Nordsjørittet
Can't move. I just finished the Nordsjørittet (English info), or North Sea Bike Race. It was 91km, and the closest I can come to drawing the route is this:
Many parts of the actual route don't show up on the drawn route because they were on trails through forests, not roads. There were multiple rocky hills where *everybody* got off their bikes, as you had to basically scramble up the rocks with your bike. Impossible to ride. Definitely the strangest bike race I've ever been in. There was also a swaying bridge where everybody dismounted. I was probably off my bike for nearly 2km of the race, just walking it over rocky ground or up a congested hill.
Given the distance, I was expecting a time of 3.5 hours or so, but actually took around 5 hours due to the brutal terrain (both rocky and hilly) and nearly constant strong headwind. Despite this, I'll have to see the results but I think I did OK compared to my age and category group. I was also one of the very few riders (that I noticed) with regular shoes and pedals (as opposed to clipless). There is no general consensus on how much efficiency gain is realized by using clipless pedals - the estimates range from 0% to around 90% gain!
Norwegians are definitely into looking good. Just about everyone had a freshly-shined bike, matching riding clothes for themselves or their teams, professional level helmets and shoes, etc. There were even entire teams that all had the same bike! I'm not speaking about professional riders - just regular riders with too much money. The only new item I was wearing were socks.
Given how tired I was, I was dreading the "Tubakken" hill which is the killer hill of the race and comes around kilometer 70. It's about a 75m ascent at a crazy steep angle. About 90% of cyclists dismount for the hill, but I forced myself to ride it (albeit on my lowest gear).
It was also great to see how much public turnout the race produced. All along the course there were families and groups from small villages out cheering and swinging bells.
A few beefs: I was expecting more food and water stations. In 91km, there were 2 food & water stations, and 2 water stations. The food stations just had bread and bananas - no power bars or chocolate or other quick energy foods. I was hungry enough just before the second station that I picked up someone's discarded half-finished bag of trail mix. There was no water available at the start of the race so I had to bike an extra km to find a gas station that would give me water.
The race organizers were releasing groups of too many people. This caused a lot of congestion for the first 10km of the race. There were multiple hills that I could have ridden up but was forced to dismount due to congestion. A few people fell when they tried to ride up the hills and were forced to come to dead stops while clipped in due to the sheer number of people. For a timed race, this was quite frustrating.
The race organizers provided excellent transportation from Stavanger to Egersund in the morning. There were dozens of buses, and our bikes travelled separately but were waiting in numbered rows when we arrived. All very well organized and efficient. However, no provision was made for getting all those people back to Stavanger after the race! We ended up crowding the regular city buses, paying double fares because of our bikes (about $11CAD), and annoying the bus driver and other passengers who were forced to leap over the many bikes in the aisles.
Litter! So much litter! I have never seen so many discarded reusable cycling bottles in one race. People were drinking them dry and then throwing them to the side of the path. The fact that they are littering is terrible, but did they also miss the whole concept of the bottles being reusable? If they were planning on tossing them anyway, why not just buy water bottles from a grocery store? I must have seen hundreds of bottles. I also saw at least 3 pairs of nice sunglasses, 5 or 6 bicycle pumps, and approximately 87 thousand power bar and chocolate bar wrappers. Yes, it's a race, but if you took something out of your pocket to eat it, surely there is now room in your pocket for the wrapper.
Tomorrow I envision doing a lot of sitting.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=29132979 (Edit: Looks like gmaps-pedometer isn't working right now. Route is 91km along the coast from Egersund to Sandnes. 0m to 212.6m elevation.)
Given the distance, I was expecting a time of 3.5 hours or so, but actually took around 5 hours due to the brutal terrain (both rocky and hilly) and nearly constant strong headwind. Despite this, I'll have to see the results but I think I did OK compared to my age and category group. I was also one of the very few riders (that I noticed) with regular shoes and pedals (as opposed to clipless). There is no general consensus on how much efficiency gain is realized by using clipless pedals - the estimates range from 0% to around 90% gain!
Norwegians are definitely into looking good. Just about everyone had a freshly-shined bike, matching riding clothes for themselves or their teams, professional level helmets and shoes, etc. There were even entire teams that all had the same bike! I'm not speaking about professional riders - just regular riders with too much money. The only new item I was wearing were socks.
Given how tired I was, I was dreading the "Tubakken" hill which is the killer hill of the race and comes around kilometer 70. It's about a 75m ascent at a crazy steep angle. About 90% of cyclists dismount for the hill, but I forced myself to ride it (albeit on my lowest gear).
It was also great to see how much public turnout the race produced. All along the course there were families and groups from small villages out cheering and swinging bells.
A few beefs: I was expecting more food and water stations. In 91km, there were 2 food & water stations, and 2 water stations. The food stations just had bread and bananas - no power bars or chocolate or other quick energy foods. I was hungry enough just before the second station that I picked up someone's discarded half-finished bag of trail mix. There was no water available at the start of the race so I had to bike an extra km to find a gas station that would give me water.
The race organizers were releasing groups of too many people. This caused a lot of congestion for the first 10km of the race. There were multiple hills that I could have ridden up but was forced to dismount due to congestion. A few people fell when they tried to ride up the hills and were forced to come to dead stops while clipped in due to the sheer number of people. For a timed race, this was quite frustrating.
The race organizers provided excellent transportation from Stavanger to Egersund in the morning. There were dozens of buses, and our bikes travelled separately but were waiting in numbered rows when we arrived. All very well organized and efficient. However, no provision was made for getting all those people back to Stavanger after the race! We ended up crowding the regular city buses, paying double fares because of our bikes (about $11CAD), and annoying the bus driver and other passengers who were forced to leap over the many bikes in the aisles.
Litter! So much litter! I have never seen so many discarded reusable cycling bottles in one race. People were drinking them dry and then throwing them to the side of the path. The fact that they are littering is terrible, but did they also miss the whole concept of the bottles being reusable? If they were planning on tossing them anyway, why not just buy water bottles from a grocery store? I must have seen hundreds of bottles. I also saw at least 3 pairs of nice sunglasses, 5 or 6 bicycle pumps, and approximately 87 thousand power bar and chocolate bar wrappers. Yes, it's a race, but if you took something out of your pocket to eat it, surely there is now room in your pocket for the wrapper.
Tomorrow I envision doing a lot of sitting.
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