Up to the Peer Gynt road and down through Gudbrandsdalen

This is a seven-day cycling loop out of Lillehammer, with five days in the saddle, that pairs two very different stretches of central Norway. The first half climbs westward onto the high upland country known as Peer Gynt-fjellet - the rolling fjell country immortalised by Ibsen - on a network of historic gravel roads with long views across to Jotunheimen, Rondane and Dovrefjell. The second half descends back into Gudbrandsdalen and follows the long valley of the Lågen river south on quiet local roads.

The route is roughly 230 kilometers in total, on a deliberate mixture of well-graded gravel up high and lightly trafficked tarmac down in the valley. The standout sections are the open Peer Gynt Vegen between Skei and Espedalen, the descent from Espedalen through a narrow river gorge to Skåbu, and the historic farms and stave churches of the Gudbrandsdalen valley floor - including Dale-Gudbrands Gard at Hundorp, where the clash with Olav Haraldsson in 1021, remembered as klubbeslaget, began the conversion of the valley to Christianity.

We arrange the journey through one of our long-standing Norwegian partners, a Lillehammer-based mountain specialist that runs this self-guided route. Luggage is taken ahead between hotels, the route is laid out in a navigation app with GPX tracks and a written description, and you ride with a small daypack only.