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On my day off with too much wind for the roads and too much ice for kayaking, I went for a good cup of coffe. Now, the best place to do so, is right in my kitchen. Someone, I won’t say who, complained that the espresso post had been on the top of my blog too long - so here you go: Another coffee post (more…)

I had taken the day off to get some relaxing time at home, go for a paddle and maybe even hit the tarmac. However, after hanging out with Langballe all morning I went to Virklund for a paddle around Thorsø. The sun was shining, the wind still hadn’t showed up and I was ready to get on the water. However, the lake was frozen so the paddleing was cancelled. As the wind picked up, what to do then with your day off…?

I must admit: Any atempt on structured training, consistency or just seriousness have been lacking completely for the past two-and-a-half months. I’ve been on-off with what-ever-it-is that is going around, the weather has been changing alot around from sad but rideable to plain lousy. Anyway, the excuses are plentyfull, and a new plan has been formed, By order of the doctor / coach / dad: Base-training. So I’m starting off with a lot less time on the mountain bike, and a lot more time on the roads.
Sunday I went on the “hvide spor” for an hour with Henrik Helmer just out of Roskilde on the way back from the annual assembly in the Danish cycling federation (DCU). Didn’t really impress myself, but hey, it was just a joy ride.
Yesterday, I started out gently with the new plan: I drove a bit of the way back from work, and rode the remaining 50kms on my bike. It took me an hour and a half, so that wasn’t too bad. The goal is so far to do it just once a week. As I get stronger and the weather improves I will aim at two time a week, until the mountain bike season kicks off again - then it’ll be back to once a week probably.
Tonight, I went out for an hour before our Night Ride Cup here in Silkeborg. It was a pretty cool circuit only going up or down. Technical and fast sections downhill, and long steep ascends - Just my style. I went for it as relaxed as I could, riding around 75-85%, rather than the traditional 90-95% I do during these races. I came in third, just as planned and I was overall pretty satisfied with myself after two-and-a-half hours riding in the darkness. Tomorrow I got the day off, and I hope to get out for a paddle - it has been ages.. :)

There is simply just nothing which can beat a cup of home-roasted-freshly-ground-propper-made-real-espresso in the morning…

It’s the place in the new Batman movies where Archam Asylum is located, and thus, makes the perfect reference to the skinny wheels on the road bike. Aaboe dragged me out for a ride around Juelsø today. By the best of Steve Peat “It was cold and miserable danish weather - but I guess thats what makes us tougher than those guys in the warm places”. - well, actually the weather turned out really nice even though it was a fair bit windy. 40k’s - an hour and a half - far from impressive but the ride was excellent.

It was a stormy winter weekend in the north western parts of Jutland. Gusts up to 38m/s made the waves huge and enabled you to lean 45 degrees into the wind. Epic fun. The north sea showed itself from its darkest side. The pictures just doesn’t give the storm justice, but Mette and I were still able to find sand everywhere (and I do mean everywhere) the following day…

We practiced the great fun art of dune-rolling, which I’ve tried to capture here:

After yesterdays christmas party I found it an excellent day to hit the tarmac instead of the gravel. The wind was strong, the hangovers stronger - so I managed to do 30kms in 5 quarters… Hmm… I’m glad it’s still only december

Having been at home under the blankets since wednesday, I’ve had some time to browse the web. I’m strongly considering to build myself a play-bike / longtravel enduro bike-ish thing. Not fancy or anything, but fun and something I can give a paintjob on my own and otherwise give a beating. 140-160mms of suspension, short stem, broad low-rizer bar, 20mm through-axle on the front, and some fairly laidback angles for playing time, down-hill and some north-shore. The only problem is, that there are heaps of such bikes to choose from:

Turner 5spot, Pronghorn PR6-LT, Yeti 575, Cannondale Rize, Cannondale Prophet, Lapierre Zesty, and the Specialized Enduro… I love the Cannondales, but they are rare as second hand and often quite expensive, the Pronghorn is only around 58cms in the top-tube thus it’s rather short for me, the Yeti and the Turner are somewhat rare as well, and the Lapierre is dirt cheap. Tricky tricky… So, help me out guys :)

Tuesday night we all got assembled for lamp-construction-night. Froberg has been experimenting quite a bit with homemade helmet lights with those clever diodes and all. So he had purchased all the bits and pieces, set a date and we just showed up with dremel tools and soldering irons - ready to kick in.

I already have my beloved Silva 585 lamp, but I have been looking for something to put on my handlebars for road cycling, as well as to have a backup lamp in case I have visitors who needs to borrow, or whatever.
The lamp set me back around 600DKK which is a lot less than the Silva. It’s not that good looking, but the function is excellent. I have to give it a paintjob though - “lamp parade style”.

Aaboe has posted some great pictures of the process here.

I was refuelling my beloved Toyota today in Billund, where I noticed this sign on the fuel-filler-station… Is it just me, or…