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A Swedish Monster

News Release / 16.03.2009

While most races are moving to shorter and shorter courses, Explore Sweden has gone bananas and created a Monster, a 1000km non-stop race including everything an adventure junkie can dream about!

The race start (“prologue”) will be timed to coincide with “Sundsvall Street Festival” – a celebration of almost 200,000 people with live music, local food, and adventure games in the city centre. Explore Sweden “Monster” will start with several hours and multiple disciplines in an urban environment packed with cheering crowds and unexpected challenges.

“Sundsvall is looking forward being the host for Explore Sweden, which will have adventure racing’s top teams on the start line. The Sundsvall city environment, with all the old turn of century houses, and our beautiful nature, with the mountains and the water around the city will give the organizers the best possible conditions for an exciting start and finish to the race, said Carina Nordström-Sköldh, Vice President of Sundsvall Arena.

“Our goal is that Sundsvall will be the premier city of event organizing north of “Mälardalen” and this kind of event is absolutely right in our strategy partly to develop sports events and that Explore Sweden will put Sundsvall on the map.”

The race is held in July when the summer is at its very best in Sweden. Daytime temperatures are expected to be between 20-28C (68 to 82 F) with night time temperatures around 12 C (53 F). Thanks to the midnight sun, the skies will be light for at least 20 hours!

The course will contain every adventure racers highest expectations with trekking and orienteering along trails and in unmarked terrain, both in the highlands and in the lowlands, but also in an urban environment with paved roads, parks and man-made surroundings. The teams will also find themselves along spectacular mountain traverses with unrivalled scenery along the Sweden/Norway border and will “rope up” into teams of four to cross glaciers and couloirs with ice axes and crampons.

“The race terrain is fantastic and unique, and the course this year will a highlight. The teams will have great experiences. One day they will race in a big city with cheering crowds and the next they will be trekking on glaciers in the wide-open wilderness. Fans back home will follow the race with ease on the internet thanks to a high tech GPS tracking system. The website will also feature constant news updates and press releases with texts and photographs taken by professional photographers and journalists,” says Race Director and Course Designer Mikael Lindnord.

The mountain biking will be on roads and single-track, including some really technical terrain. The race will feature a huge downhill section on world class MTB trails. If that’s not enough, the race will also present a strategic challenge for teams: a “Tour de France” style bike section where teams will be allowed to receive support/food during their ride between checkpoints.

Also unique for this years Explore Sweden will be all the activities on the water. The water disciplines will demand proficiency in a variety of “craft” including white water rafts, two types of river kayaks, double kayaks, hydrospeed, and Canadian canoe. The paddling will be a mixture of river paddling and white water (rafting with guide up to class 4), so expect plenty of challenges. The organization will supply all water craft.

The race will also feature inline skating on paved roads and some spectacular rope sections that will entertain teams and the media alike – not the least of which is a monster-long, high-speed zip-line section 1400 meters in length!
For more information on the race see www.exploresweden.se.