Back in the days – when I lived in Denmark – I wasn’t a big fan of winter. To go out cycling on a grey and rainy day wasn’t exactly attractive. But since then I moved to Norway and about 3 years ago I discovered that when riding in proper snow is so much more rewarding than the grey and winter days that are so common elsewhere. Outside Oslo we have a huge natural park called Nordmarka. It’s closed for traffic but have a large network of gravel roads. These are fantastic for gravel riding and during winter quite a big part of them are actually cleared for snow, so the local residents (yes – there are a few of them) and the tree logging machinery can get access. That makes it possible to ride on hard packed snow. And with studded tires (spikes) it is just plain awesome. Much better than riding on roads that have been salted. And on a very good day it can actually be better than summer…
In about a weeks time I’m organizing my Mid Winter Patrol. I did a similar long ride at Midsummer in June. Back then 45 people joined me for a 7 hour ride ending at around midnight at a local bar for beers and snacks. Now we are approaching solstice and why not celebrate the return of the sun with a ride? That’s is Mid Winter Patrol.
So December 14th I’m taking those who haven’t parked the bike for the winter out for a 3-4 hour ride. We’ll do 50/50 road and gravel roads. The latter hopefully being covered in snow. On Sunday I was out with a friend to check out the conditions. And I think it’s safe to say: it looks promising 🙂