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#024 Järvafältet

Järvafältet
The undiscovered gem

Distance: 57.6km
Height: 584m
Direction: Crossing over starting clockwise
Percentage: 85% gravel
Style: Gravel roads
Route designer: Zachary Stone

At GRVL.se we are always looking for contributors and new routes. Imaging the surprise we got when we received an email from Montreal. Zachary lived in Stockholm for a year before moving to Canada but his time in Sweden, or should I say his biking time, left a mark. Nacka might be the famous polished diamond of Stockholm’s gravel scene but Järvafältet is it’s undiscovered gem. Here’s Zachary’s favourite tour. 

 

 

“This route encompasses everything
I love—and miss—about cycling in Stockholm.”

During the year my wife and I lived in Stockholm I would spend most afternoons exploring the endless trails and gravel roads between our apartment in Sankt Eriksplan and Järvafältet. The perfect gravel roads and tracks of Järvafältet are the clear highlight of this route but the endless ways to get there and back keeps each ride fresh. Every road, path and track feels different in each season and each direction.

This route may start in the heart of Stockholm and yet, within a few kilometres, you’re on the gravel paths of Hagaparken. In fact, what is remarkable about this ride is the way the paths, trails, and roads snake through the suburbs to string together 50+ kilometres of glorious gravel biking whilst hardly leaving town.

 

 

After a pleasant ride up the western side of Brunnsviken, duck under the highway and soft peddle around Ulriksdals Slott to the Överjärva gårdsväg. For me, the runestone by the bridge crossing the E4 near Överjärva gårds always marked the “start” of the ride.
(context: my PhD is in medieval literature—I love runestones! I would organise entire rides just to hunt them down).
Once you cross the bridge and enter Igelbäcken it’s time to get to work.

Igelbäcken can be as hard as you want it to be. This route follows good gravel paths, but depending on your bike, your experience, your time, and your psych, you can spend some exploring the mountain bike trails which crisscross the nature reserve. For what it’s worth, I found that all but the hardest mountain bike paths were doable on an old school Ridley CX bike, with cantilever breaks, and 32mm semi-slick clinchers.

Make your way by hook or crook to west side of Igelbäken, slip under the E18, and head into into the Igelbäckens Kulturreservat. Here, again, you have options. Wander a bit. Hunt runestones and ancient graves. Take some of the smaller paths. Just aim for Drumsögaten on the north-west end of the park. Ride it north east and turn left on Mariehemsgaten and cross Akallalänken. Once you cross Akallalänken you’ve reached your destination: Järvafältet.

 

 

This route follows my favourite loop but you can string together any number of routes through the forest. Do a loop, do a bunch of loops, try some rougher trails. Have a snack by the lake or some meatballs at the local IKEA (my cycling team in the US could not get over the fact that in Stockholm you can take a gravel ride to an IKEA). Have fun. Savoir the fact that you can get from the very heart of a major European capital to an endless network of nearly car free gravel riding in c. 1 hour.

When you are ready to go home, reverse the process: take different routes through Igelbäcken and around Brunnsviken. Maybe you want to come home an entirely different way and spend some time by the water. If you have time  take on a Norra Djurgården loop or three. Or just grab a beer or a coffee. Or better yet, a kardemummabuller at my old local bakery, Lillebrors.

Whatever you do, know that you are lucky to live in a city that has rides like this.

 

This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. You should change the name of the route to “Stuka” or somting becouse this is pure bombing the whole way. Ok, theres some sudden steep uphills but it wouldnt be grvl.se route without them 🙂
    Went to ride this on sunday with WTB Byways, worked ok, but lot of loose gravel on top of packed gravel made me go slow. Changed to WTB Ranger and OH BOY wha a blast i had! (Did the ride 40min faster) I would recommend to go ride this during a weekday when theres not that mutch humanoids and horses on your way becouse this one is fast! Super deluxe ride even its mostly on joggingpaths, but hey, the flow is the thing on this one. Not the scenery.

  2. Great route ! I have been doing shorter variations of this tour since late summer last year, but this one added a few unknown extra sections in the forest and away from bitumen linking up the main riding areas. Awesome work on the route. . Nice and fast, close to home, and as Pablo mentions above, attack this on a weekday and the forest is yours. Can’t ask for more than that !

  3. Wow I absolutely loved this ride! 43C Gravelking SKs – purrrfect. Got rained on for the last 45 minutes, but I was so happy I didn’t mind. Thanks you for sharing!

    1. I love that route too.
      Järvafältet is such a great place to ride.
      Thanks for sharing.

      Michael

  4. This was a really good tour with surprises around every corner as promised. The Koppartält is a nice feature too. The only thing we noticed was that when we reached the eastern side of Brunnsviken near Victoriahuset, the path that snakes along the water appears to be off limits to cyclists. Being the law abiding citizens that we are, we avoided this beautiful stretch. I highly recommend rounding off the trip with a bite to eat in the city.

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