Son Loop

Some loops are circuits; this one has a harbour. From the Oslo Opera House the route climbs out of the city and into inner Follo, where the urban feeling takes its time to dissolve. Once through the suburban fringe, the roads thin into the kind of traffic-free lanes Follo riders protect carefully — past Kråkstad, Kroer, and Garder, farmland held close on both sides, asphalt that rarely needs a centre line.

Follo’s quiet half

The first half is patient work: rolling countryside, short rises, the gradual sense of leaving the capital’s gravity. Barn roofs catch the light; ditch water mirrors a pale sky; the road never quite flattens long enough to forget you are still climbing in fragments. Kongsveien may be closed to cyclists into late 2026; the detour via Mosseveien to Ljabru and up toward Nordstrand keeps the distance honest while trading the Ekeberg view. Either way, the character that matters arrives inland — roads where the day can finally breathe, and where a group can ride two abreast without performing for traffic.

Son and the harder return

Son at roughly kilometre sixty-four is the hinge: about sixty-four out, fifty-four home, a coastal town that deserves a proper stop rather than a roll-through. Wooden edges, harbour light, water close enough to reset the effort. Masts tick against the breeze; the fjord smells sharper than the farmland behind you. On warm weekends the quayside fills early; the seat you want is easier before the rush.

Five hundred sixty-six of the route’s 1,307 climbing metres wait after kilometre fifty-nine — the second half is the sterner teacher.

Past Son the longest continuous climb of the day arrives within a few kilometres, and the return asks more than the outbound. Rolling Follo terrain keeps stacking short costs until the city reappears — not one villainous ascent, but a ledger of ramps that refuse to be ignored. One hundred eighteen kilometres is a properly hard Oslo day without ever becoming alpine — the reward is the combination of quiet inland roads and a true fjord destination at the turn.

Best from April to October. Spring mornings bite this far south of the centre — layers for the first hour, then trust the day to warm. Ride it when a long loop should feel like going somewhere, not only covering distance.