Stage 7: Stryn – Vagamo
160km – 1,970m vert
The final day, and I am still in 2nd place in my age group going into the day. Very happy with the rest so far, as had not expected to be in this position.
The day is a little cooler and is overcast, and has a threatening look to it. Sure enough as soon as we rool out of town, through the neutral section, the whistle goes for the start, and it starts to rain. Not just a little but a lot. The threatened downpour has hit, and it is wet. Very wet for the first 30km, and now I have more sympathy for the tour riders as we roll up the valley towards the first climb of the day, in very heavy rain. Glasses on or off, it does not make much difference as you cannot see much either way. It is all about staying up right, safe and near the front of the bunch to avoid anything that should happen. Luckily we make the sprint at the 30km point safely, and then it starts to go up hill.
The legs felt good, and were good for the first 6km of the 15km climb, then they were not so good. Spat out of the front group I slide back and settle into the climb at my own slower than planned pace. The climb was what we rolled down after the stage 2 days ago. Climbing up from sea level, through the tree line again up towards the glaciers and waterfalls. The last 5 km is through a rocky ex-glacial area and is barren and looks a lot higher than we are at just under 1000m.
Rolling over the top, I see the feed station, and 3 riders behind me and a couple in front. A head is 15km of smooth, but slippery gravel that is fast and slightly downhill, before another 85km of gentle down hill to the final climb. The smooth gravel was more like Paris-Roubaix than planned as 1 person in the group flatted, and another lost both their water bottles. It was also fast and it flew by as we pushed over it at close to 50km/hr. A little more on the edge than I would have liked. For the 85km of gentle downhill we formed into a group of 5, and essentially did 1 minute intervals every 5 mins for 2 hours. The km disappeared fast and before we knew it we were back in Vagamo, at the base of the last 5km climb. Not a pretty climb, and I was happy to see the finish line as my legs were cooked by this time.
Overall I finished 2nd in the age group. The guy who won, won by a long way, over an hour, and I think came in the top 3 overall. He was a machine.
The rest of the day was spent eating ice cream, drinking coke, and hanging out for a bit for Leah to come in, then eating some more once Leah finished.
Leah had a longer day as she missed the early split in the peleton as we rolled out of Stryn. She had a good day, and trained a lot of people how to ride in a base line across the flat. A lot of self interest there, but at the same time people even said riding in a group was fun as they did their 2 minutes on the front and rolled around to the back again. She was not so happy to see me eating ice cream prior to the start of the last hill, and I got abused again for that, but much happier once she had finished. She was even planning on what to do in 2015… First up is the Haute Route at the end of August.
The final prize giving was in the evening, and it was pleasantly cool after the heavy thunderstorm eariler in the day. As we broke our bikes down in the hall, it poured down. Thunder lightening, wind and no power for a bit, it all happened.
And that was the Viking Tour of Norway. All wrapped up with an easy bus trip back to Oslo, not 6 hours, but 3 ¾ as planned and a short hop back to Amsterdam and home.
