Vasaloppsveckan
March 8, 2006
Halvvasan
This 45 km race used to start at Evertsberg and corresponded practically to the second half of Vasaloppet. However, the average level of HV skiers is very low. After the race the splendid Evertsberg descents looked rather like battlefields after heavy bombing because of snowploughing and falls. Accidents occurred and the organizers decided in 2005 to modify the course. It now starts at Oxberg about 29 km from Mora and winds through the woods towards Evertsberg, joining the Vasaloppet track at 37 km from Mora. On the race day, February 28, the weather was ideal, sunny and temperatures in the -8 to -6 C range. The old snow was hard, partly icy and gave an excellent glide.
The start arrangements were not good. The start consisted of a continuous flow of skiers, beginning at 9 AM and finishing some 20 min later. This in itself is a very good system, provided the fastest skiers start first. Skiers were supposed to take their place in a U-shaped line 3 skiers wide, as soon as they arrived. But hundreds of skiers stayed in the middle and sneaked in the line from the side, near the start gate where the individual start times were recorded via the use of chips. Many good skiers who had arrived early and taken their place obediently in the line were amongst the last to leave the start area. Overtaking was almost impossible for the first 10 km. A bottleneck occurred at about 4 km in a small climb (see picture). In fact, it was caused by a small descent some 200 m after the top of the climb where inexperienced skiers were afraid and began snowploughing. We will write to the organizers and suggest that they adopt some sort of seeding so that these inconveniences are not repeated. HV is a non-competitive event, i.e. only the times but not the placements are given. But it belongs to the high standard WL Silver Master races. Most WL skiers wish to ski as fast as possible and make a good time not hindered by slow skiers who are just making a tour and can as well start 20 min later.
This said, the last 30 km of the race were very enjoyable! There was still a lot of track changing but it was not costing more time because of free spaces.
Skejtvasan
The Vasaloppet week skating event took place on March 1, 2006. There was about 5 cm of new snow on the ground and the snowfall continued the whole day while the temperature hovered around -5C. The track was much slower than in Halvvasan the previous day. The 30 km event started at 11 AM, the 45 km race at noon. Both races started at Oxberg and the 45 km course was exactly the same as in Halvvasan.All arrangements were excellent. Because of the small number of participants and the absence of inexperienced skiers the tracks were nowhere crowded (see picture of the finish).
Vasaloppet
Vasaloppet happened on March 5. More snow had fallen during the previous night and since there was a small snowstorm in the start area in Sälen, it seemed to promise a tough race. The temperature was about -12C. However, the weather cleared up and we had a lot of sunshine during the day, while the temperature rose to -8C. But the race was much tougher than usual because of the bad glide. The organizers had set the tracks the previous night and partly on the race day morning. They stayed in good conditions. - Gitta Bellmann GER 10.19.33
- Corrado Ampezzan ITA 9.58.12
- Gilles Bertin FRA 8.56.24
A Swedish newspaper joked that the best name in the start area was Shunsuke Komamura, Japan. Indeed, Komamura is pronounced in Swedish exactly as 'come to Mora'. Shunsuke did it brilliantly in 4.41.40!
This page was last revised on September 16, 2007