Vätternrundan

Vätternrundan is a bicycle challenge riding event around the lake Vättern in Sweden which is held in mid-June every year. The distance is 300 km, with start and finish in the town of Motala.

It was first held in 1966 when 334 people completed the course. In 2006 there were still 11 "pioneers" who had completed all 41 races since 1966. In 2008 registration was limited to a maximum of 17,500 people.

The participants start in groups of 60 or 70, with a 2 minute interval between group start times. The first group starts at 8 o'clock on Friday evening and the last group starts at about 5 on Saturday morning. The course must be finished by midnight on Saturday.

Vätternrundan is not a competitive race, so there is no official time ranking of finishers. This type of event is called a "motionslopp" (fitness race) in Sweden.

For traffic safety reasons it is forbidden for participants to have support cars. Also it is forbidden in the race rules to drive a car within six hours from finish, since the participants have raced most or all of the night. Nevertheless several people have been killed by participants who fell asleep when driving home shortly after the race. Also participants have been killed during driving for the same reason. The police is nowadays checking car drivers after the race.

External links

*http://www.vaetternrundan.se/
* [http://lumotic.se/maps/vatternrundan Interaktiv karta]

cycling-stub