The Valdres – what a glorious day of pretty heroic cycling through the most beautiful landscape. We half dreaded this day, as it promised the longest distance and the longest climbs, but we were rewarded with the most wonderful views along the way, so didn’t really care. A few photos for now, but we’ll create …
We awoke to beautiful sunshine, but quickly realised that the hills were pretty chilly, so we used a bit of muscle power to get warm. We made it to Gol for a spot of shopping (a new water bottle to replace one that didn’t make the grade) and slightly disappointing pulled pork burgers. We were …
Just a few words about this great day: lots of hills, a bit of weather, fantastic landscapes. The Hardangervidda, a wonderful place, and the first time I’ve seen it without snow cover.
Less than 50k planned for the shortest day of the tour – so we had a bit of a lie-in and a slow start, before we coaxed our sore limbs on the bike and set off to Rjukan. It was a chilly 8 degrees in the hills, but we soon warmed up on the initial …
Warning: a bit of a whinge… If I haven’t mentioned it before: tandem cycling is a lot harder on the posterior than solo riding! I think it’s because you’re less likely to change position, don’t get out of the saddle, and just pedal away for hours. Today’s ride was no exception, I just hope my …
Norwegian breakfast buffets are pretty varied. This one certainly set us up for a day in the saddle an we were welcome to help ourselves to a packed lunch, too. The day turned out beautifully sunny, with just a touch of tailwind. I had no idea that the South of Norway was this beautiful, or …
Finally, the day had come – we arrived at Norway’s southernmost lighthouse, the start of our adventure. It was quite cool and breezy, so we didn’t stay much longer than the obligatory photo shoot. The morning remained fresh and we cycled into a bit of a headwind – all day long. Our first stop for …
Spoilt for choice. The Norwegians know how to do breakfast. To be followed by a leisurely and sunny 80k ride along (ok: up) a river valley. Later there was some nice cruising until we came to a great chillinplace
The saddle is too low, the handlebar too high, the mudguard makes a noise, the saddle nose points too far up…. lots of little adjustments that make a big difference to comfort and performance. All sorted on today’s surprisingly hilly 80 km. Some minor navigation issues were quite amusing, too! [activity id=1782846570]
Brothers in legs. We’re here, the bike is fine – just Andreas’ baggage hasn’t made it today. Let the fun begin! [activity id=1781370266] Relive Video
As I was In sweet dreams , Thorsten had to get up early to catch the bus. We were curious about whether the tandem would get on the bus too – but as he wrote on fb: Hurdle number one taken with ease: the tandem and I are safely on board the 501 to LHR, thanks …
(Thorsten) “Which charity are you riding for?” is one of the questions I have been asked a few times (usually after “are you mad?”) It seems unusual these days that anyone does anything more strenuous than tying their shoelaces, without asking for sponsorship. Here’s my reasoning why I don’t want to be sponsored for this …
Before we set off from Lindesnes Fyr on Monday morning, we’ve got a couple of other rides to get to the start and to set up the tandem properly. Here the approximate routes we’ll take (although I have seen there are a few bike paths we could take around Kristiansand). Saturday – after we’ve (hopefully) …
Tandems are great to get from A to B – as long as you’re willing and able to put in the muscle power. But how do you get your tandem to A in the first place, if A does not equal “Home”? That’s by far not as straightforward as I had considered. When I had …
For the last couple of weeks, Andreas and I have been planning our route in more detail. As this is going to be a tour with little baggage, it was important to find places to stay with a (hopefully comfortable) bed or two, and the offer of dinner and breakfast. We started by looking at …
I arrived home to a huge delivery by Parcelforce. A somewhat tense moment when I noticed the damaged box with the third brake lever peeping out at me. Luckily, the damage was only to the packaging, so I assembled the black and green touring machine in very little time. (This blog post mostly to test …
Our next shopping destination was JD Tandems in Gargrave, North Yorkshire, right at the South of the Yorkshire Dales. We had a very warm welcome from Ruth, Jamie and John and were able to test ride more than one tandem model. Our first ride was on their “touring” tandem, the Orbit Velocity. At once, we …