Vasaloppet 2010
March 28, 2010
This was the year of many records. With all the races that were offered during the week there was a total of 54000 skiers starting, although as we will see below, some skiers started more than once.
Dalarna (and probably all of Sweden) had more snow then they had seen during the last 20 years. And it was cold all week with lows below -20°C every day. However, on Vasaloppet Sunday the temperature was a pleasant -8°C to -3°C.
One of the records that was set was an embarassment to the arranger: the time to go by bus from Mora to Sälen on Sunday morning before the start. The new record is 3 hours and 15 minutes! And for the first time in the long Vasaloppet story, several hundred skiers arrived in Sälen 10 or 15 minutes after the start. And it was not because they slept in but because of the traffic bottle neck the last 5 km before Sälen.
I was in the bus before 5 o'clock in Mora but arrived after 8 o'clock in Sälen. In spite of being seeded for the fifth wave, I had to start after 14000 skiers. An unforgettable experience but rather nice.
Vasaloppet is always the same magic moment for a long distance cross country skier.It is a pleasure to ski with old men who have completed 40 or 50 Vasalopp. And very young boys and girls (the day before) on the Vasa tracks with a bib…..
Some other skier “definitively” preferred the Öppet Spår: “A most enjoyable alternative to the Sunday race … Bottlenecks : NONE!!!!! Food : Well manned by helpful, enthusiastic, fun people. Plenty of drink choices, the buns......well, they are a tradition!!.”
Some results of IAWLS' members.
Öppet Spår:
| Doug Jackson | AUS | 9:45 |
| John Plaice | AUS | 10:14 |
| Grant McLeod | CAN | 9:51 |
| Robert Palliser | CAN | 7:22 |
Vasaloppet:
| Boris Petroff | FRA | 7:42 |
| Leo Lansbergen | NED | 6:01 |
| Sergei Ivanov | RUS | 4:41 |
| Alfons Martinez-Valls | SPA | 9:50 |
| Tomas Berggren | SWE | 7:27 |
| Lars-Olav Dahlberg | SWE | 8:08 |
| Fredrik Granlund | SWE | 5:10 |
| Jan Hernelind | SWE | 6:25 |
| Claes Lindberg | SWE | 6:42 |
| Stuart Stevens | USA | 9:20 |
| Jay Wiener | USA | 9:42 |
But the King, sorry, the Queen of the Vasaloppet 2010 is one of the women members from IAWLS:
Carina Hammarstrand.
Within a week she skied:
Sunday Öppet spår in 7h23
Monday Öppet spår in 7h26
HalvVasan in 3h35
SkateVasan in 3h20
TjejVasan in 2h19
KortVasan in 2h20
StafettVasan in 7h58
and Vasaloppet in 7h52
8 Vasa in 8 days !!!! And every race, even the last one, in less than 8 hours.
Chapeau bas.
This page was last revised on September 12, 2011