Fredrik Erixon left Sweden 5 days ago, on Monday, May 29. After crossing Denmark, he reached Hamburg on Friday, June 2, and has already covered 415km. Unfortunately, Friday was also the day for his first crash.

Erixon, after leaving Denmark and crossing Lübeck, what happened? 

“I had a couple of tough days with a strong headwind, up to 10 to 12 knots. When I was leaving the hotel in the morning I knew it was going to be long days ahead of me. Long days with a lot of fika! (laugh) But today was actually a super good day because I had a tailwind all the way and the sun was shining.” 

“Unfortunately, I also crashed quite badly today. I  don’t exactly remember what happened, but I must have seen a hole in the road so I jumped, and my back wheel fell off. I hurt myself a bit, my elbow scraped the tarmac, and I hit my head so I had a headache for a couple of hours. Probably, I felt straight on my head first and then on my bottle, which is fixed on my chest. My poles are saved and I managed to not break anything.”

How did you fix your roller ski? 

“I had some tools with me to fix the wheel. I just sat down on the grass and fixed it. And until now I’ve been going with my photographer, and he has extra gears on the car for fixing things if needed, but tomorrow he will go back to Sweden so I will be on my own for almost 15 days.” 

You are in Hamburg now. How does it feel to roller ski in a big city like this one?

“There are several things to consider when coming to towns and big cities. The traffic, red lights, quality of asphalt, and in addition all the cobbled roads where it’s impossible to roller ski. I feel it in Hamburg more than in Copenhagen because over there the asphalt was good. There was no problem skiing, and there were a lot of cycle paths.” 

“This is a big surprise to find all those small villages and bigger towns with this kind of road here in Germany. I hadn’t thought about it when I was planning my trip because we don’t have them in Sweden.”

“Being in this kind of city is complicated, I think I will have to avoid them in the future.” 

How does your body feel after five days on the road? 

“I’m actually starting to feel a bit tired. Those are long days for me, I start at 7, I do some interviews, and then I’m on the skis more or less all day. My shoulders are hurting with the backpack, and I also have blisters.” 

“Other than that, I am feeling tired mentally. Usually, when you roller ski you are going into places and streets that you are pretty familiar with. But now I don’t know the places that I will cross so I need to be alert all the time, I can’t really relax. If there is a bump, a hole, or a stone on the street I have to see it to be able to jump. I also need to anticipate when to stop because it takes a while. I have to be alert, especially in the city. It keeps me alert all day long, so it’s pretty exhausting.”

You hadn’t experienced that in Sweden? 

“Not in that way because for all the Northern part of Sweden, it was only me and a couple of deers on the roads, which are super straight. Before Mora, there is no one. Then I came to Stockholm, and I knew the city, so it was pretty easy. And then I tried to avoid the big cities.” 

“On the other hand, the good thing compared to my first trip is the weather. When I was crossing Sweden I had 20 days of rain out of 28. Now since I left Sweden, I had super good weather, it was not too warm, and there are no mosquitoes!” 

What is your route until the end of the weekend? 

“If everything goes by the book, I will be in Hanover on Sunday evening. Then I will be in Frankfurt on Thursday 11, and I am looking forward to reaching France.”

“I am really looking forward to going to France but I am also enjoying a lot being in Germany. Moreover, I can try a lot of good pastries and German beers here!”

Proxcskiing.com is following Erixon until the end of his journey. Stay tuned on Proxcskiing.com and Fredrik Erixon Instagram for more news!