Monday, October 1, 2018

Stavanger - Oslo weekend ride

Jæren
It's good not to become to acquaint with comfort. I have some gnarly plans for the next summer, so it makes sense to have some smaller adventures in the meantime to keep the cycling-form in tip-top shape. This is the photos and route info for my easy weekend trip from Stavanger to Oslo, which totalled 726 km.

(Strava links in Results section below)

The southern part of Norway is known to be hilly, with lots of fjords that digs into the landscape. From a previous visit on my bike, I also knew that it's riddled with traps. It is obvious that the Agder Vegvesen hates bicyclists, and try to murder as many of them as possible. For any bike trip in this area, double-checking any life insurance policy is necessary. Anyways, with danger comes adventures. With adventures comes the delightful feeling of ... well, being adventurous.

Route

Route (click to open interactive map)
I took the night-train from Oslo to Stavanger, departing at 22:25 in the evening, and arriving in Stavanger 07:20. I had a double-seat on the train, which helped me get 4 wonderful hours of sleep. The bike was stowed away in the train's cargo car, so there was nothing to worry about with regard to transportation safety. I traveled in the only set of civilian clothes that I would use on the overnight stays later that trip. It was slightly concerning to sleep in the same clothes, in the danger of stinking them up.

Stavanger greeted me with a shower of extra cold rain. The forecast of 0.2mm/hr rain was exceeded the first 20 seconds after departing the train. I filled up my bidons with water & High5, waited out the worst of the rain, and set out on my adventure: Following the coast from Stavanger to Oslo.

Adtranz Type 7 at Stavanger train station. It's the end of the line.


Day 1 - Stavanger to Lindesnes

Not feeling particularily fresh, I set out on this Friday morning, very early just as the Stavangerians were heading to work. I had waited out the most of the rain, so while it is still weren't very comfortable, it wasn't very bad either. The first half of the day would be alternating between 30 minutes of clear skies, and 30 minutes of rain. Seeking shelter from the rain was not an option, because a lot of distance needed to be covered.

Stavanger harbour. A beautiful view.

Pedestrian crossing. The road is lava. Thanks for the heads-up.


Is it a beach or is it a road.
There were initially a few problems, like how not to freeze to death in the rain. How to find an open gas station to find food, and the sandy beach-roads next to Sola Airport. The sand of course got stuck in the drivetrain, causing some friction and scary sounds from my fine-tuned machine.


Grazing cows.


The North Sea.


Strangely misplaced.



Some places, the road quality wasn't that great.



A bike shop in Egersund has their bikes on display.

After half a day of riding on mostly flat roads, with mostly favorable winds, it was due for some climbing. The rv33 Rekefjordvegen was unexpectedly closed, which gave me an extra mountain to climb, but I didn't mind. The Jøssingfjord, on the other hand, had steep hills on both sides of the fjord, each needing big efforts. Magical landscape.


The Jøssingfjord, home of a famous WW2 battle leading to the sinking of the Altmark


The old tunnel down to the Jøssingfjord is still available to cyclists.

These roads are quite scenic.

Flekkefjord. Yet another lazy southern-city.

What appeared to be a bicyclist-friendly path outside of the busy E39 Flekkefjord - Feda turned out to be in rather poor condition. Now I see why Google refused to manually plot that route for me. It's harsh to think of that I might have saved two hours by thundering through the E39 tunnels towards Lyngdal. That would have been illegal, foolish and dangerous, though.


Agder county hates bicyclists.



An unfortunate case of misnavigation caused some further headache. I had inadvertently in the days before the trip planned my route along what turned out to be a gravel road towards Lyngdal. Using the tools I had available, I tried taking a detour to find good tarmac surface to ride on. This approach failed, and I ended up on a much worse gravel road instead. While there were interesting experiences to be found here as well, it was not so fun, too much risk, and time-consuming. It would be completely dark before I could park my bike at Linesnes Havhotell, at Spangereid.


Oil platforms outside Lyngdal. Still a while to go from here.




Day 2 - Lindesnes to Tvedestrand

The Lindesnes Havhotell may be pricey, but it's worth every krone. Starting after a super awesome breakfast, I headed first down to Lindesnes, which is the southernmost point in mainland Norway. It felt very good to finally be here, it was almost like completing my previous North Cape-Oslo trip that I did the previous year. But no time for celebration, this would be a difficult day.


A long way from North Cape

It took me a while to understand, but I believe this stone can correctly forecast all weathers.

Denmark is 1 degree below the horizon, 120 km straight ahead.

These people must really love their boats.

Svennevik.

The biggest concern this day was some sort of cramping pain that I had developed over the last months in the muscles directly above the knees. This caused serious discomfort, but not enough that I needed to stop. Unfortunately, such concerns are a distraction from what I'm really here for: Getting away from everything. Clearing the mind. Instead, I was just suffering, concerned that my body wasn't up for this fight any more.

Kristiansand. Charming city. Nice people.

Short stop in Arendal. Running out of time.
After Arendal, it started to get dark, so I turned on my lights, and focused on avoiding unnecessary stops. Since riding on the heavily-trafficked E18 could be dangerous late at night, I rerouted to the coastal 401 road. It was pitch black, almost no cars, and it was a wonderful feeling thunder down that path, counting down the kilometres one by one, with the wind and tire against tarmac as the only sounds around me. Chilly, but not cold, perfectly working machine, and the goal within reach.


Day 3 - Tvedestrand to Oslo

Tvedestrand Fjordhotell was .. well. Grossly overpriced. Not anywhere I want to stay again. Apparently, according to local rumor, there's a lot of crazy stuff going on there. But they had a bed for me, and a breakfast (without coffee, surprisingly, what kind of hotel doesn't have coffee?), so it turned out well. If in Tvedestrand, I'd recommend visiting the Bakgaarden Pub, though, It's easy to make friends here.


Tvedestrand early on a Sunday morning. Lazy town. Noone's outside.

Today's route would go through Vegårshei, since it promised fewer metres of climbing, and also seeing the place of some of my ancestors. I have good memories from here.

Vegårshei.

Gjerstad. Gravel roads is not my favorite, but I don't regret the choice of route.



Beautiful inland autumn day.

After leaving my Vegårshei - Gjerstad route, the next destinations would be Larvik and Horten, again by the coast. Familiar places.


The Brevik bridge.

The eastern side of the Oslo fjord has fewer height-metres than the west side, so the planned route involved taking the ferry across the fjord. This had stressed me out a bit, since I rarely take ferries, and therefore didn't know how it worked. It turned out to be free for bicyclists, and totally fuzz-free. They even had a small restaurant on this 30 minute crossing.

Taking the ferry from Horten to Moss.

Once in Moss, it was already pitch black. Still 80 km to go to Oslo. I had been in Moss before, so I could call it quits now, and take the train home. All done. Finished. I've made it! And so it was decided.

So I found the Moss Train Station, and went inside. There were lots of people. Even worse, lots of people in civilian clothes. Regular people who don't know how hard I've worked. I don't usually have people with hearing voices in my head or anything, but at that moment, I could quite clearly hear the thoughts of all those people: "What is that dirty bicyclist doing in here? Is he really so weak he needs to take the train? So disappointing."

Anyway, I turned around 180 degrees in shame, headed outdoors, and turned on my GPS again. In pitch black. "You must finish what you start," I said to myself, as I headed out into the darkness.

What a pitiful ending it would have been, to take the train home the last 80 km.

Tøyen, Oslo. Home is at the top of this hill.

Results


Stages

The following stages were completed:

Stage
(Link) 		From To Dist.
(km)		 Time
(hrs)		 Climb
(m)		 Avg speed
(km/h)		 Avg pwr
(W)		 kCals Avg HR
(bpm)		 Avg temp
(C)
1 Stavanger Spangereid
251.4
11.02
3897
22.8
156
5036
6
2 Spangereid Tvedestrand
214.9
08.43
2613
24.6
142
3761
8
3 Tvedestrand Oslo
260.6
11.06
2993
23.5
143
4678
9
SUM 726.9 30.51 9503 23.6 147 13475 8


(Click Stage links for Strava map for each stage)

Packing list

The following was my packing list for this three-day cycling trip:



  • On the bike
  • In the top tube bag
  • In the pockets
  • In the bag
    • Pair of slippers, modified to remove excess volume
    • Black nylon sweatpants, boxer shorts, 2 pair of socks & shirt
    • 2x extra inner tubes (I would use 3x on longer or riskier rides)
    • Tire levers
    • Multitool (doesn't have a 13mm to adjust brakes, which is a pity)
    • Washing detergent for 2 washes
    • Mini soap (some cheap hotels don't have soap)
    • Spenol (petroleum jelly), applied to skin to avoid chafing etc. Using the chamois creme from the Morgan Blue Travel Kit provide a little bit better comfort.
    • Painkillers (haven't taken any the last 7 years, though)
    • Topeak Micro Rocket Carbon Mini pump
    • High5 Zero electrolyte tablets
    • Dental hygiene articles
    • 2x mini-USB cables, 1x Olympus USB cables (camera)
    • Dual-channel USB charger
    • Emergency power bank, 3000 mAh, with Nets ACT logo, reminding me to be both accountable, customer-driven, and together as I impede the traffic on the E39. May be dropped to save quite a bit of weight.
    • Spare battery for the camera
    • Freezer tape
    • 8x plastic strips, for bike repairs
    • Handsfree ear-plugs (not used while riding, I promise)
    • Credit card
    • 2x small plasters, and 2x compresses in case of crashes
    • Spare CR2032 battery for the power meter
    • Small oil container for the drivetrain (I use those from the Morgan Blue Travel Kit. For longer rides, a 60ml or similar container would be preferable in case of rains etc.) 
    • 2x cleaning tissue (also from the Morgan Blue Travel Kit) 
  •  Clothes (planned for down to 2 celsius and a little bit of rain)
    • Long-sleeved jersey
    • Rapha mesh base-layer
    • Short bibs 
    • Buff
    • Short gloves
    • Knee warmers
    • Green socks (#28)
    • Thin compressible "wind jacket" (not rainproof) in the bag
    • Long-fingered gloves in the bag
All items carefully placed in zip-lock bags for easy packing & reduce the risk of losing something. Clothes packed in double layer of grocery bags to ensure dryness.

Photographing

All photos taken in RAW format, and post-processed in ACDSee Photo Studio Pro.

Hotel booking

Hotels were researched in advance, although not booked in advance. While this carries some risk, it turned out to be a little bit cheaper.