Halftime in Vasaloppet’s Week: 29,342 skiers have reached their goal!

Today, Wednesday, it’s halftime in Vasaloppet’s Winter Week, which has now passed 57,000 registered participants. Till now 29,342 skiers have passed the finish in Mora under the portal “In the footsteps of our forefathers for the victories of tomorrow”.

Below are some statistics which summarise the halftime figures for the Winter Week 2010; and, again, it is record figures which we present.

Why is there such record interest?  We believe there are three contributing factors. 1. Even in the summer, Vasaloppet is in the air, for we are now an all-year-round organizer.  2. The general trend for health and physical exercise – it’s very “in” to be active, fit, and to do some training. 3. And, not least, a winter rich in snow over the whole country.

During the past year, Vasaloppet has taken a big step to develop what we can present – to offer events in the summer which can give all those interested, a goal for health and training, all year round.  And CykelVasan became directly a classic mountainbike race; Sweden’s biggest, with huge growth potential. August 14^th marks the day for the second race, this time perhaps with 5,000 cyclists at the Sälen start.

Yesterday was HalvVasan, 45 km in classic technique, and yet another new record participation was noted. The race took place, in principle, under the best possible conditions, with marvellous ski tracks and brilliant sunshine. True it was 17-18 degrees below zero at the Oxberg start in the morning and later also a little windy. But for the most part skiers had the wind behind them, and at the Mora finish it was only a few degrees below zero – in fact, such a day that we would have wished even more could have experienced skiing down to Mora.   

HalvVasan is, in the strict sense, no competition, but the best finishing time was recorded by Oskar Bergström, IFK Mora – 2,08,03. The first lady to finish was Helena Björkman (1993’s kranskulla) with a time of 2,38,31.

FACTS/Vasaloppets Winter Week 2010 at halftime: 
KortVasan 2010
Registered: 7437
Started: 6289
Broke off race: 81
Finished: 6208

TjejVasan 2010
Registered: 8456
Started: 7434
Broke off race: 67
Finished: 7367

UngdomsVasan 2010
Registered: 838
Started: 728
Broke off race: 0
Finished: 728

Öppet Spår 2010 Sunday
Registered: 9232
Started: 8418
Broke off race: 637
Finished: 7781

Öppet Spår 2010 Monday
Registered: 5313
Started: 4767
Broke off race: 286
Finished: 4481

HalvVasan 2010
Registered: 3201
Started: 2830
Broke off race: 53
Finished: 2777

Total Finished: 29,342

FACTS/Remaining races:

SkejtVasan Friday 5 March
NB! Direct registration to SkejtVasan (30 or 45 km) is still possible at the number bib distribution points up until Thursday 4 March latest 18.00! 
StafettVasan Friday 5 March, fully booked: 1198 teams (5890 skiers)
Vasaloppet Sunday 7 March, fully booked: 16368 skiers