wind began to help us for the first time during the race. And as we managed to make contact with other riders in front of us, the number of riders in the peleton increased to about 200 at the highest. Gee, what a great feeling riding side by side with the river in 40 to 50 km/h without doing much work! The organizer was driving behind us with a car with loadspeakers playing music (Enya). They also kept telling us that we must try to get the dual pace-line to work better. And we managed to do the dual pace-line, but when the group became really big the pace-line didn't work any more. Only the front of the group was doing the work, while the rest of us was just cruising behind. This gave us time to eat while relaxed. It help the stomach to accept the food without much protests.

But how long was Adam in paradise? The tailwind didn't last for more that about 40 minutes to an hour. The it began to change direction randomly, from no wind to a strong headwind or sidewind, but no more tailwind. After 11 hours and 27 minutes we reached the food station at Lillehammer. Since most of us was rather exhausted due to the headwind, the plan was to stay there a little bit longer that usually (more than 10 minutes). I managed to fill up my water bottles with sport drinks, get some slices of bread and some bananas before one of the rider shouted "Hey, there's a large group passing. Lets join them". And off we went again, and we managed to join them after 10 minutes of hard riding.

Based on previous experience with long raced I knew that I have to eat a lot, and I have to begin eating very early in the race. This year I managed to eat and drink a lot compared to last year. And I could feel that I was stronger that what I was last year. But after Lillehammer, my stomach kept telling me that the food was not tasting good any more, and I gave up to eat the two slice of bread I had. Banana and sport drink was still OK for the stomach. I also ate some New Energy (something like Power Bar). But the headwind has drained me and many of the other riders for energy and close before the second last food station we decided that we should stop at the food station to get something to eat and drink. This was not a part of our original plan.

About 2 to 3 km before the last food station I began to feel that my body was suffering from the total lack of energy, I was about to hit the wall. So I stopped at the last food station too, while the rest of my team-mates continued. Well, there was only 3 left of them. The rest of our team was far behind us. I don't know what is so special with this food station compared with the other ones, but my stomach was really hungry now and I eat 5 sliced of bread in 4 minutes and I drank one bottle of non-alcoholic beer (taste great and contain a lot of energy).

The last 55 km (34 miles) to the finish line was rather easy, even if was a bit weak and tired, which cause some problem with keeping a clear vision. I began to wonder what the hell I was doing here sitting on a bike pedalling. Why all this suffering just to ride my bike to Oslo? The same thoughts as last year, but that's a part of the game. I managed to avoid an accident just in front of me. Two riders riding side by side just crashed without any reason. But they continued without any problems. And as the dark disappeared I got less sleepy. On the last 30 km we have a police motorcycle behind us with the blue light flashing. When approaching possible dangerous intersections he drove in front to stop any traffic. The organizer also get help from the Norwegian army. They are guarding the larger intersections stopping traffic and showing us the right way.

I finally passed the finish line after 18 hours 32 minutes and 33 seconds on the road, which put me the 46th place in my group (male, age 30 to 34). That is about 1 hours and 15 minutes more than last year. I spoked with several other riders, and they have also increased their time with about 1 to 2 hours compared to 1991. The strong headwind was to blame. The record holder Gilbert Glaus from Switzerland (record time 13:54:11) used over 15 hours this year. So I'm pretty satisfied with the result. The organizer say that it is 540 km from Trondheim to Oslo, but my Cateye showed 548 km, and I know that the setting is as correct as possible (I have checked it before the race). The error margin is within 2 km.

Thoughts About The Race

When participating in long races like the Great Trial of Strength, one have to expect that you feel pain after the ride. Last year I got some problem with my genitals (numb feeling which disappeared after about 30 hours). This year I stood up more from the saddle which relief the area and give more blood support. It helped, because I did not have any numb feelings at all after the race. In fact I was amazed that I was in so good shape after the ride. The only major problem was that I did get some knee pain during the ride. Some days after the ride I can hardly feel any pain in my knees any more, so I hope that I don't get any more problem with my knees in the future. I don't know why I got the pain this year and not last year, but I suspect that the changes I have done with my saddle position during the spring have caused this pain. There was many other riders who also got knee pain this year, who has not had it previous years. So maybe the strong headwind also caused extra stress to the knee which again caused knee pain.

I use a hear rate monitor, and I checked my heart rate from time to time during the race. Early in the race, my heart rate reached more than 170 when climbing up a hill, but at the end of the race, my heart rate was much lower. It never reached 150 even when climbing hills, and on the flats it was about 120 to 125. My target zone which I used during the race was from 150 to 170 beat per minutes. The mointor show that I was only 14 minutes over 170 bpm, 4h 42m within the target zone and 11h 22m under 150 bpm (if you add the three given times together, you will find that the time is less than the total time, and I can't explain why - the monitor must have lost contact with the sensor during the ride).

Previous year and on two large races previous this year my stomach was upset after the race, and I expected that I would get the same problem this year. And during the ride I was waiting and waiting for the first symptoms of stomach problem. But I did not get any kind of problem during or after the race. Of cause, the dinner after the race didn't taste that great, but I didn't expect that either. Later, on the train back to Trondheim, I got really hungry, and only the high prices on the food on the train kept me away from eating like a hungry tiger. But a lot of good high energy food was waiting in Trondheim for me.

The number of spectators was even higher this year than previous year. The good weather at the east part of Norway caused many to have barbecue parties along the track. Their behaviour was good. I did not have any problem with them even if many of the spectators has been drinking a lot during the night. And I have not heard any story about anyone having problem with the spectators. The biggest problem I can think of is that they might drop a bottle or a glass of beer in the middle of the road causing us to flat. But non of the riders I rode with did flat where the spectators where.

Since we are biking on the main road from Trondheim to Oslo one might expect much traffic, but it seems like the race is so well known that the drivers try to avoid the road and use other instead. I can only remember seeing one 18-wheeler during the race. The biggest problem is actually the following cars that pass a peleton, then stop and then pass again. And it seems like this is the main problem when it comes to cars that might cause any dangerous situations. The organizer know about this problem and is trying to reduce the number of following cars. I know that one rider was hit by a following car this year, but as far as i know he was able to continue.

In general the organizer Oslo Cyklekrets does a very good job organizing this race. The only thing that I didn't like was the lack of soft drinks like coke, sprite etc. at the food stations, like they did have last year. The only drinkable they got was U-nik sports drink, non-alcoholic beer, artic water and orange lemonade and plane water of cause. But at the end of the race, the taste of the sport drink isn't very good, so a coke would have been great (you can't beat the feeling).

A lot of the riders say that they will never do this again, but after a year you will find most of them on the start line ready to do it all over again. It is like they want to suffer once more. But after all, most of them are doing it because they think it is fun, an enjoyable race which you can't forget. We just like it!