Dear Viking Tour participant!

After two months of miserable cold and rainy arctic «summer» in , we are happy to start this info brief with a promising weather forecast! The prediction is nice and warm weather all through Thursday July 19th with 18 degrees. This is how long the prediction goes, but steady winds during this period makes it very likely that this will continue. There is every reason to look forward to a week of social and challenging cycling!

After intense work with road authorities and lodging partners the last weeks, we can at last send you this penultimate email before the start of Viking Tour 2018. The final email will be sent you this coming weekend. This include important phone numbers to transport crew, race office etc. and roadbook as PDF with an adjusted time schedule etc.

In this email you will find details of adjusted stages, some practical info, list of bikes to be transported and list of lodging. We ask you to read all and get back to us at [email protected] to confirm that your lodging is as supposed or needs adjusting.

Lists of who stays in wich cabins / rooms will be published daily on vikingtour.no, starting this coming weekend. These lists will of course be availble at the race office, online and hotels, but we ask you to have a look at them beforehand to have an idea of where you will be staying. To accomodate all participants, we are using high standard rorbuer / sea houses in addition to all available hotel rooms for many also in and . In Reine there are rorbuer, rooms and apartments for all and in Kabelvåg / Svolvær all have hotel rooms. In Lødingen, the refurbishing and exclusive special opening of our second hotel for Viking Tour has not gone as promised. We are therefore using several more locations to provide lodging in Lødingen. Two of these places are downtown and within walking distance from everything. The latter two are five kilometers from the town centre. We must ask your kind understanding for this. As on all stage townships, there will also in Lødingen be crew ready with cars to transport participants wishing to spare their legs between diners, price ceremonies etc.

Transport between Harstad / Airport and Lødingen is done by normal airport shuttle bus. These are operated by Boreal and run to correspond with all in and -outbound flights. Time scedule for the airport bus is linked below: Please note that arrival in Lødingen is app. 55 minutes after departure from Evenes Airport. https://www.flybussen.no/aktuelt/rutetabeller- pdf/boreal/---evenes-18.06---19.08.2018---vipps.pdf

Price list for the airport bus: https://www.flybussen.no/aktuelt/rutetabeller- pdf/boreal/sommarkampanje-sortland--prisliste-2018.pdf The bus company Boreal has asked us to make a survey of how many cyclists arrive on wich flights, coming into Evenes so they can adjust cargo space. We will set up a web-survey of yor landing times at Evenes and link to this in the final email, this weekend.

Arriving in Lødingen, our race office is just 30 meters from the bus stop. Here you will receive a warm welcome from our crew, your starters package with timing chips etc., and if you are not staying next door at Brygga Hotell we have transport ready for you and your luggage.

Adjusted stages: Working with the police and under new rules for road cycling races in , we have made the following adjustments to stages:

Saturday July 21st. This first stage will start from Lødingen with a neutralized ride oftwo kiloometers before free speed is given. We ride 22 kilometers westwards and back for a short, steep finish up to Nygårdsfjellet.

This change is made due to the large number of participants and need for a wider road to manouver on before starting to climb. Profile is updated on www.vikingtour.no. Monday July 23rd. Passing through Sortland town centre, racing will be neutralized for 3,5 kilometers. MC marshalls will keep riding speed down to app 25km/h. We are as a cyclosportive race not allowed to close raoads completely and there are too many trafic risks to race throug Sortland centre. Distance between major groups into Sortland will be by MC marshalls who will also see to is that these are kept as intact as possible before free speed is given immediately after Sortland centre. Profile is as before.

Tuesday July 24th. Line-up and start of racing will start outside Kabelvåg Secondary School. (This is the place of Valhalla between Thursday and Friday) From Stokmarknes in the morning, participants will ride when they choose for the ferries – Fiskebøl and further 38 kilometers to a well rigged feeding staions outside the School. Ferry times and starting time from Kabelvåg will be listed in the roadbook. The increase in tourist traffic during the last two years has made racing on this stage to risky. Profile as before.

Thursday July 26th. We ride individual transport to Ramberg, 25 km from Reine and 33 km from Å. Line-up and timed start will be at Ramberg School, well visible in the open landscape. Due to fewer racing kilometers the days before, racing class route gets a detour of 12 kilometers around Gimsøy. Updated profile on www.vikingtour.no

Valhalla: All staying in Valhalla receive their own inflatable matrass to keep and transport in their private luggage for the duration of the week. Crew transport the luggage and provide electric pumps so matrasses are easily and quickly inflated at the new venues.

As long as weather permits, crew will provide a grill outside of Valhalla for those wishing to barbeque their own food purchased from local stores. Bike storage is listed in detail in the road book.

Safety, traffic and rules. Viking Tour is a cyclosportive, not a cycling race on closed roads. All participants are personally responsible for following all traffic rules at any time. This season there are a number of new rules in places for cycling races in Norway and we know that the local police we have worked closely with for months will be wathching how things run. Two of our MC marshalls are responsible for warning / halting traffic from sides in the most busy and less overviewable places. This will be done ONLY for the first one or two groups, going faster and having less forward view. In addition, two MC marshalls will be following these groups, guarding and adjusting their placing on the road when needed. Lofoten has seen an enormous increase in summer tourist traffic the last two years. This gives some obvious challenges for an event like Viking Tour. We have adjusted stages, start of timing and time schedules to give you the best possible experience, believing that with your good behaviour and placing of attacks in the right places, cycling will be both a trilling – and safe experience.

The increased tourism has made us choose to use more lodging locations than preferred, giving calmer staying quarters but at the same time pushing logistics to the limit.

On behalf of Viking Tour, your fellow participants, crew and exited local communities I wish you a safe travel to Lofoten and ask that you bring your best to make Viking Tour 2018 a great holiday and cycling race.

Best regards, Geir Ellingsen Race Leader Viking Tour