UKC

Hi everyone...

A friend and I have entered the Oslo-Trondheim cyclosportive on June 16th. We are both good cyclists, but for various reasons relating to PhDs, jobs, illness etc, are not at peak fitness at the moment. I havent properly trained all winter really, except a few rides over the Easter weekend of up to 150 km. Ordinarily after a few months training properly I reach peak fitness (to give an idea, usually that means consistently top 5% on Strava leaderboards etc.).... with only about 5 weeks to train for this 550 km ride, though.... I'm a bit worried.

So, has anyone done it? How hard is it? Are we being ridiculous to expect to finish?

Hopefully someone can advise!

Thanks

In reply to Strachan:

It will be hard, but if you peg your pace back a notch and ride efficiently in groups if you can you should be ok....what's the worst that could happen?

In reply to Strachan:

I'd say no one could answer how hard it will be for you as only you will know how you'll cope with the distance. Is there a time limit ? I've ridden quite a few 600km and longer Audaxes, I've always finished them well within the time limit but depending on my fitness levels they can either fell like the hardest thing I've ever done or I can finish them quite comfortably and feel like I could continue riding if I wanted to. The main thing for me on these long rides is to not go into the red at all but just keep it steady and not get tempted to ride with stronger riders especially early on the ride and it may well be that you can get round without maximum fitness by just going slower than you usually would. Being a good cyclist over 150k won't mean you're still strong after 400k.
You don't say what sort of distances you've ridden before but just as important as fitness is comfort on the bike and with your equipment. A saddle that's OK for 200k can become excruciating after 400k, the same for shorts and bike position and things like that you learn as you gradually step up distances, going from 150k to 500k is a big steep learning curve. Apologies if I'm telling you stuff you know and it isn't specific to your ride

In reply to Strachan:


According to the website 'nothing comes close to completing this race', so probably not a hope in hell!

http://styrkeproven.no/en/races/trondheim

In reply to AndyC:

3600 metres of climbing in 500km is not 'that' tough.

The UK has a much harder event, 9200 metres of ascent over 600km https://pendle600audax.com/

Generally regarded as the hardest UK Audax event.

In reply to Strachan:

OMG that looks amazing. I've looked at the one across Jotunhiem before as well.

It looks fine, the majority is down hill, in fact it's only the first 100 miles that are up hill...... oh wait.

It still looks fantastic.

Report back for all of us who are jealous please. I'll keep my fingers crossed for fair weather and good fortune for you.

Cheers

Toby

In reply to yesbutnobutyesbut:

Those Viking wimps... unstoppably raping and pillaging their way around Britain, but put them on a bicycle saddle and they just give up!

In reply to Strachan:

Thanks for the advice everyone! It looks like my mate has booked his flights... so not too easy to drop out now. He reckon's it'll be fine, but he's Norwegian, and therefore probably a bit (a lot) tougher than me.

Looks like a few of you know about audax events. Any advice for the day, preparing, finishing, getting in shape with limited time? I am really just looking to get round (across) so any help appreciated!

Thanks