Sweden vaettern ride 18,000 people

luke1972

http://www.cyklavaettern.com/english/

has anyone done this event. They say they get 18,000 riders, would be interested to hear if anyone has competed in this event.

Torm3ntoR

Hi!

I´ve made it! I think around 14500 finished the event this year!

It took me 9:19 to complete it!

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/Joakim
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luke1972

Hi,

Is it a well run event? Worth doing? Would like to come over and ride from Malmoe-Gothenburg-(do vaettern) -Stockholm over a couple of weeks. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Tack!

Torm3ntoR

It´s a great event, very wellplaned. Very nice spirit. About 17500 cyclingdorks It´s just great!

When you´re half way, they serv dinner in Hjo, (If you have time for that... ) I didn´t I went for a good time instead!

It´s 280 km from Malmö to Göteborg. Göteborg to Motala (Where the start is) 200 km i think. And from Motala to Stockholm, I dont know, but atleast 250km i´d guess.

Varsågod!

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John Picton

I intend to do this event in 2004, I've heard from a guy I know who has done it 5 times that it is great!

Only problem I have is transporting the bikes there (there are nine of us!). Most hire car company's won't let you use bike racks so I'm thinking about having them delivered there a couple of days before by a haulage company like Amtrack, unless the cost is prohibitive.

Anyone have any ideas of how I can get the bikes over there?

luke1972

Hi John,

Why not hire a 6 seater van and a 3 seater van (with space in the back, you could put 9 bikes into the back of a van and luggage). Since there is 9 of you the cost would not be that much. It would be cheaper then shipping 9 people by train (I assume anyway).

Regards,
Luke

Ratface

Some interesting points here. I'm a Brit living in Sweden and I'm looking at doing Vättern Runt for the first time this year.

As others have pointed out, it's a well attended ride with a very friendly and fun atmosphere. As far as I have seen so far it is *very* well run - with a typical Swedish attention to detail ;-) The scale of the race is kind of like a big marathon (London, New York or similar) and it is handled with a similar professionalism. There are timing chips, assigned starting groups (groups of 50 every minute or two through the night!), SMS notifications for interested/worried family members, plenty of food, drink, massage and first-aid stations on route plus much more.

John is right about the bike problems. Compounding the issue is that the Swedish train system won't carry bikes and recently the freight carrier that *did* transport bikes around the country has gone under new management and the signs are that one won't even be able to freight a bike from place to place soon. There are petitions out about this though.

(The whole situation has made me wonder whether there's a potential market for a cycle-transport company in Sweden helping people get to races/holiday destinations with their bikes during the summer months!).

I would suggest that hiring a van as Luke has suggested is not a bad idea. Van hire is *not* hugely expensive in Sweden and would almost certainly be cheaper than it would have been to ship 9 bikes by train anyway! Plus you have the flexibility to make more of a holiday out of the whole thing and perhaps visit some other places during your stay.

Finally, I would point out that Torm3ntoRs distance estimates are probably accurate for car travel, but on bikeable roads you would need to plan for a bit more distance I think (though I'm not entirely sure). Especially the distance to Motala sounds like an underestimate given that the lake you ride around (Vättern) is in the way! I would allow more like 250km for that part of the journey. It's all perfectly do-able though if you allow a few days for the whole thing.

Shout if there's anything else you're all wondering about and I'll do what I can to help out!

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