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The history of Vikingarännet
In 1999 the first 80 km Vikingarännet was run on a northern arm of Lake Mälaren (Ekoln) outside Uppsala. Its predecessors were Prinsloppet ("the Prince Race") at Strömsund, which was run five times between 1971 and 1976, and Sollentunaloppet ("the Sollentuna Race") on the lake Norrviken just north of Stockholm. This latter race was more of a lap-race..
It is a unique feature of Vikingarännet that the start and finish are at different places. Even more world-unique is that it starts in Sweden's fourth largest city, Uppsala, and has its finishing point inside Stockholm, and in a global perspective this is very exotic.
The Dutch
Vikingarännet was inspired by the "Eleven-Town-Race" which was run in Holland in 1997. The Eleven-Town-Race has been run four times since 1963 (1963, 1985, 1986 and 1997). After the 1997 race the winner and a number of Dutchman from skating organisations there visited the Stockholm area. They had been invited by Stockholm City and the Swedish Travel and Tourist Council. In Holland they have known for a long time about the wonderful lake ice to be found in Sweden. Partly because of the very few ice winters which occur in Holland, they were looking for a skating race for that the real skating enthusiasts in Holland could have new skating goals to travel to. The Swedish hosts for that visit included Anders Tysk and Bjsrn Nilsson. They were asked the question whether it would be possible to arrange a long-distance race on ice-skates in the Stockholm area. A pilot study was commissioned by SIS (the Stockholm Information Service) to determine how often it would be possible to arrange such a long-distance race in the Stockholm area.
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The pilot study
The pilot study showed that the only route of real interest was that between Uppsala and Stockholm. Between those cities there are a minimum of ice-generations. Further west are Lake MSlar's most open parts and those tend to freeze over at a later date and to be more treacherous than the other parts of the lake (with the exception of the Stockholm harbour area). Skating several laps on a smaller lake was not considered a serious alternative. In addition, such a race already exists - the Sollentuna Race.
Does the ice exist? That was plainly the first question for which we needed an answer. We made contact with the clubs which arrange tour skating around Stockholm, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), the National Swedish Administration of Shipping and Navigation, the recreational fishing clubs, and last but not least the Stockholm Harbour Authority (with its responsibility for ice-breaker service over the years). It was concluded that the ice is sufficient for our requirements. The statistics from 1979 onwards make that quite clear. In February in the years 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1996 and 1997 there was ice right up to the Rålambshovs Park. In the years 1988, 1989, 1990 and possibly 1992 we would have had difficulty in running the race. In the other years we could have run the race from Uppsala as far south as Kungsängen.
We therefore judged that there was a 50 per cent chance of reaching the Rålambshovs Park, and 80 per cent chance of reaching Kungsängen and only about a 20 per cent risk of our having to cancel. All that was from looking in the rear-view mirror - and that says nothing about the future.
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The go-ahead
On the basis of the pilot study, the SIS gave the go-ahead by providing a loss guarantee and Vikingarännet could become a reality. Uppsala Municipality also provided a loss guarantee for the first year. In order to arrange this type of project, the organisers must be non-profit-making associations. It was natural for Friluftsfrämjandet, with its broad range of nation-wide activities in which tour ice-skating is the foremost winter activity, would be one of the organising bodies. At least 90 per cent of the participating skaters are expected to come from the tour ice-skating groups. In order to be attractive to the racing skaters too, since these would be an important group in giving Vikingarännet its proper status in the skating world, Svenska Skridskoförbundet was invited in at an early stage.
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The first race
The pilot study was completed in the autumn of 1997 and it was therefore too late to arrange a race in 1988. That season was used for some reconnaissance along the route. The first Vikingarännet was run on 13 February 1999. Since the water-flow through the watercourses was unusually large then, there was an ice-free stretch at Erikssund too large for it to be practical with an overland detour there. Barely two weeks before the event it was therefore decided to run the first Vikingarännet on Ekoln, using it as a round track with one lap anticlockwise and one lap clockwise. The start and finish were both at Skarholm, just outside Uppsala. This turned out to be a fortunate decision. More than 4000 skaters started and they had a really festive day on the ice. The winner, Hotze Zandstra skated the 80 km in 2 hours 35 minutes and 42 seconds.
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Vikingarännet in the year 2000
It had been planned to run the year 2000 race on Sunday February 13. After rather a slow start the ice had started to grow rapidly in the middle of January. Up until 10 days before the date of the race it would have been possible to skate the whole way in to Smedsuddsbadet (some 4 km west of the centre of Stockholm) on strong, near-perfect, solid ice. This ice managed to resist two weeks of strongly warm weather and wind until there were only a couple of days left. Then, less than 24 hours before the start, the major crack which formed on the Wednesday along the west coast of Ekoln grew rapidly larger. Within a few hours, the ice over large parts of the western and southern parts of Ekoln, just a few kilomtres from the start, were like a big jig-saw puzzle. It was unthinkable to let out 8000 eager skaters on to that ice. The race therefore had to be cancelled.
Wise from that setback, the organisation has made even more thorough studies of alternative routes prior to the race in the year 2001.
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Vikingarännet 2001
Despite an extremly mild start to the winter, with open water in January. Vikingarännet 2001 was successfully run. The course were laid over the safe area between Kungsängen and Sigtuna and also on a part of Mälaren. The week before the race had almost perfect weather conditions, but a strong wind late Saturday afternoon produced bad cracks, on the ice, cutting of approx. 10 km of the course. This was compensated by another course at Görväln south of Kungsängen. During the night, a thin layer of wet snow fall, froze on the ice and made the skating slow. This made the race for the 4000 participants very tough. Approx. 1000 participants did not finich the race. The Ducthman Martijn Kromkamp won, with the time 2 hours 58 min and 10 sec, and the Swede Johan Håmås came second.
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Vikingarännet 2002
During Christmas and New Year 2001/2002 it snowed a great deal and was very cold in Sweden. Roparudden had approx. 10 cm ice. You could skate under the bridge by Erikssund which is very unusual. It looked very promising. The snow melted slowly which meant the ice did not thicken. The ice was good to Nockebybron, but south of Kungsängen, the quality decreased. From around 5th February the warm weather came and the ice started to melt. On the date of the race, 17th February, the ice had melted in several areas of the race course. We had to cancel the race.
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Vikingarännet 2003
This was the first time we advertised VR without a set date. 2002/2003 became the best skating winter in east Sweden for more than 20 years. The ice was already set end of October and the race course could be used before Christmas. The good weather gave high quality ice all the way to central Stockholm during Christmas and New Year. The decided date for the race was 19th January. The weather conditions deteriorated the week before the race and the conditions by Erikssund and Roparudden changed. However, on the day of the race the ice was almost perfect.
4 000 people started in great weather at Skarholmen and finished at Rålambshovsparken where the ice was only lightly covered by water.
The winner of the race was Johan Håmås who finished with the time 3 hours 11 min.
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Vikingarännet 2004
The season 2003/2004 was a normal season with regard to the temperature, but the ice was covered in snow during long periods. This put high demands on our organisation to clear the ice.
By Christmas there was solid ice between Sigtuna and Kungsängen. Short after, Ekoln also had solid ice as well as the stretch between Kungsängen and Hässelby.
The short and intensive cold spells meant hard winds. This meant that the stretch in to Rålambshovsparken never had any solid ice. We realised that we would not be able to reach Rålambshovsparken approx. 1,5 week before the race.
Sunday 8th February Vikingarännet went ahead. After a week with variable weather and a fantastic job done clearing the ice, the course was in a very good condition. Despite a thick snowfall the race was carried trough. The winning time was even compatible with previous years! Vikingarännet went very well despite a not so good weather!
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Vikingarännet 2005
The ice came late in autumn 2004. The beginning of December saw thin ice on Ryssgraven and over Christmas, as the ice got thicker, hurricane "Gudrun" arrived.
The hurricane blew the ice away and it didn't settle again until end of January/beginning of February. Two skating races had already cancelled. Vikingarännet was planned for Skarholmen - Kungsängen 19th Febr, on a Saturday, so previously arranged races could go ahead on the Sunday.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of snow on the Monday before the race. This snow covered a big crack in the ice close to Killingholmen (Skokloster) and we had difficulties locating the crack, therefore it was decided not to start the race in Skarholmen. The new starting place became Kungsängen.
Due to excellent ploughing, we had a track ready that was really fast. The problem however, was that the snow, pressing down, caused water to lay on the surface of the ice. Therefore the race became very wet.
The combination of late ice and lots of snow made the participant number the lowest so far, approx. 1,600.
The winner was (as usual) Johan Håmås, his time 2 hours and 44 minutes. Johan Boonstra from Holland came second with 2 hours and 50 minutes closely followed by Johan Olsson.
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Vikingarännet 2006
A great winter! 90 days of excellent skiing conditions in the Stockholm area. Unfortunately, all the snow stopped the ice around central Stockholm from developing. The ice on Essinge waters remained at 7-9 cm just before the race.
The date of the race was set to 19th February, therefore we had barely 4 weeks to skate on the track "Vikingaslingan". The interest shown in "Vikingaslingan" was very high both from the public and from the county council.
Vikingarännet 2006 started in Skarholmen and finished in Hässelby. This year there was a short track, "kortisen", of just 22 km length. "Kortisen" started in Sigtuna and finished in Kungsängen. The number of participants increased slightly from last year, but due to the bad weather, the final number was just under 2,000. Again the winner was Johan Håmås, in a time pf 2 hours and 45 minutes. Second and third was Bernhard Bouma and Gerrit de Zwaan, five minutes behind. The two Dutchmen put pressure on Johan who had to work extra hard.
The winter continued to be cold with more snow and with hindsight we could have scheduled Vikingarännet several weekends later!
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