The 10thanniversary season of the Visma Ski Classics pro tour, Season X, has 12 events in total, and starts with the prologue weekend in Livingo with the pro team tempo of 15 km on November 29 followed by an mass start prologue of 35 km on December 1, 2019. The Pro Tour X ends in Northern Finland when the 70-kilometre final Ylläs-Levi takes place on April 4, 2020.
When the time comes for the sixth Ultravasan 90 on Saturday, August 17, we'll see the world's foremost ultrarunner, Jim Walmsley from the US, on the starting line. Walmsley, who has been called the "Michael Jordan of ultrarunning" set a new 50 mile world record (80.467 km) at an invitation race in California this past Saturday. Last year he also won the big ultrarunning race The Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run (161 km) with a new record time. Will Jim Walmsley also become the first American to win Ultravasan?
Ultravasan is held this year for the sixth time on Saturday, August 17, 2019. The very first Ultravasan ran in 2014 and so far we've recorded 4,049 finishes in Ultravasan 90 and 2,734 in Ultravsan 45. Last year records were broken in three classes – only Jonas Buud's slightly amazing 5.45.08 from Ultravasan 90 2015 has stood the test of time. Do you remember who won through the years? For all trivia enthusiasts out there we've compiled the top ten results since the start!
As usual there was plenty of interest in next year's Vasaloppet 90 km when registration for the Winter Week opened two weeks ago. A few remaining spots have now become available, so take this chance to snatch a start place in the 96th Vasaloppet!
For the tenth year in a row Vasaloppet had over fifty thousand participants who managed to complete their Winter Week races. This year 51,878 (counting all five team members in Stafettvasan) reached the finish in Mora. They skied a combined three million kilometres! 3,135 participants broke off their races and in total there were 62,951 registered participants, counting 591 participants in the Barnens Vasalopp children's ski race.
Vasaloppet 2919 offered solo victories in both the men's and women's class. Norwegian Tore Björset Berdal broke away with barely five kilometres left and could hold his ground for a victory in the men's class and Britta Johansson Norgren won the ladies' class after having been alone in the lead for almost the whole race. – I went all in. It was all or nothing, says Berdal about his victory push. – It was really tough today, but then it's even more enjoyable when it all works out, says Johansson Norgren after her second Vasaloppet victory.
Team Koteng had a glorious day in Vasaloppet as the team’s pro skiers managed to lock all podium places. Tore Bjørseth Berdal broke away five kilometres before the finish and won the race while Britta Johansson Norgren, Lager 157 Ski Team, left her opponents behind early to win the women’s race.
The 95th Vasaloppet will start in Sälen on Sunday, March 3, 2019, at 08:00. Vasaloppet is fully booked, as usual, which means 15,800 registered participants. In total around 62,000 participants have registered so far for the Vasaloppet Winter Week 2019 races. This is the 42nd year that Vasaloppet will be broadcast live on Swedish Television. Here is some background information for the world's biggest cross-country ski race.
Britta Johansson Norgren, Sollefteå Skidor IF, won the 31st Tjejvasan one second ahead of Lina Korsgren, Åre Längdskidklubb, and four seconds ahead of Katerina Smutná, the Czech Republic. "I felt it had paid off when I pushed during the race. I had a great amount of energy," says Britta after her third Tjejvasan victory.
On Tuesday (2019-02-19) at midnight online registration closes for Vasaloppet's Winter Week 2019. After that you need to register on location. Yes, you can actually register all the way up until the start if there are places available. As per tradition we will present some geographic registration statistics for Vasaloppet's Winter Week 2019.
