After a short night's sleep we set off this morning just after 6am from Moskosel for the first stretch of the day - the 46km ride to breakfast at Arvidsjaur.
We expected it to be tough to get the legs going and that it was, going extremely slowly up the first long climb. I think for both of us it was mostly the lack of strength in the legs.
We're now at Arvidsjaur and without any long discussion we've come to an agreed decision - we're retiring from the race. We're neither overly disappointed nor frustrated - just happy that we made a good attempt at such a tough challenge and are wise enough to stop now rather than later.
As seasoned cyclists who train about 12-15,000 kms per year this turned out to be a huge challenge. We've now learned to have a huge respect for the other participants, whether they do it in record time, get there inside the 9 day limit or just do like us and give it a try.
Good luck to everyone still in the race and thanks to the organisers for doing a great job.
Now we're off to fika....
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A good and brave decision that deserves a lot of respect. The experience will be useful when and if you make another atempt next year.
ReplyDelete/Joakim