A picture of the climb up from Lysebotn
The rest of the trail does not have any hard climbs at all. A few short hills where the speed drops a bit, but nothing really hard - at least not compared to the climb up from Lysebotn. The trail follow roads with very little traffic, except for a few kilometers where the riders has to ride on the main road into Sandnes and Stavanger.
When driving from Trondheim we followed parts the road I use to ride when doing the Great Trial of Strength. Later we drove on the roads where the Tour of Jotunheimen goes. While driving I spotted several places where I would have liked to been on my bike instead of being in a car.
We reached Lysebotn over an hour before the start, so we had plenty of time to get prepared. I carbo-loaded with apple cake, a banana and a chocolate. While waiting for the start at 12:00, I was trying to imagine how the climbs will be. I have never started a tour with hard climbing. I had no idea how I should attack the climb, since I'm used to tours where the hard climbs comes after a few kilometers.
Before the tour I had put on a 12-25 cog on my bike. I had my Team Internet jersey, glowes, shorts, helmet, sun glasses and shoes. The only food I had with me was three bananas and a few chocolates. I had one water bottle with sport drinks and a Camel Bak with water. The Camel Bak system must be very rare in this part of Norway. I was the only one using it (as far as I could see). During the climb I heared a rider behind me, who was talking with a woman, said "Wait, I have to talk with that rider". I did not understand that he was refering to me untill he began to talk with me. He asked me what I had on my back. I told him it was a Camel Bak drinking system and described how it worked. He told me that he never had heared about it before and he asked me where he could get one.
216 riders had joined the tour, and all riders started in one group. Normaly, this is against the rules in Norway, but I guess they allowed it since there are hardly any traffic on the road and the hard climb will group the riders into several small groups shortly after the start.
Before the start I tried to get a good start position, but it was not easy to ride with all the other riders on the small road. However, it was a problem that resolved itself shortly after the start. The climb started about 200 - 300 meters after the start and the slow riders was quickly dropped by the fast riders.
Shortly after I had started the climb I noticed that my heart rate was sky-high. My monitor showed 185 and sometime even more. My lungs gasped for air. I had started to hard! At this time I choosed to ignore the high heart rate hoping that I could handle it.
The next problem was the 1100 meter long tunnel without lights. Only a few of us had lights on the bikes. Since it was not required, I did not have lights on my bike. There was a turn in the middle of the tunnel, so it was impossible to see the end of the tunnel when you entered it. The only light source we had was five to six cars parked on the left side of the road with their main lights switched on. The road was very narrow. Inside the tunnel two cars could not meet, so there was several meeting places inside the tunnel. The cars had parked on these meeting places. But one car was parked partly in the road and I had to change courses to avoid it. The only problem was that I did not see if there was anyone next to me. As long as I looked forward at some lightsource there was no problem, but if I tried to look to one side I lost my orientation. So I had to take a chance that there was no one on my right side - and I was right.
When I cycled out of the tunnel I took a look at my heart rate monitor. Still over 185. And now I noticed that I still was gasping for air. I choosed to stop for a minute. When the heart rate had dropped to below 140 I continued. After a few minutes climbing it had reached 185 bpm again.
About half way up the climb the organizor had a 'sponge-station', where you could get wet sponges. I stopped, took of my helmet and wiped my face with one. It was very good to get off some of the sweat. One minute later I was on my bike again and I felt a bit better. I continued to ride at the same pace, but now my heart rate was lower, around 175 bpm. It seems like my body began to work properly after the hard start. The climbs was just as hard as before, but I managed to increase my average speed from around 7 to around 9-11 km/h (Wow!), and I passed several riders on my way up to the top.
Right after the top we had a small descent where the headwind did not bother us. But after the descent we had to face it, and in a small group you don't get much help from the other riders like in a big group. But we did as good as we could.
After a few kilometre I noticed that I was riding faster than the other riders. When I was in front pulling, the other riders was slowing down. I continued to keep my speed and after a few minutes I saw a larger group of riders in front of me. This inspired me to increase my speed even more.
Before I should start the ride down the Sirdal valley, I manage to catch up with the group without using too much energy. The team-work in this group was good. We rode in a dual paceline and we maintained a good speed in the headwind. As usual, there was not much talking in the group. We did our work and looked at the landscape.
As we reached Gloppedalsura, some of the riders got dropped in the climb up the valley. The scenery was amazing. Over time large rocks has fallen down from the mountain sides and created a wild scenery. The road went through an area with large rocks close to the edge of the asphalt. Sometime rocks over one meter hight laid only a few centimeters from the road. And in the middle of the rocks there was a food station.
We stopped at the food station. Some of us wanted something to eat, but my stomach did not want any food. I filled up my bottle with sports drink and tried to eat a bannana. Some of the riders wanted to take a short brake. I thought that if I should stay longer at the food station I would begin to freeze, so I and another rider left before the other one. We desided that we would ride slowly until they have catched up with us again.
The weather forecast has predicted rain, but at start the sky was partly clouded. I felt a few drops of rain after 77 km, but it was not enought to make the road wet. After 127 km it began to rain more and the road got wet. The temperature was still acceptable. Shortly after the water mixed with the salt in my hear and began to get into my eyes - really annoying. Later, my cyclo-computer stopped working - 0 speed!
A few kilometers of the trail follows the major road into Sandnes and Stavanger. We entered the road at the bottom of a long climb. It was not exactly a good time climbing up the road while cars and large trailers drove close by. It felt as if some of them did not see us at all, while others passed us with great care. After the climb we had a long slow descent, and at the bottom of the descendig we took off from the main road.
The headwind was very annoying until we had about 25 km left, but slowly it changed to a tailwind (or maybe we changed course so that we got it from behind). I did not notice the tailwind very much, except that I felt that the speed was higher than normal. I did not now how fast I rode (remember, my cyclo-computer showed 0!) until I tried to change to a higher gear and noticed that I already had it in 53 x 12. Then I realized that I was riding between 50-60 km/h on the flat! A wonderful feeling.
The high speed must have been the reason why the group has been reduced to five people. I was riding on my maximum and hoping that it wasn't much left. I did not ask the other riders how much longer we had to ride - I had enough with keeping up the speed and to follow the other riders. I did not know the course and I assumed they did, so all I could do was to follow them.
I parked my bike outside the school and got inside to find my bag with dry clothes I had left there before taking the bus. I streched out as much as I could and then I changed clothes. Before we left I got my reward for the ride.
I don't know if I will do this tour again. The major reason is that it cost a lot for me (both time and money) to travel down to Stavanger to participate in this tour. If I do it again, it must be a part of the vacation plans. But I guess that some sunny day I will be back...
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