My Favourite ride: Elise Olsen

Nothing can compare with a long Sunday bike ride in perfect summer weather. After a rather chilly spring here in Norway, the summer suddenly came just in time for the Sunday ride this weekend.

I'm born and raised in Halden, the host city for Ladies Tour of Norway in the southeast part of our country. But for the last 4 years I have studied in Lillehammer which some of you hopefully remember from the Winter Olympics in 94. Lillehammer is a really great place if you enjoy winter sports, but the area also offers great surroundings for nice bike rides. It is a quite hilly and mountainous area, but you will find good alternatives for flat rides as well.

This Sunday we decided to ride from Lillehammer to Helgøya, which is the biggest island in Lake Mjøsa (the largest lake here in Norway). This is one of my favourite routes, here in Lillehammer, and we got on the bikes at 9:15 in the morning together with a light tailwind that pushed us in the direction of Helgøya.

Lillehammer is located in the far north of Lake Mjøsa, and after a nice ride of 55 km southwards on the eastern side of the lake we crossed the bridge over to Helgøya. Small farms and green fields, almost no traffic at all, the blue water in combination with the rolling hills on the other side of the lake - makes riding around the island a really great experience. Hopefully the pictures give you a small impression of how the ride was around the island.

The need for filling the bidons makes it mandatory for a short stop at the grocery store when getting back on the other side. And of course, also some ice cream in a temperature like it was this Sunday :-)

 Back on the bikes we chose the westernmost road on the Nes peninsula on our way up to the Mjøsa Bridge which crosses Lake Mjøsa between Moelv and Biri. From there it is an hour ride on the western side of the lake back up to Lillehammer. It was a perfect Sunday ride on the bike with great company, and I can highly recommend this route if you plan to go on a relatively flat ride in this area.

Elise Olsen.

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