Sitting here in the breakfast hall of the Ronningen Hostel international I thought I might reflect on the glory of Norwegian cycling. Turns out it is a pretty short distraction!

First of all, my interest in international road cycling narrows the focus to what is now the now the World Tour. So the 17 Olympic cycling participants don’t make the cut. Nor the sprinkling of Norwegian MTBer’s. If we narrow that down to Tour de France stage winners, that leaves only 4, of which two are currently riding in the peloton. Thor Hushovd (older) and Edvald Boosen-Hagen (younger).

I did some research and soon discovered that the Norwegians that rise to the level of Pro Cyclist must be pretty hardy individuals. See for yourself:

For all that, Norwegian cycling does seem to be on the go. As I discovered here at the hostel.

When I arrived yesterday I wasn’t surprised to see fellow GBI cyclists out and about. Although, if I must be honest, I did think that they were perhaps a bit over eager. All decked out in matching kit and keenly spinning about the parking lot. There was also more than one “team” by the look of their kit and all of them looked disturbingly like pretty hardcore cyclists. Kind of elite league riders in our races. I assumed they would be in for the longer route and I would be in for a bit of a beating! Oh dear.

Then I noticed the cars with logo’s. They really did look professional. I assumed a bit more. Probably groups from somewhere in Europe that travelled through together in their cycling clubs. And what’s with all these carbon wheels?? I expected there to be some of course but they were all carbon! I became a bit more worried about keeping up. Well a lot actually!

This all ends happily ever after though! When I finally did get to speak to one of these gods of cycling it turned out that the Norwegian national champs were being held today and these were some of the elite national teams. Nothing to do with the GBI at all! Phew.

Met up with Albert who I will be sharing with. Or in cycling parlance, rooming with. We went downtown to take in the sites. The first of which was the taxi meter. Good grief?!? And that was just the start of a journey into pricing madness. We had a good meal at Oslo’s equivalent of the V&A. An big standard omelette and potatoes for me and a rather nice tuna and cream style potatoes for Albert. 750ml sparkling Nd a coffee. Including tip, just R750 or so.

Just down the way there was a large marquee with food to go. But what a selection. If you were in to seafood this would be quite a treat!