Fridag - wanna be starting something

As you will remember yesterday's blog talked a bit about Eastender's actor Leslie Grantham, today I received the sad news he died.  This has a few ramifications:

i)  There is a national day of mourning in Denmark

ii) I am now worried my blog may be cursed 

To test the second point today I am going to mainly be writing about people I don't like.

After the low quality sleep of yesterday the entire team retired to their bunks well before midnight, given our relative proximity I was impressed by the almost complete lack of snoring.  I would be thanking everyone at this point but keep in mind that snoring isn't the only antisocial noise a person can make in close proximity to others.

The campsite - not sure what I was doing at this point

Whilst very scenic and convenient for the start line the facilities at the campsite could best be described as 'basic', a special mention in particular for the showers which look like they have been made by the local Scout group out of on of those windbreaks that old people have at the beach.  The plumbing is slightly better being based on an industrial pressure washer which provides a high pressure stream of water sufficient to soak you, your towel, your clothes and anything else within its blast radius.  I did try to take a picture of the showers but was chased off by a very angry chap called Bjorn.

Following the shower a delicious breakfast of porridge was served which put us in good steed for our ride to pick up our race registration details.  Downtown Motala is about a 4km ride away and was the first time I had ridden with most of the team.  This was reassuring as even though it was in no way a race I am now certain I will be fastest over the 300km.  As part of the race preparations downtown has been converted into a huge festival of cycling selling a range of items that even the most dedicated racer may have forgotten to bring, like bikes.  In the background of the following picture you can see the lake we will be cycling round.

looking fit and ready to go

Lunch was served on the terrace of a downtown cafe.  I chose to have salmon, new potatoes and salad, it was jolly good but about 4000 calories short of what I think I will require over the next 24 hours.  More observant readers will notices I used the Swedish word for Lunch at the start of this paragraph, I learned this a few weeks ago by watching "A Man Called Ove," which is in Swedish with subtitles (and an excellent film of an even better book.)

Lunch

To remedy the calorie deficit a team trip to the local supermarket was arranged where we mostly bought junk food.  Following the shopping it was time to return to the campsite for an afternoon nap. Sleep came easily to me and would have been a lot longer in duration if two of my so called team mates had not decided to have a 'whispered' conversation immediately outside of my bunk.  Here is a picture featuring one of the protagonists:

A local restaurant, named for Indonesian politician Wim Kok

Currently we are sitting around in the sun waiting for our 20:30 start time.  It is about 16:30 now and boredom has struck, I am considering going for a short bike ride to get in the zone.  That or another sleep.

I will conclude this update with a few Sweden facts.  Sweden is one of the few countries to be named after the citizen's favourite vegetable, the carrot (confusingly Swede is the Swedish word for carrot).  Famous Sweeds include Sandy Togsvig, Morten Harket and the singer Whigfield.  

In just a few hours time we set off on the 300km epic ride.  Next update will be after we are done.