Øystein Dahl was to manage something no one has managed before. Cycling alone from Lindesnes to Nordkapp in less than five days. 2500 kilometers. Thousands of training hours and kilometers have been covered. The 47-year-old is in great form and is set to break the record. The current record is just over six days and three hours. Dahl is just over a day ahead of the record schedule on this summer’s day almost two years ago. Here he has ten miles left of the trip. But inside the Skarvberg Tunnel in Porsanger, something happens. Øystein drives into a hole in the tunnel and goes straight into the asphalt. He is picked up by an air ambulance. Øystein has suffered a serious head injury. In the hospital, the fight for life begins. His wife Vivien Fjeldsgaard Dahl is in the hospital. Next to her stands a strange woman who has just lost her husband. She relays the news of death to the children over the phone. Vivien is watching closely. She must take this with her. How do you give your children such a message? Turned upside down A few hours ago, life was completely normal for Vivien and her family. The record attempt turned everything upside down in a matter of seconds. When the family arrives at the hospital in Tromsø, they still do not know if Øystein will survive. Vivien prayed to God to get her husband back. He woke up, but the man she knew was no longer there. – I was sure that life would never be the same, says his wife Vivien. Memory and memories were gone. Vivien Fjeldsgaard Dahl has always been a little anxious every time her husband Øystein Dahl sets out on long bike rides. Photo: Kjetil Samuelsen / news A unique driving force The first time Øystein cycled across Norway was in 2020. A year earlier he met Runar Skuggevik from Grimstad, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Amalie that same year. By then she had been fighting brain cancer for two years. The story deeply affected Dahl. – When I got to know Runar and heard the story, I felt it became strong for me. I have five children myself. The children are the most precious thing I have, says Dahl. It was the backdrop for the record attempt in the Bicycle Action project. – Being able to contribute to putting more focus on research became important to me. The aim was to cycle the length of Norway to collect NOK 250,000 for the Children’s Cancer Association. At the starting line at Lindesnes, the two stood together with five other cyclists. But the gain that awaited 2,531 kilometers further north was much more than a new world record. They had also collected one million kroner for children with cancer. Øystein would repeat the success the following year. But the others declined. Thus he cycled alone the following year. An escort car with a camera team and a doctor witnessed the fall. In 2021, Øystein Dahl cycled the length of Norway to raise money for children with cancer for the second time. But he never quite got there. Photo: Herman Hjelkrem / Mose Studios Lived with a stranger At first Øystein remembered nothing. – It was like having a stranger in the house, says the wife. His personality wasn’t the same either. Over 30 years of the lives of Øystein and his wife were gone. But Vivien was prepared. She had learned that Øystein’s brain damage could be cured. Memory and memories would return in fragments. – Øystein has had to go from 0 to 48 years of age in two years. He had to learn to eat and walk again, she says. A thumbs up between his wife, children and son-in-law was given behind his back when they began to see glimpses of the old Øystein again. One of the best moments Vivien looks back on is when he got annoyed with one of his daughters for spending too long in the bathroom. Then she knew the man she knew was back. Not himself without the bicycle Øystein gradually started to become more like himself. Day by day. – At first I was just happy to have survived, but then the feeling came creeping in, of a greater need to complete what I didn’t get to do, says Øystein. He set himself goals, which he later sees as a major driving force for his rehabilitation. The family was there and pulled his neck from the start. – Seeing things as positively as possible and setting goals has been terribly important. His wife noticed. – He was annoyingly positive, she says. It wasn’t long before thoughts of new record attempts and cycling returned. Øystein was determined – he was going back on the bicycle seat. Øystein Dahl and his wife Vivien Dahl met as teenagers. Today they have five children and have built a home in Mandal. Photo: Kjetil Samuelsen / news Motivation saved his life After the many weeks in hospital after the accident, Øystein got a place at the Kongsgård rehabilitation center in Kristiansand. There he meets neuropsychologist Jan Brunner. He describes a driving force in Øystein that he does not see very often. – Research shows that who you are before an injury will influence how things go after the injury. You are able to push yourself more than most people I know, says Brunner and turns to Øystein. It has become a vital driving force for the rehabilitation. – I can’t understand anything else. The motivation he has had both before and after the accident is an indication that the injury has not taken away an important personality trait from him. Today, only Øystein himself can say whether he is healthy enough to complete a new record attempt, Brunner believes. Øystein Dahl has had to work hard to get back on the bicycle seat. It took time to regain the muscle strength in the body. Photo: Private – Took me in the neck on 28 June, it’s been two years since the accident. Today, Øystein trains for about five hours a day. The country road trips are also part of the routine again. The wife is always a little anxious when the husband goes out on the long training trips. But without the bike, he wouldn’t have been the man she married. – I’ve known it all along, that if he stays himself again, he will ride a bike. It’s Øystein. He had not been himself on the sofa watching sports on TV. Øystein himself believes that it is his family and the rehabilitation he received at Kongsgård that have all the credit for him being back where he is today. – They are the ones who arranged and grabbed me by the neck. What they have done has meant everything. Øystein Dahl is a carpenter by profession and has built a bicycle shed at home. Here he spends many hours every day. Photo: Kjetil Samuelsen / news Wants to finish what he started Øystein has great respect for what the family has had to go through because of the accident. But the bike is part of his personality, and he has half his life left. – I have used the Cycling Action as motivation to take back my life, step by step. It has gone from a terrible to a nice story. From the outside, you’d never guess that two years ago he didn’t remember how he ate breakfast. He still has things he struggles with, but Øystein chooses to look ahead. This summer, two years after the accident, the Cyclist action is taking place again. Nine cyclists are involved. Øystein is one of them. The cycle tour starts this time from Nordkapp, but the destination is the same. To raise money for children with cancer. As well as managing it in 100 hours and thus setting a new world record. – My big goal is to be able to keep up, and to be able to make an effort. How it goes, I don’t know. But I will do what I can to contribute, says an unusually modest Dahl. He is not the type to give up. He is a finisher. Vivien Fjeldsgaard Dahl believes her husband Øystein Dahl would not have been the person she fell for without the bicycle. Photo: Kjetil Samuelsen / news
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Øystein Dahl makes a new record attempt on a bicycle after a horror accident – Sørlandet
