NorthCape4000
19 July 2023 — 8 August 2023
2023 will be the year of the NorthCape4000. An adventure that sends me across the roads of Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and of course Norway, the final point of this extraordinary 4,000 km journey.
My goal? 280 km per day on average, with the journey ending by August 8th at the latest.
Distance
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Duration
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Elevation gain
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Speed
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Chaotic start, in the rain, along the Ourcq canal. Leaving Paris is laborious, the wind blows head-on, I’m not making progress and I’m exhausting myself. The countryside then offers a sad spectacle, under the big clouds, the closely mown fields are quite dull.
After a common break at the bakery, a Belgian offers me to take his wheel and we do a good part of the stage together.
I then find the usual groups, then Sébastien. Another Frenchman joins us and we finish the day all three. I wasn’t able to change my ferry ticket. So my two comrades volunteered for the role of pilot fish! From today on, we’ll ride 300 km/day to reach Frederikshavn on Saturday. As a reward, we’ll sleep in a hotel.
Wind, wind and more wind (and rain) that’s the program for this long day. The 6am departure allows us to get a good head start, to devour the few bumps of the day without weakening…
Unfortunately the arrival in Paris spoils the party. National roads, traffic jams, roadworks, we waste an enormous amount of time trying to make our way through the urban jungle.
Departure at 8am, water bottles fall, tires explode, in short, we are 300 cyclists.
I take the lead group which drags me at 30 km/h average towards Aosta before I get lost.
The climb up the pass is hell. 30 kilometers at 6% average, the bike loaded with 23 kilos, I sweat and get overtaken a lot, by everyone lightly loaded who sleep in hotels, or those just more experienced than me.
Last-minute changes of plans caused a small unforeseen event: I spend a whole extra day in Turin with no other goal than to wait for the fateful kick-off of the adventure.
The arrival took place the night before, at 11pm, a bit late, this bus. Of course, my network provider gives up on me: no mobile data.
After a good half-hour struggling in the streets of the not-quite-asleep city wrapped in a humid heat that would peel the wallpaper off, I find the hostel, my keys, my room.
Father Castor, what is the NorthCape?
My trip around the United Kingdom and Ireland exactly one year ago taught me at least one thing: understanding what 4,000 kilometers by bike really means. Armed with this experience, I signed up in December for the NorthCape4000 (NC4K), an adventure (not a race) that promises its participants an extraordinary journey, from Italy to Norway.
A few months and several thousand kilometers by bike later, here I am ready to face this new challenge. The NC4K can be taken at one’s own pace, the constraints being to follow the route determined by the organizers, to start together on July 22 and not to finish later than August 15. Given the length of the route - 4,400 km this year -, this represents at least a pace of 180 km/day. However, my vacation time is not extendable and return flights from the North Cape are quite expensive and irregular. So I had to make a choice; mine will be a flight on August 10 from Alta, a small town about 200 km from my finish point.