Ostersund, Sweden
Imagine eating with your knife and fork in the opposite hands. Or driving a car with the accelerator and brake pedals swapped. How about riding a bike with the brake levers on opposite sides, down a mountain... Welcome to my world last Tuesday!
I was at Åre bike park, situated on the mountain that is Sweden's main ski resort in winter, but in summer, one of the best places in the world to do downhill mountainbiking. This entails spending the day going up to the top on cablecars and chairlifts, then riding back down the 800m vertical descent. Again, and again. It's a place I'd wanted to come since 1999, when I read all about the world championships that were held there and thought how great it sounded. I wasn't disappointed.
I got to the bike hire shop bright and early just as it opened, and took a full-suspension Scott Gambler out for the day. I noticed straight away the brake levers were on the opposite sides (as they are across Europe) and mentioned it to the girl who just shrugged. I decided it couldn't be too hard to get used to so took it up the mountain and went for it, straight down a black run. I coped OK, but felt slow, as if I hadn't ridden for years. Second time down I had a couple of crashes, having braked hard into a corner with what turned out to be the wrong brake, and got buckarood off down into the undergrowth! I went back to the shop and they swapped them after that.
---
I managed to get in about ten runs over the day, each up to half an hour / five miles long - about ten times longer than courses back home, and was flying by the end of the day - though the bike got me out of all sorts of trouble. It was a fantastic day, a highlight of the trip so far.
Backtracking a bit to Sunday - I left the Rolander family and cycled 11m to the nearest train station, loaded up like a mule with pannier bags, rucksack and a big cardboard box. What a plonker I must have looked! I was due to catch the Inlands Baden train right up north, a tourist train that stops at all the nice places along the way. But as there's a daft rule not allowing you to take bikes on trains in Sweden, and I was running a bit late and didn't have time to box it up (the getaround), they refused to let me on. Worst of all it was the last train of the summer! With the bike boxed up, four hours later I sneaked it onto the regular train and eventually got to Ostersund, bang in the middle of Sweden.
On Monday, with little to see in Ostersund itself, I cycled round nearby Lake Storsjon; this seems to be a recurring theme in Sweden! Nice enough, but not the best ride I've done - too much forest and not enough lake in view, and at 84 miles a bit too far for a leisurely ride.
Wednesday felt like a bit of a wasted day, researching and planning the next leg of the trip whilst waiting for a night train up north, but these things need to be done. And so to now... I'm writing this on the train, and the arctic circle is looming!
Åre bike park
No comments:
Post a Comment