Sunday ride - a walk in the snow

It's official, we now have snow here in Falun!
For all the Sunday rides this winter I have decided where to go, today I didn't. It turned out to be a great adventure and for some of us a lot of walking in the snow...

12 riders started todays Sunday ride, that is a new season best!

Nice roads in the beginning of the ride

Great balance-traning..

There were some crashes also...

The sign says: Bad road All traffic is at your own risk

The tracks from cars ended and we where "forced" to ride in the snow. With the easiest gear on my cyclocross it was actually a lot easier than trying to ride car tracks that my friends had ridden in before me.

One of the guys promised ice cream for those who could ride their bikes up this little climb. I was the only one that made it all the way up!

After an hour and a half fighting the snow we came out on plowed roads again and everybody was happy again! I got 3 hours and 18 minutes of active riding today and afterwards we all are probabrly happy with the ride today. Next sunday we might just go for a ride with some more biking and less walking...

Sundays are my favourite day of the week

Sundays = long ride with company!
Today it was pouring rain so It was only one guy who showed up at the gathering place, Gamla Postenparkeringen. Considering it is November it was very warm with nine degrees Celcius. I had planned a route about 90 km long with about 50-55 km of gravel roads. Those gravel roads was very soft today due to the heavy rain, so it was hard work all the day. My friend didn't have his best day and was suffering for the plus four hours he was in the saddle today. Unfortunatly I forgot my smart phone at home so no pictures from todays ride, but here are two pics from when I had arrived home.

It felt good most of the time today and I'm happy that my winter training has started so well. It's only november but it feels like I'm getting stronger and I also think that I have more in my legs to bring out in spring. I will try to do these long rides on sundays, combine them with some bike commuting and hard sessions on the Monark. Consistency is the key for a great 2012. I ended my elite-ambitions at the end of 2009 but it's allways nice to feel strong, and great fun to race!

That's me on the all new Monark LC7. Thanks to my cooperation with Monark/Bianchi here in Sweden I got the chance to be model for a day. This picture is now traveling around the world on the LC7-folder.

Todays Garmin-data: