Vasaloppet's Summer Week, August 14–22, 2020, with the biggest Nordic mountain bike race Cykelvasan 90 and the biggest Nordic ultrarunning race Ultravasan, will not be held on location in the Vasaloppet Arena.
The long-distance skiing world championship, Visma Ski Classics, launches The Grand Classics Events. If an athlete wins all four in the same season he or she completes a Grand Slam. The Grand Classics events are the four largest and most prestigious events in the Pro Tour: Marcialonga, Jizerska Padesatka, Vasaloppet, and Birkenbeinerrennet.
Changes to the infrastructure and the Genomfart Mora project, where European route E45 is widened towards the centre of Mora with new bike and footpaths, are affecting the area around Vasaloppet's events. Among other things it means that the finish line in all Vasaloppet races will be moved.
The 11th edition of Visma Ski Classics Pro Tour, Season XI, includes 11 events with a total of 586 km. It starts with the Prologue weekend in Livigno with a 15 km Pro Team Tempo 15 km on November 27th, 2020, and ends in Northern Finland when the 70-kilometer final Ylläs-Levi takes place on April 17th, 2021, a winter tour around Europe.
Snow and ice melts away from this winter's ski tracks and soon summer will enter the Vasaloppet Arena. This means that 90 km of bike and running tracks have to be kept in tip-top shape, something that doesn't happen by itself. Vasaloppet has seven year-round employees working the ninety-kilometre arena. We had a chat with Arena Manager Anders Holmberg about the work in the arena this spring.
The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing many summer sports events to cancel or postpone. Vasaloppet is choosing to continue planning for the Summer Week, August 14-22 and to adapt the events to the new conditions. "Of course we are also affected by the pandemic. Our goal is to run the races but we're not yet certain what shape that will take," says Eva-Lena Frick, Vasaloppet's CEO.
Sun, snow, rain and ice. Vasaloppet's Winter Week 2020 gave us every imaginable weather condition, challenging participants and organizers alike. But it also gave us masses of smiles and excited people, long-awaited finishes, acts of strength and tears of joy.
As from today, April 6th, until June 30th, a free of charge access to the live streaming platform Visma Ski Classics PLAY is offered to cross country ski fans around the globe, including the Visma Ski Classics 60-minute Season highlight published today! And also the 5-hour broadcast from Vasaloppet 2020 with English commentary.
Due to the prevailing situation where everyone, internationally and in Sweden, is working to reduce the spread of COVID-19, Vasaloppet has now made the decision to pause registration for the Summer Week, August 14–22, 2020.
The present is difficult and the future is uncertain. We know that many are struggling; health care workers, the elderly, schools, big companies, small companies, organizers of sporting events and the overall world population. We're currently aiming to carry out Vasaloppet's Summer Week 2020 as planned; at the same time we are closely monitoring updates and recommendations from our Swedish authorities.
