Stage 1 - Saturday 18th July – Geilo. 

A short, not so steep climb out of Geilo for 7km gaining 300m. Pure power was all that was needed for this grunt, and after the 3.5hrs on the bus, my legs were feeling it a bit heavy. That was the stage.

After a longer than planned bus trip, messing around to get all the bikes off, then quickly putting Leah and my bikes together, a short hill climb was pretty low on my list of priorities, but we did not have a choice in the matter. I guess the positive is that it was short, and meant it was all over pretty quickly, and we were back in the hotel, enjoying some warmth and thinking about the rest of the week. I managed to stay with the leaders until about 1km to go, when my legs said enough, and came in about 10th overall. Leah took her time, as much as you can, as her plan this week is survival.

We are staying in Geilo, which is a winter playgorund. About 3 hours from Oslo, and we can see ski lifts out the window, cross country ski trails through the village, and it feels a little sleepy now. A good place to start this years tour from.