Ultravasan and Vasastafetten 2016

Vasaloppet's Summer Week 2016 has come halfway. The cyclists have finished and this weekend the Vasaloppet Arena will welcome about 7,000 runners from about 20 different nations. World elite and recreational athletes meet in Ultravasan, over 500 teams are registered for Vasastafetten, one team is trying for Vasakvartetten, and 32 people have a chance of completing Vasaloppstrippeln. Here we have compiled a lot of facts, statistics and trivia for the third ever Ultravasan and the 26th Vasastafetten.

The following three races, with a total of seven classes, will run on Saturday August 20:
- Ultravasan 90. 90 km. (Two classes: Women and Men.) Starting in Sälen at 05:00.
- Ultravasan 45. 45 km. (Two classes: Women and Men.) Starting in Oxberg at 09:00.
- Vasastafetten. 90 km divided into ten sections that are 4.5-15 km. Running relay race for ten-person teams. (Three classes: Women, Men and Mixed. Each participant may only compete for one team and run one stretch. Women = no men allowed. Men = any number of women. Mixed = at least 3 women in the team.) Starting in Sälen at 09:00.

Ultravasan 90 starts, like the traditional Vasaloppet, in Sälen, following the track east towards Mora. The 45 km race starts in Oxberg and largely follows Halvvasan's course along the Oxberg lake over to Vasslan before connecting to the Ultravasan 90 track. In Vasastafetten every team has ten participants, each running a section of the 90 km stretch between Sälen and Mora.

Ultra is the name of races longer than the marathon distance of 42,195 metres, and "trail" or "terrain" means that the main part of the race is not on asphalt. Ultravasan 90 (and Vasastafetten) are run on the following surfaces: 57 km forest road/Vasaloppsspåret, 9 km gravel, 18 km paths, and 6 km asphalt. The track incline is 867 metres.
More on sections and surfaces:
http://www.vasaloppet.se/en/races/running-races/vasastafetten/how-the-race-works/the-sections-of-vasastafetten

Apart from the races mentioned above there is also "Barnens Vasalopp löpning" on August 19, a children's running race for the very youngest, up to about 10 years of age. In Sälen the race stretches are 500, 1,000 or 1,500 metres, and in Mora the stretch is about 700 metres.

Track changes
Ultravasan 90 and Vasastafetten have, this year, gotten 4.5 kilometres of new track after Mångsbodarna; a nice old path where Vasaloppsleden runs. This year's new section does not affect the total length or incline of the track.
See this film about the track changes 2016:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT6q_FsjcJA

Registration numbers, Wednesday August 17, 2016
Ultravasan 90: 962 (770 men and 192 women) from 20 nations and aged 18–70.
Ultravasan 45: 710 (407 men and 303 women) from 14 nations and aged 18–56.
Vasastafetten: 5,110 runners in 511 teams (100 male teams, 46 female teams and 365 mixed teams).

Vasastafetten has in 2016, for the fifth year in a row, attracted over 500 registered teams!

Nations in Ultravasan 90
NOTE! For media: Which runners from your country are participating in Ultravasan 90 and Ultravasan 45? Start lists at: http://media.vasaloppet.se/2016/?lang=SE
Username: vasa
Password: media

Ultravasan favourites
The world elite is coming to Ultravasan! Bryon Powell, chief editor of Irunfar.com, will be on location in Mora to report. This Monday he published an extensive international ”Ultravasan 2016 preview”:
http://www.irunfar.com/2016/08/2016-ultravasan-preview.html

The favourite, however, suffers from injury:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC5xoh55YZw

Number bibs
Those running Ultravasan 90 have red number bibs and those running Ultravasan 45 have green number bibs – marked M (male) or F (female). In Vasastafetten the teams have white number bibs marked D (ladies) H (gents) and M (mixed.)

TV, live streaming and radio
Vasaloppet's own Vasalopps-TV will broadcast a preview programme on Friday night, as well as after the race on Saturday night. All finishes are also streamed live and there is a large screen production with interviews and ceremonies at the finish on Saturday August 20 and between 09:00 and 21:00 at vasaloppet.se.

Vasaloppsradion will be broadcasting live on August 20 at 04:45–18:00 on 94.1 MHz in the Mora/Siljan area, 89.1 MHz in Oxberg/Älvdalen and 107.5 MHz in Sälen. Also web radio at vasaloppsradion.se and on your phone. You can find Vasaloppsradion in the new app Vasaloppet Sommar 2016.

Estimated finishing time
Those who want to see the first runner cross the finish line should be on location no later than 10:40 Saturday morning. The finish line closes at 20:00.

Previous Ultravasan winners
Ultravasan 90, men
2014 Jonas Buud, IFK Mora FK (SWE), 6.02.03
2015 Jonas Buud, IFK Mora FK (SWE), 5.45.08 (Record time)

Ultravasan 90, women
2014 Holly Rush, Team Bath AC (GBR), 7.09.04
2015 Jasmin Nunige, Switzerland (SUI), 7.02.35 (Record time)

Ultravasan 45, men
2014 Roman Ryapolov, IFK Mora FK (RUS), 2.49.47
2015 Fritjof Fagerlund, Rånäs 4H (SWE), 2.45.30 (Record time)

Ultravasan 45, women
2014 Gloria Vinstedt, Sweden (SWE), 3.28.13
2015 Caroline Dubois, France (FRA), 3.13.22 (Record time)

Ultravasan participation statistics for the first two years:
Ultravasan 90
2014: 914 registered, 761 starting, 709 finishing
2015: 1240 registered, 893 starting, 821 finishing

Ultravasan 45
2014: 584 registered, 434 starting, 428 finishing
2015: 527 registered, 403 starting, 391 finishing

Vasastafetten 2015
Vasastafetten has been held since 1991, and arranged by Vasaloppet since 2008. Last year it was sports organizer Mats Andreasson's team that won the men's class for the fifth year in a row, with a time of 4.58.50. Olle Walleräng ran the last section, again receiving the garland from the Kranskulla and running together with his teammates across the finish line. Best club team, in second place, was IFK Mora men's team 1, about 20 minutes after the winning team. In the ladies class it was home team IFK Mora that took the victory, while IFK Lidingö SOK won the mixed class. (Lidingö was also third team in total to cross the finish line). Worth noting is that the Ultravasan 90 winner, Jonas Buud, with his time of 5.45.08, would have come in sixth if he'd been running as a team of his own in Vasastafetten 2015.

Vasaloppstrippeln
Vasaloppstrippeln is the new official name of a challenge taken on over a calendar year. 2014 was the first year one could complete Vasaloppstrippeln, which consists of Vasaloppet/Öppet Spår (skiing), Cykelvasan 90/Cykelvasan Öppet Spår (cycling) and Ultravasan 90 (running). That year, 14 people managed the achievement. In 2015, that exclusive group counted 18 in number, one of whom was a woman. One person has managed this triple feat both years. This year, 2016, there are 32 people, four of whom are women, who have completed the skiing and cycling and who are now also registered for Ultravasan 90.

Vasakvartetten
The Swedish magazine Runner's World has put together a team of two men and two women who will run a test race, splitting the 90 km stretch into four sections.
http://www.runnersworld.se/blogs/vasakvartetten/index.htm

Kranskulla and Kransmas 2016
This year's Kranskulla and Kransmas are, just like this past winter, Hanna Eriksson (from Mora) and Johan Wellert (from Sälen).

Events
There is a lot happening in and around the Vasaloppet Arena during Vasaloppet's Summer Week 2016. Take part in the whole programme:
http://www.vasaloppet.se/en/programme/calendar

Registration for Vasaloppet's Summer Week 2017
Opens on Sunday September 18, 2016, at 09:00 on vasaloppet.se

Events in the Vasaloppet Arena

Vasaloppet Summer Week 2016
Fri 12 Aug: Cykelvasan 30. 32 km. Start Oxberg.
Fri 12 Aug: Ungdomscykelvasan. 32 km. Start Oxberg.
Fri 12 Aug: Cykelvasan 45. 45 km. Start Oxberg.
Fri 12 Aug: Cykelvasan Öppet Spår. 94 km. Start Sälen.
Sat 13 Aug: Cykelvasan 90. 94 km. Start Sälen.
Sat 20 Aug: Ultravasan 45. 45 km. Start Oxberg.
Sat 20 Aug: Ultravasan 90. 90 km. Start Sälen.
Sat 20 Aug: Vasastafetten. 4.5–15 km. Running relay race for ten-person teams. Start Sälen.

Vasaloppet Winter Week 2017
Fri 24 Feb: Kortvasan. 30 km. Start Oxberg.
Sat 25 Feb: Tjejvasan. 30 km. Start Oxberg.
Sun 26 Feb: Ungdomsvasan. 3, 5, 7 or 9 km. Start Mora Ski Stadium.
Sun 26 Feb: Öppet Spår Sunday. 90 km. Start Sälen.
Mon 27 Feb: Öppet Spår Monday. 90 km. Start Sälen.
Tue 28 Feb: Halvvasan. 45 km. Start Oxberg.
Fri 3 Mar: Stafettvasan. 9–24 km. Five-person teams. Start Sälen.
Fri 3 Mar: Nattvasan. 90 km. Two-person teams. Start Sälen. (1,500 entries. FULL 20/03/2016)
Sat 4 Mar: Öppet Spår 9 km. 9 km. Start Eldris.
Sun 5 Mar: Vasaloppet. 90 km. Start Sälen. (15,800 entries. FULL 20/03/2016)

High-resolution photos from Vasaloppet
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/pressroom/vasaloppet/image/list

Text and photos may be freely published.

For more information

Jon Svensson, Marketing Manager Vasaloppet
Mobile: +4672-553 31 90
Email: jon.svensson@vasaloppet.se

More on Vasaloppet?
www.vasaloppet.se
Press room: mynewsdesk.com/se/pressroom/vasaloppet
Facebook: facebook.com/vasaloppetofficial
Instagram: @vasaloppet
Twitter: @vasaloppet