V�tternrundan 2015 Sportive

The Vätternrundan is the world's longest mass participation ride and is held in the middle of June every year with 21,000 people taking part in the 300km sportive, the longest of three rides available.

The sportive is around Lake Vättern in Sweden and starts and finishes in Motala. Around 20% of riders are non-Swedes and people make the long trek to take part from all round the world.

The 2015 Vätternrundan (pronounced vet-turn-rund-an) is certain to be as popular as ever. Last year the event sold out in just over two hours, which is pretty incredible if you consider the Etape has less than half the participants and is a shorter distance and usually takes a couple of months to sell out.

A new registration process was put in place for the 2014 event that allowed riders to pre-register their details in early October and then complete their entry in early November - this reduced the chances of the entire IT system collapsing.

Riders set out from 7.30pm on the Friday night to 5.30am on the Saturday morning (you are allocated start times and if you are a group of riders then you can request to start together) and have to complete the course by midnight on Saturday. Faster riders who expect to complete the course in less than nine hours are given a special 9am start time; elite riders have been known to finish in seven hours and the slightly more sedate riders have taken up to 20 hours.

There are nine feed stations along the route. Some roads along the route are subject to restricted usage for local residents on the day, although we are advised that roads are NOT completely closed to regular traffic.

Entry in 2014 was 1,350 SEK, which is roughly £126 or 151 euros.

Riders are not allowed to leave the event by car until six hours after finishing the ride - this is checked by police on the way out of Motala. Bear this in mind when making your travel plans for Vätternrundan 2015.

Over 4,000 volunteers help make Vätternrundan a success and it is widely considered one of the most enjoyable and friendly sportive events in the world.