“Strap everything you need to your gravel bike and follow us on this midsummer adventure”. That’s the sales pitch for the RadRace96hrs gravel bikepacking event which took place recently in Sweden. Shimano Gravel Alliance rider Dalila Lecky headed north with a mosquito net at the ready and has sent in this great write-up.

When this event came to my attention, I knew straight away that I wanted to go. Sweden was on the list of European countries that I had yet to visit and what better way is there to get a feel for a country than to explore it by bike? So, I got myself signed up and then came the boring stuff - the logistics of figuring out how I’d get myself and my bike to the start line and then home from the end.

One of the challenges to contend with when riding an A to B route in another country is what to do with my bike box whilst I'm riding. If I plan on returning to my start hotel, I might inquire whether I can store it there. But if I'm not, well, then we have to get a little bit creative. Many riders will pack their bike into a cardboard box which they can discard at their start location and then hope to source another one at the end location for the journey home. That's simply too stressful for me, the risk of damage to the bike and the possibility of struggling to get a box at the end. No, I'd rather avoid all of that.

So, my initial plan to get to the start of Rad Race 96HRS in Gothenburg was to take the train (I wouldn't need to put the bike in a box if I was taking the train). Actually, it would have been several trains. And with an Interrail pass, it looked like a smart economic choice too. Unfortunately, the incredibly limited bike-carriage service currently provided by Eurostar threw such a massive spanner in the works that I had to abandon that idea.

So, I would be flying then. Flying into Malmö, storing my bike box somewhere there, taking a train to the start and then collecting it again at the end seemed like a good idea. But I wasn't planning on staying in any hotels in Malmö, and I couldn't find a luggage storage facility that would take something as big as a bike box. Okay, how about flying into Gothenburg and storing my bike there? Similar issue to Malmö. So where in Sweden can one store a bike box that would be convenient for the route I was riding? Stockholm. So that was the plan, fly to Stockholm, stash the bike box in luggage storage there, get a train to Gothenburg, ride the 600 km to Malmö, get a train back to Stockholm, collect the bike box and fly home. Simple.

Once I got to Sweden came the next problem to solve - you can't fly with camping gas, so how would I cook during my wild-camping nights? A Google search told me that there were a few camping stores in Stockholm, surely one of them would have a compatible canister for my stove. Haglöfs had exactly what I needed.

Next, I went to drop my bike box at the luggage storage place. Having ditched the bike box, I transferred my bike to a soft bag. Lugging a non-wheeled bike bag around is no fun, but rules on many trains in various European countries mean that they'll let you take your bike on, but it has to be bagged and kept out of the way and this bike bag folds up small enough to be carried in a backpack.

My train to Gothenburg ended up picking up a half-hour delay along the 3hr journey from Stockholm, so maybe it's a good thing I wasn’t trying to take trains the whole way from home. I had allowed some very generous transfers, but this kind of delay would have caused me quite a bit of worry.

Having arrived in Gothenburg I headed straight to the rider briefing, there was no time to drop my stuff off at my hotel first. In his introductory speech, the event organiser mentioned major train issues and delays in Germany and Denmark, which had delayed several riders who would be arriving late. Perhaps my failure to get both myself and my bike booked onto the same Eurostar train was a lucky escape as my later trains would have been passing through both Germany and Denmark!

We were also informed during the briefing that contrary to the surface classifications shown in the komoot app, the route would be about 80% gravel. Apparently, Sweden classifies gravel roads as paved - this was good to know. I would have to adjust my expectations of how long it would take me to cover my planned distances each day.

With the rider briefing concluded I headed off for dinner-for-one at a local Japanese restaurant - ramen with a side of fresh seaweed and then off to my hotel for an early night. The 96 hours would start at 6 am the next day and it would be good to be well rested.

Image courtesy of RadRace96hrs.com

Somehow, despite the proximity of my hotel to the start location I was five minutes late to the start. I had to bear the embarrassment of heading in the opposite direction of the rollout, with all the other riders present to witness my tardiness.

I rode on my own for a long time on the first day, having missed out on getting swept along by the peloton of riders, but eventually, I started catching up with stopped riders as I hadn’t stopped very much at all except to snap the odd photo.

At some point I found myself wandering through some scrubland, struggling to spot any discernible path on the ground. I recalled a phrase used when I rode the Pennine Rally a couple of years prior, “trust the GPX”, so I did and eventually I ended up on a gravel road. It then started raining and the rain got heavy quite quickly. I wondered to myself whether my hydration vest was waterproof, there were a few bits and pieces in the additional pockets that I would have preferred to keep dry (thankfully it was). It rained on and off for several hours, but eventually stopped long enough for my rain jacket to dry and be removed.

I next found a large group of cyclists stopped outside a supermarket in Veddige, quickly popped in, got a big bottle of water to refill my bidons and then headed off again. I was still making excellent time. Then things slowed right down. An impossible-to-find path left me and several other riders to find our own way out of a thick forest. For a while, I led this intrepid group of explorers, but I let another rider take the lead once I had got us within hearing distance of a road but faced with an electric fence. We made it out of the forest and onto the road and to make up for lost time I upped the pace and pressed on to Ullared where I would be staying for the night. But not before popping into the local supermarket for a few pastries for breakfast the next day (I was planning to set out prior to any shops being open).

I had a surprisingly slow start on day two. Despite getting up at 5.30 am, I didn't leave until 7 am and eating breakfast felt like a chore. My legs felt like lead weights. Maybe I just needed to wait for them to warm up. A repeated thought I had on this day was you could tell me I was in the Scottish Borders and I would believe you, even down to the midges that swarmed whenever I stopped.

I skipped the first town for resupply - it came too soon and I still had plenty of snacks and water. After about 75km of riding, I caught the distinct scent of fresh strawberries in the air and sure enough, I was riding alongside a massive pick-your-own strawberry field at the height of the picking season. It took all of my willpower and the acknowledgement that I had nowhere to store them to keep myself from stopping to sample the crop. I pushed on to the town at 96km, Haverdal, where I picked up water, a strawberry-flavoured yoghurt drink and a can of energy drink. I downed the two drinks and refilled my bidons. For the next 30 km, I felt like I was flying and then the worry set in. It would be another 40 km to the last opportunity to resupply for the day and Google informed me that it closed at 7 pm. Would I make it in time? I think my determination not to miss the resupply made me ride a lot faster this whole day. I got to the supermarket at 6.30 pm and my complete inability to grasp the Swedish language meant that I had to make two attempts to resupply, as the first time I accidentally bought sparkling water, only realising this when I opened the bottle. Then I was off to ride some more, hoping to put a dent in the massive distance I needed to cover the next day.

At about the 190km mark, I spotted a quiet trail off to the left. The satellite view in komoot gave me some hope that I would find somewhere to camp along here that had decent ground for my tent pegs (most places had looked very stony all day) and away from any passing traffic, pedestrian or otherwise. Success! I found a spot just big enough for my one-person tent. Then ensued the battle of putting up the tent whilst fighting off a cloud of midges. I cursed the fact that my midge head net was at the bottom of goodness knows which bag and applied more insect repellent. I don't think I've ever got my tent set up as fast as I did that evening. Then came time for dinner. I had thought that just standing around attracted a ton of midges, but the swarm brought in by my camping stove was quite a sight! Fortunately, I was hiding behind my flyscreen whilst the water was boiling, I wasn't exactly sure how I would know when the water had boiled, but the slight shaking of the pot gave me all the clues I needed.

With everything packed away and the bike loaded up, I set off, glad to leave behind the midge-infested forest. I immediately came across another rider as soon as I rejoined the trail. I then didn't see another rider for another 40km. It's quite typical, the further you get into something like this, the more spread out the riders become.

After Klippan I set off on my way again and as the kilometres ticked by, I kept myself entertained with a bit of bird-watching. I spotted several red kites, some buzzards fighting over what I can only assume was some carrion and a couple of cranes calling out to each other, which was an entirely new sound for me. 

There was almost no hike-a-bike this day, except for a small section of gravel, which was too steep and loose for me to get going again when I accidentally put my foot down. The wind was distinctly westerly and I could feel it every time I headed in that direction. Fortunately, this day’s route was primarily heading southeast. I made it to my accommodation by 9.30 pm, had a much-needed shower, cleaned my kit, boiled the kettle to have another camping meal for dinner and then it was time for bed. Tomorrow would be the last day.

I saw a surprising number of people cycling along carrying fishing rods on this day and it reminded me of my trip to the Shimano Experience Centre earlier this year. I'm curious to know how many people know that Shimano makes fishing gear as well as cycling components, but here in Sweden, there seemed to be more of a crossover between the two hobbies than I ever realised.

The day was very warm and quickly the water in my bottles was not an ideal temperature for drinking. Fortunately, as I navigated a gravel track through a golf course on the outskirts of Malmö I spotted a water fountain and took the opportunity to empty my bottles to be refilled with fresh cool water. It also meant I wouldn't have to consider rationing my water as I'd have more than enough to drink like a fish to the end.

About 20 km from the end, a group of three riders came past just as I was getting a bit frustrated about how much I would have to continue pushing into the westerly wind on my own. They were going at the absolute perfect pace for me. We picked up another rider on the run into the finish and, despite temporarily losing contact with them when I stopped to take a photo of an interesting-looking water tower, I caught back up and was carried along to the end in their slipstream.

My total distance was 632 kilometres, the time taken was 3 days and 10 hours exactly and I was one very tired and very satisfied cyclist. I spent a few hours lying on the grass near the finish line cheering on the riders who arrived after me, soaking up the sun and eating lots of snacks. I had hoped to stick around for the unofficial finish BBQ, but as the evening drew in the midges made a reappearance and I decided that rather than trying to find somewhere to camp for the night I would book myself into a hotel near the train station, get freshened up and have a proper rest ready for the return journey to Stockholm and then home the following day.