Booked My Ticket to Croatia as Soon as I Got Home 😄
About 65 Euros for a one way ticket with 20kg checked and extra leg room. Pretty nice price.
December: Easing Back Into It, Then Shit
December started off pretty good after a slow November, where work kept me off the bike. I was easing back into it with 2-3 rides per week, plus some gym sessions. Then came Christmas, and spending time with my nieces – of course the two little shits got me sick. Don’t know if it was the big one or little one. I blame them both, either way. It hardly ever fails. Whether I’m in Croatia or here in Sweden, those two seem to have a knack for passing on their germs to me. I even think there is a blog post from last summer where I blamed them for getting me sick. Probably called them little shits then too 😄 😊
I’ll admit, some of the blame is on me. Between Christmas and New Year’s, I thought the illness was on its way out, so I headed out for a VO2 ride in the cold (or at least I tried). Turns out it wasn’t on its way out, it was just getting started.
Back on The Bike
So today was the first day I felt good enough to get back on the bike. Usually, I love riding in the snow at night, lighting up the snow and trees with my lamp. There’s something really cool about it, even in freezing temperatures. I can usually manage 2-3h in the cold without to much problem. But tonight wasn’t one of those really cool rides. I just couldn’t get my body temperature up and almost bailed 15–20 minutes in. I surprised myself by managing to get an hour ride in.
I wanted to take some photos of my lamp lighting up all that magical snow, but had I stopped during the ride I don’t know if my fingers would have survived it.
Hello Croatia!
Now, Croatia is officially booked! The weather in late January and February could go either way, but I’m hopeful. Last year, I was lucky with mild conditions – not much sunshine, but perfect cycling weather. I got there around the second week of February and stayed for about 6-7 weeks, cycling almost exclusively in shorts. Honestly, I’ve been pretty fortunate with the weather in the last few years, considering I’m down there during winter. I guess my luck has to run out eventually… I can almost sense that the winter Bura is waiting for me this year.
I had plans to take my Sweden bike (the #1 bike in the hierarchy) down to Croatia this winter and leave it there, while bringing the Van Rysel back to Sweden. The long winters here in Sweden don’t really let me ride #1 before I head down to Croatia for the summer, when it just sits here. The last couple of years, I haven’t started riding it until late April or early May even. Then I’m away from early June to early October, and the bike sits untouched.
The Van Rysel, with its disc brakes, should theoretically allow me to start going from winter bike to summer bike earlier in the spring here in Sweden. But I’ll save that project for the summer trip, that way I’ll get one last spring/early summer of rides with #1, before I take it with me to Croatia.
