Before the Start
What’s special about the Bright Midnight is the Base Camp, the facilities of Tolga’s football club which for one and a half weeks serve as the main hub for riders, organizers, and supporters. In the days leading up to the race food is served, there’s sleeping and camping opportunities, and folks arrive every hour building up their bicycles and socializing. Quite a different experience from many ultras that apart from a short briefing and a finishers’ party don’t feature any social setting. Of course, the Bright Midnight too has a briefing and a party. For the briefing the mayor of Tolga made a short appearance, describing the bewilderment and curiosity that the locals approach the race with during he four years that it has taken place. Justinas shared some thoughts about his approach to ultracycling rules -- needless to say the catalogue is a little less extensive than the Lost Dot one -- and his intention for the Bright Midnight to transcend the mere racing setting and become a truly social event. Hence the basecamp.
After the urgent last-minute repairs in Trondheim I was a little apprehensive about the condition of the bike and whether the crank would fail on me. Thankfully my ear made it through the race without further issues.
I knew the bike would need some TLC to be raceworthy. Apart from removing the bikepacking extras like fork bag mounts I gave the chain a new waxing. For all I knew I could just use the cheapest candles from the supermarket, assuming they’d all consist of nearly pure paraffin anyways. Back in the cabin however I noticed this wasn’t the case: I must have grabbed the one kind of candle that was made of stearin (palm oil based) instead. That was too late to go buy a different candle so I just went with what I had: Following a deep treatment with chain stripper from the hardware store I gave the chain an ultrasonic cleaning, melted down the stearin candle in an empty ravioli can, and then dipped the chain in it. The best I could do in that situation, but probably not the most durable lubricant. It lasted about a disappointing 150 km before I first applied drip wax.
Tolga to Aursjøhytta (km 0 -- 247)
It was cold at the start. So cold as to trick many riders into showing up in heavy rain gear. Soon after we cleared the bridge in Tolga, the same riders could be seen standing on the roadside, shedding layers of clothing. Given the forecast I had replaced the small Cyclite racing seat pack with the larger Ortlieb one that I used for bikepacking so I could pack an extra layer of warm clothes. It proved the right decision in the first night, if only because I could always look forward to some dry, clean clothing to wear during sleeping breaks.
The cold remained the deciding factor during the first day and night. News trickled in about riders scratching on account of the weather. Many seem to have underestimated the Norway weather following to the uniquely fabulous conditions in 2025. That was rather naive, to put it mildly.
Around midnight, I had just climbed to the Aursjøvegen plateau, I was caught by Flo Kraschitzer of Sitzfleisch fame. We exchanged a few words before he went off into the horizon. Nice chap. Turns out his SRAM derailleur had a hiccup at the start that Justinas fixed with a piece of aluminum foil.
About halfway into Aursjøvegen the ambient temperature dropped near the freezing point, with at least three more cold hours to come that night. Having learned the lesson about sleep deprivation from last time, I opted to stay at Aursjøhytta, one of the two mountain huts that Justinas had made a deal with to serve the Bright Midnight participants around the clock while the race was going on. I was lucky to get one of the last spots in the large 10 person room. After a shower I had a nourishing meal of sveler and hot chocolate (pancakes) before I went to sleep. Which was great at first, until a five man squad of Dutchmen arrived, talking loudly and making all kinds of ungodly noises that a civilized person just wouldn’t make around five exhausted strangers who are trying to catch some sleep.
Aursjøhytta to Oppstrynsvatnet (km 247 -- 530)
Breakfast was served from four a.m. at Aursjøhytta. I had slept reasonably well under the circumstances and took on the rest of Aursjøvegen with its fast gravel downhill that features the pitch black tunnel where the road does a half loop inside. One of the few moments on the route where a headlight is essential.
From there the road to Åndalsnes is mostly flat with the exception of a steep medium size pass. On top my attention slipped for a moment and I stepped into a cattle grid while retrieving my gilet from the aerobar bag. I managed to avoid injury but it was definitely a sobering moment.
None of the three sports stores in Åndalsnes stock chamois creme, nor do the staff know what that is. Hard to believe considering it’s one of the outdoors hotspots of the country. I got a new pair of cycling socks though, believing my second pair lost at Aursjøhytta, and some outrageously expensive Norwegian gels.
The prelude to Trollstigen caused some confusion among participants. The ludicrous bike carry section from last year’s edition doesn’t exist anymore as the pass road was reopened in the meantime. However the approach to the switchbacks has a little twist: The route goes through a bog but the official GPX files only give an approximate line to follow. There is a narrow boardwalk, barely wide enough to walk on, that we were supposed to find ourselves. Some did, others didn’t and tried to follow the red line on their head unit as closely as possible -- walking through the bog, shaping a new footpath in the process. From stories we shared after the race it was about half of us who crossed the bog the hard way.
The Trollstigen climb was among the less challenging of the race. Neither overly long nor overly steep at any point. Not that many campervans either compared to the last time I rode up. Quite the climb to just ride and enjoy.
I just made the ferry to Stranda which was too short a sailing to even finish my coffee. Just ahead of the Trondhjemske Postvegen, one of the new additions since 2024, I found a clean, heated toilet at the roadside and applied my new ultracycling superpower: the wet wipes surrogate shower. Thoroughly cleaned I feld fresh to tackle the ridiculously steep slopes of the Postvegen. Which turned out not an ordinary mail run. The postal service from back in the day must have been a troop of legit badasses if they went over this monster of a pass on the regular! I gave up on riding when the Garmin showed a 15 % slope on gravel, but it got worse. One ramp I had trouble to push the bike up, it must have been close to 30 %. The view from the summit however compensates with a panorama of the Geirangerfjord, and the downhill was fun as well for the most part. Back on the road it continued through a steep, long and brightly lit tunnel which was quite exhilarating.
Most folks that took the same ferry as me chose to spend the night at Hellesylt at the bottom of the descent. My legs didn’t feel like stopping just yet and seeing that the next climb only reached up to mere 500 meters altitude, I hit the pedals and continued up what deteriorated into a sheep path up Flofjellvegen with its two lakes in the twilight. As it got darker, the road surface progressively got worse. Until after the second lake it barely resembled a road. More like the crumbling remains of one interspersed with thick mud and bare rocks. These final kilometers and most of the descent I ended up pushing the bike.
The ordeal had an end though and with a little delay I actually reached my goal for the day, Oppstrynsvatnet. Plenty of excellent sleeping spots on that lake but as a late comer I didn’t get to choose. The best spots were long taken. I ended up sleeping in a bus stop with a full panorama view of the lake; a cold but dry place, mostly sheltered from the wind. That night wasn’t as restful as the last one mainly due to the large trucks that kept rolling by, but it was better than no sleep at all.
Oppstrynsvatnet to Tyinstølshytta (km 530 -- 776)
Three hours later I was back on the road, heading up the Gamle Strynefjellsvegen to 1100 m altitude in order to reach the Otta valley. That climb was very even and has some nice views, but is not nearly as spectacular as most of the route. It was nice to see some other riders again though, we were about five guys that I repeatedly passed and got passed by on the way to the summit. The high plateau with its two lakes was pretty to look at but cold and windy so I didn’t lose any time up there. Reaching Lom from there is a cosy downhill in theory, however Justinas chose to “spice up” the experience by making us take a gravel road with a knee breaking 20 % incline in it that made me dismount and push.
Like in 2024 I stopped for resupply in Lom before embarking on the long climb to Sognefjellet. Despite having more vertical meters in the legs at that point, I felt fresher than I remember feeling two years ago when taking that scenic gravel detour through a side valley. It was already late afternoon when I cleared Fantesteinen, the official peak of the pass at 1428 m, and on my way there temperatures had dropped rapidly while the headwind had picked up. So I donned everything I had and crossed fingers I wouldn’t freeze on the descent.
Luckily the temperature rose a little on that double climb to Øvre Årdal that followed. The supermarket there was my last resupply opportunity before the night but I didn’t make it in time, missing opening hours by only one minute. What a bummer. Together with another racer we were looking around for any opportunity to grab some food when a lady was beckoning at us from some cafe on the main square, inviting us in. As this was a pizzeria, naturally we assumed we’d get a hot meal but when we were already seated she disclosed she would only serve beverages against cash ... likely on the side without her boss knowing. Bummer. More out of politeness we had a hot chocolate while we were joined by another guy from the race, and then went on our separate ways.
The next place that was guaranteed to be open was the second hytta that Justinas had reserved for the participants, Tyinstølshytta. Two years ago that place surprised me with a random hot shower in the middle of nowhere at six in the morning, so I had fond memories of it. This time around I knew I could get even more, any time of the day. I just had to climb up to Tunnelvegen to get there.
It’s a long climb from near sea level to 1000 meters to reach the service road of an old hydropower plant, and more than half of it is gravel. While the climb was relatively straightforward -- fairly regular gradient and a smooth surface -- the flat road after posed some problems. I had to slow down significantly due to the degraded surface while at the same time the effort from climbing was also removed. After twenty hours on the road this mixed into a devilish cocktail of fatigue. Every other kilometer I had to stop for safety reasons as my eyes kept falling shut. A powernap would have solved the issue but in the freezing cold this wasn’t an option. I had to make it to the hytta. The route soon rejoined the normal road. As much as I was relieved to be riding on tarmac again, it also meant I was exposed to car traffic again and could not risk a microsleep under any circumstances. So I reduced the time between rest stops, slowing down even further. To add insult to injury, a strong headwind was blowing on Tyinsjøen, turning the final kilometers into a half wake nightmare. At last I made it, ordering a bowl of the best pasta Bolognese I’ve had in my life before taking a shower and resting a few hours in one of the cabins. Once more, Tyinstølshytta was my savior.
Tyinstølshytta to Dovre (km 776 - 954)
Day four started with a fast descent from lake Tyin to lake Vangsmjøse, the prelude to the infamous Slettefjellet climb with that mind-numbing, endless straight upper section. This year it was even more harrowing due to loose gravel that the firm road was covered with in some botched attempt at road maintenance. It got worse with altitude and near the peak the surface was almost unrideably soft. Thanks to this BS, I once more declare Slettefjellet the worst climb of the race by far.
On the road to Beitostølen I was joined for a few kilometers by a local on a road bike who was wondering where all the bikepackers had come from. In exchange for a brief intro into ultracycling I got some Tour de France news out of him before he took the exit to his home to watch the day’s stage. Aware of the steep downhills that would follow, I changed brake pads at the junction in Beitostølen. Can’t trust the resin pads the brakes came with, even though they weren’t completely worn through. I only did a partial resupply run in the supermarket as I expected to hit Vågåmo before closing time.
Before me lay the long straight road up to Valdresflye, the second highest point of the route, and one of the windiest as well. While I had benefited from a cross-tailwind for most of the morning, I now faced it even stronger as a cross-headwind. Thankfully it’s not the steepest of climbs, just endlessly drawn out, which didn’t turn out as demotivating as I remembered it. On the summit I lost some time fiddling with the phone which looked like it had a broken USB-C port; to my relief it was just Android’s liquid detection that fooled me again. Not before I had tried every combination of USB cable and powerbank outlet though. Why not display a damn notification that it’s the phone that proactively refuses to charge? Mobile devs are the worst.
I had a decent powernap in Vågåmo after stocking up on carbs and went on my way. At this point I was slightly ahead of my 2024 schedule and felt much fresher in the legs; climbing wasn’t as much an ordeal in the late race despite a worse granny gear ratio and a lot more vertical meters. Still I did not want to risk another microsleep attack at altitude and decided I’d stop for a longer nap in Dovre. That meant I had one final climb up to Høvringen between me and my deserved rest stop. Near the top I caught up with three more riders that weren’t climbing as well but then left me in the literal dust on the gravel downhill which I took slowly on purpose. My dynamo powered light is a little underpowered for avoiding potholes, let alone deer, at speed.
Dovre to Tolga (km 954 -- 1132)
Dovre seemed the ideal location for a rest stop, being located at the foot of the last significant climb. I even found a nice spot to lie down not too far off track at the railway station. It was dry so I crashed outside on some wooden planks which were warm enough that I didn’t even bother with the sleeping pad. I fell asleep almost instantly.
After about half an hour a loud noise kicked me out of the realm of bliss. It took me a few seconds to realize what was happening: A cargo train was passing through, less than ten meters from me. At three in the morning. It as the first train I’d seen all day running on that line, having cycled through Gudbrandsdalen for several hours at that point,
Finish
- people sans helmet
https://bolg.gsng.eu/root/2024/07_Norway/07-19_bright-midnight-2024.html https://www.followmychallenge.com/live/bright-midnight-2026