This year Norwegian Worldloppet race Birkebeinerrennet was organised also in skating style. The skating race was a day before the original Visma Ski Classic Birkebeinerrennet; on Friday 17th March and called FredagsBirken. It was the same track with similar services, but less skiers, and the elite skiers of course focused for classic race. Norway isn’t too far from Finland, so we decided to load the car and drive all way from Tampere to Lillehammer. We were with a big team this time: Marja, Jukka, Juhani and Antti. It was Juhani’s first Worldloppet race and he of course now has the passport too!
We took the ferry Viking Grace from Turku to Stockholm on Wednesday evening. At the ferry, we ate at the buffet (look at these photos!), and the heavy carbo-loading started! Katri Helena, a Finnish singer, was entertaining us.
The ferry arrived 6.30 am on Thursday morning to Stockholm. You really need to be on time at the car deck.
The drive from Stockholm to Lillehammer was long and, to be honest, a bit boring. Swedish landscape is first with vast, flat fields, which later changed to deep forests. It took us altogether 9 hours to reach Lillehammer.
TIP! Buy the groceries on the Swedish side of the border, a lot cheaper than in Norway! Our stop was in Charlottenberg, there is a big shopping mall.
Lillehammer is a little village (about 26 000 inhabitants) in Oppland. The city centre is a late 19th-century concentration of wooden houses. The beautiful view is towards the northern part of lake Mjøsa and river Lågen, while the mountains surround the village. We got to stay the two nights in Ida’s very lovely and cozy wooden house, found from Airbnb. We also took care of her cat meanwhile.
After arrival, we walked to the Håkons Hall Sportssenter, which was the main venue of the Birkebeiner weekend in Lillehammer. Other main area was in Rena, nearby the starting point of the race. We never really got whether it is better to stay over in Rena, or in Lillehammer. In the end, it seems it doesn’t make difference.
TIP! It’s quite an uphill from the town to the hall, it’s not a bad idea to go by car.
We picked up the bibs, checked the shops and tried to find out where the bus to the starting of the track (in Rena) departures. The entrance fee to the race was about 125 euros (the cheapest package), and besides it was needed to buy a bus ticket for 35 euros to get from Lillehammer to Rena. So, Birkebeinerrennet is one of the most expensive races.
TIP! The bus to Rena departures from Håkons Hall, so you must be there again in the morning, and park the car (the parking can be far, reserve time!).
The bus departure was at 7 am and the ride took more than two hours to the start area. The bus was full of fit and beautiful Norwegians. All the information was given only in Norwegian (nothing too serious, we thought, and anyway understood something). First the bus stops at the village of Rena, but don’t jump out, the start area is still few kilometers further on.
The weather was great, it was sunny and few degrees below zero. But. There was a strong wind of 15 m/s against us through the whole race! In Birkebeinerrennet the skier must carry a backpack of 3,5 kilos, and they check it in the finish roughly with hand (no serious weighting with scale – at least not for us). Carrying a backpack is because of historical story where the birkebeiners were skiing and carrying the future king Hakon from Lillehammer to Rena. Why didn’t we also race that way, the wind would have blown us fast to the finish!
The track itself is very demanding. In the woods the wind didn’t affect that much, but when we reached the top of the mountains, it was really hard. We skied as a team only the first 2 km, and after that everyone made their own lonely battle.
There were some spectators, but not as many as it would be on the ”real” race date the next day. But the ones who were there, were very supportive, and Marja got some beer too. The official drinking stations weren’t too special, actually opposite, it was hard to get a drink (nobody was giving anything, you needed to fight your way through the rush), and there wasn’t as much to eat as in other Worldloppet competitions. See, we are the ones who have time to observe this kind of stuff!
On the way, Marja saw Polish elite skier Justyna Kowalczyk testing her skis for the classic race. She skied to the victory with kick wax, once many other women pushed all those hills up double-poling! Well done Justyna!
Even it was a long, lonely and hard ski race, we all finished, even we skied this race twice in a one day: the first and last time! Or at least that was the feeling at the finish line… Our results:
Jukka 04:19:54 (270/365)
Marja 04:36:15 (41/60)
Juhani 05:27:45 (341/365)
Antti 05:44:44 (352/365)
Unfortunately, they didn’t give any medals for the finishers, but at least we got little pins. After the race there was some food, but it was very hard to walk through the food station “production line”, as the skiers had their skis in their hands, and then someone gives soup to the other hand and sausage to the other (third?) hand. Well, two trips there and back, and we got the food. Just something to improve for the following years.
We assumed the finish would be near Håkons Hall, but it wasn’t, it was still another bus ride to get to the hall and back to our belongings and the car.
TIP! You can leave your extra clothes etc. at the starting area in Rena to be brought back to Lillehammer, but note that the finishing area is far from the Håkons Hall (which is where the clothes go). In the finish area, there is for example beer in a little cafeteria, but all our money was together with the left clothes, and in Håkons Hall! The biggest mistake of the trip!
After 54 km of skiing we were very wrecked and tired. We moved to our house and ordered pizza from local pizzeria to be delivered to our house (and yes, it’s really expensive in Norway!). All in all, we were happy we finished.
But it’s true, it’s not Norway to travel to get “skier’s self-esteem” rising. Average Norwegian taken from the street is most likely better skier than you. If you don’t want to lose your imagination of being a really good skier, don’t start with Birkebeiner. Those fit, pretty, thin and fast Norwegians with their perfect technique aren’t even dropping any snot when they ski. So… perfect! But at least we have the pizza…. 😉
The next morning, we were watching the classic race from TV, and then started to drive to Oslo. We dropped Antti to the airport to fly back to Tampere, and continued our weekend for two more nights in Norway. We stayed at Hanna’s and Henrik’s place in Blaker, visited the nearby village of Årnes.
On Sunday 19th there was the Biathlon World Cup mass start in Holmenkollen. We have booked our tickets long before, and took the train from Blaker to Oslo (45 min journey). There was plenty of space in the forest where we were watching the race. It was a good race indeed, Kaisa Mäkäräinen was third and Mari Laukkanen sixth.
We also found a hut where they gave out free pølse and lompe (sausages and kind of bread), which we heated up on open fire.
We were at the Chapel Hill, next to the supporter team of Czech Ondřej Moravec. It’s always cool to meet the Czech people, dobrý den! As there was nobody from Finland taking part on men’s mass start, we of course supported the Czech and Ondra!
Once the men finished their race, we were able to go to the stadium too (they don’t check the tickets once the race is over). From there we got the see the price ceremony, and some athletes passing by. We got few more signatures to our flag too, one of those was French Quentin Fillon Maillet!
On Monday, we drove again to Stockholm to catch the ferry. It took about 7 hours from Blaker to Stockholm. The ferry Viking Line Amorella was half-empty, only few truck drivers. We spent time in Tax Free shop, taking care we have enough ingredients to produce hot chocolates on our trip to Ylläs in Lapland. The success of the ski trip caught us only now, with few days delay, as there was a pub quiz, and Marja and Jukka were in the final! And as a surprise for everybody, Marja won it! They asked how much there is water in strawberries (90%) and what card game is ending with something from “the Bold and the Beautiful (Bridge). So, it’s time to change the major from cross country skiing to pub quizzes! As a price, she got more chocolate and of course, invitation to take part to another pub quiz cruise later in May. Who wants to join?
All in all, our trip to Norway was a nice long weekend, with loads on eating, some skiing, and few beers. The Worldloppet season is now done for us, but skiing season still continues in Lapland. You might see us helping in organizing Visma Ski Classic Ylläs-Levi on April!
Ursprungsland Biathlon Team 