Check-in, check-out, done. This was a nice camp site, but with 200 SEK a rather expensive one.

Before leaving, chaintenance was in order due to the dusty roads yesterday. What I already felt the last 500 km, became obvious when I removed the chainglider. This chain is through. It has lengthened by roughly one segment. It’s so loose, it can be just taken off the chain wheel. Every time I puts pressure on the pedal, it takes a few degrees of crank rotation before there’s a transmission to the back wheel. This is very annoying. So there’s a new side quest: find a new chain.

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This stage was tough, it started like yesterday ended – with climbing. The first kilometres felt incredibly slow and I wasn’t sure whether it was for the height profile or for my tired body. It took 50 km for my legs to play along as usual. Normally, the fun part of each stage starts after lunch, but not today. It might have been too heavy, I should have stuck to one litre of yoghurt for lunch.

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Today I reached Falun as planned. A lot of height meters and headwind made it an exhausting and slow stage.

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In the morning, I checked in and out for the last night, as I arrived late yesterday and nobody was there.

Before leaving, it was time for another chaintenance. The drive-train already sounded too loud for the last two stages, but everything looked good and I quickly cleaned and oiled it after removing the chainglider.

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Routine is settling in. Similar procedures, as described in an earlier post, repeated day by day.

Today’s route had the height profile of a Tour de France stage in the Alps, well, at least it felt that way.

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Today, you will not believe it, I had an early start around 10:30. Yesterday’s arrival wasn’t late, so I had time to prepare things in the evening. Also, this heartless, industrialised camping facility I stayed at, required a check out before 12:00.

Since I visited Göteborg already, I just passed through and didn’t see much beside the harbour area. My last bike trip in Sweden, from Stockholm to Göteborg via Falun, ended with the ferry back to Germany shown at the photo. It would have been an early exit strategy for this journey in case something critical on my bike or body would have failed.

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After yesterday’s torturous ride, today went surprisingly well. I found a saddle position that was acceptable, and my legs were well rested.

The night and morning were rainy, so I slept long to the wonderful sound of raindrops hitting the tent. I got up around 11:00 and had, you’re guessing right, a late start. Again.

However, I am starting to develop a routine:
– breakfast,
– morning shower,
– packing up,
– grocery shopping (for lunch, road snacks, dinner and next day’s breakfast),
– riding until the evening,
– looking up the next camp site on the route and driving there,
– put up the camp,
– evening shower,
– dinner,
– laundry,
– online activities (GPS upload, blog writing, looking stuff up), and
– sleeping.

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It’s getting colder. At the beginning of this night, temperatures were around 13 degree Celsius. That was the first night in which I closed my sleeping bag. During riding, I put on a wind vest, even though it’s above 20 degree Celsius, it feels colder.

The day started with bike maintenance.  I looked at yesterday’s fail in daylight.

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Total distance: 150.8 km

I Internet-diagnosed my deaf fingers as Guyon’s tunnel syndrome, a common issue for bike riders. After checking out of the hotel, I put out the tool bag and raised the handlebar to take some weight from my hands. The new position allows me to completely take off pressure from the region where the ulnar nerve passes through the palm of the hand. I also took some Ibuprofen over the day as an anti-inflammatory measure. That’s what it must be like as a professional bike athlete, shaving legs, popping pills, and colourful tape holding together the overused body parts.

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No stage today, so there’s no GPS track.

Regeneration and seeing Copenhagen were the only items on today’s agenda.

I half walked half biked through the city, saw a lot and ate a lot. Scattered across the harbour areas, there was a festival called “Kulturhavn”, which I visited in the evening.

Here’s a picture of the town hall.

Copenhagen is definitely worth a holiday on its own.

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