Greenland, cold, windy and did I mention cold?

https://www.coasttocoast.bike/

And the polar bears

All seems very regimented - they will only allow you to sign up if you can prove your riding from strava or zwift and the only way you can register is by following one of several roadie looking ambassadors on strava. You'll be put into teams in which you have to stick throughout the ride and you ride to their schedule, not your own. its $3000 but this only covers emergency rescue, no support although they are following you and it looks like you get hot water at lunch and camp spots. Compared to the Rov 150 or ITI it's a bit steep.... I guess for 'adventurers' rather than ultra racers.

Phil... The £3000 only covers registration fees is what I read...

Approved users confirm to participate in the Coast-To-Coast race 2024 by paying the sign-on fee.

The total fee consists of several parts.

The first part is the sign-on fee of 3000 US$.

When the sign-on fee is confirmed paid, you are confirmed as a member of the 2024 participants group. All payments are made as wired payments to the deposit account in our Norwegian bank.

The maximum number of participants is (2x32) 64. Besides the 64 participants, there will be a small list of approved participants on a reserve list. The sign-on fee can be transferred to members of this reserve list.

I'm defo out!
Interestingly, it makes no mention of what bike or gear to take. I've an image of a load of very fit people with XC bikes pushing them for long periods of time....

I'd imagine of the skillset that is needed to complete the route, biking is very low on the list!
Also, i'm not a fan of people flying to vulnerable habitats to do what is essentially a leisure activity (albeit extremely tough). Burn some C02 to get to ice sheet being lost by too much CO2 in the atmosphere..?

zwift

Yes because that proves you've got what it takes to survive the harsh environment ...... of your spare bedroom

Aye that crossed my mind too - a load of rich folk all fly to Greenland and burn more energy doing a leisure jaunt they can boast about, probably leaving all manor of crap behind (literally!) and contributing zippo to the local environment.

Huw Oliver and Annie Le's approach is better - still flying but just heading off along a ski touring route on their own. https://bikepacking.com/stories/boundless/ https://bikepacking.com/plog/slow-and-p ... greenland/

Is this a race or an expedition or a business or the Fyre Festival on wheels? Find out next .. year.

they will only allow you to sign up if you can prove your riding from strava or zwift and the only way you can register is by following one of several roadie looking ambassadors on strava.

Maybe they want to be sure you can't catch them when they **** off with your entry fee

What was Annie+Huws trip in Greenland? Was that a coast to coast? Can’t remember

Would love to go out before that group and then bag the first crossing

I think it was meant to be but they had to make a sharp exit as all flights were cancelled due to the pandemic
On a related note, it looks like the Rov 150 is no more - just a note on the organisers website stating it had been cancelled for this year and was now part of history...

On main page: "No one have ever crossed" - grammar fail(ure) so I'm out .

Same points apply to this jape as applied when we were discussing that Antarctic crossing a while ago.

No mention of local Greenlanders' involvement or benefits, if any, to them.

"our Norwegian bank": for a fleeting moment I read that as "our Nigerian bank". Probably a "prince" trying to bundle money out of the country

fatbikephil wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:26 pm I think it was meant to be but they had to make a sharp exit as all flights were cancelled due to the pandemic
On a related note, it looks like the Rov 150 is no more - just a note on the organisers website stating it had been cancelled for this year and was now part of history...

Ta!

Yes, saw that about Rovaniemi. It’s a shame but not many people had signed up to the race this year but not sure if there were other reasons too.


From the website of the coast to coast
After a similar race on skis in the 1990s one of the participants told us at the banquet:

When I joined this race, I thought the hardest part would be the skiing, and I thought I would have time to focus on my company and devise some new strategies in the evenings, the owner of an international company with 5,000 employees said, but I was very wrong, he continued.

No words but not sure who the organisers are trying to impress?!

Edit - bikes are provided

voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:11 pm

Would love to go out before that group and then bag the first crossing

naughty. Even better if you were there waiting for them....

For the record. The tents will be heated so it'll not be quite -40 inside (or so they claim).

voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:36 pm From the website of the coast to coast
After a similar race on skis in the 1990s one of the participants told us at the banquet:

When I joined this race, I thought the hardest part would be the skiing, and I thought I would have time to focus on my company and devise some new strategies in the evenings, the owner of an international company with 5,000 employees said, but I was very wrong, he continued.

No words but not sure who the organisers are trying to impress?!

Edit - bikes are provided

Guess that's who they are trying to attract...

Yes because that proves you've got what it takes to survive the harsh environment ...... of your spare bedroom

Brilliant as was jameso

Maybe they want to be sure you can't catch them when they **** off with your entry fee

Each to their own but it's a firm get to f**k from me

As Shaf already pointed out:

"(even though the tents are heated)"

This is the only reason I'm not trying to be part of it.

$3000 sign on fee, yet the final fee is TBD...

To enter you have to follow them on Strava, "chat", then you might get invited to send the a "sport CV" and then maybe you'll get an interview, which if you pass would allow you the privilege of applying... and presumably paying your $3000.

Right.



There seems to be lots of detail, like the number of people in a team, number of teams going in each direction (why?), and then suddenly, no detail at all... e.g. there is a cancellation policy for after October this year, but we don't know what it is yet.

voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:11 pm Would love to go out before that group and then bag the first crossing

I really hope someone does this! They seem to be heavily pushing the chance to be "the first person to cross Greenland by bike"... yet there can only be one person, and they're all in teams that have to stick together, and presumably camp in the same place as everyone else every night.

I've not cycled there, but I have backpacked on Tasiilak Island for two weeks on the East Coast of Greenland in late June and did see the ice cap.

I avoided any piteraq winds which can be deadly, but not the bloody mosquitoes which weren't deadly, but very hungry. It was really warm when I was there,don't think I ever actually had my sleeping bag on me in the tent, but I wasn't high up.

Didn't see any bears, but I did see the locals butchering up seals and an orca for them and the dogs.

Getting there was very pricey and more so now with a fight to Iceland, then flight to Kulusuk Island then a helicopter to Tasiilak as the ice was still in the fjords, got a local boat back on the way home to Kulusuk.

Food and paid for accomodation out there is bonkers expensive (half my rucksack was food I took) and makes Norway look reasonable

I can't imagine the cost and logistics of an event there and bike transport from the east coast back. I'd like to go back again (on foot) , but cost and health make that very unlikely.

thenorthwind wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 8:04 pm

voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:11 pm Would love to go out before that group and then bag the first crossing

I really hope someone does this! They seem to be heavily pushing the chance to be "the first person to cross Greenland by bike"... yet there can only be one person, and they're all in teams that have to stick together, and presumably camp in the same place as everyone else every night.

At the current state of "firsts" in var. media, I'm not sure 'they''d be bothered. Too many folks claim firsts and fastests for whatever, not giving a sh*t about facts. We're seeing this in mountaineering, ski traverses, biking and many other 'free' sports.

faustus wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 4:27 pm I'd imagine of the skillset that is needed to complete the route, biking is very low on the list!

I've seen it said that the ITI is more a test of surviving in the arctic (OK, sub-arctic for the pedants) for the length of the race. The biking/skiing/running is incidental.

A pity about the Rovaniemi races but they'd moved the event centre from a city centre hotel out to the gym or whatever it was in 2019 so possibly a combination of costs and lower entry numbers but looking at the results the 150k has been pretty consistent in around the mid-40s in numbers. The numbers for the other distances have been similarly consistent. Alex has been running it for over a decade so maybe he's got bored and no-one wants to take up the baton.

As for the Greenland "event", who the f wants to follow an influencer and why would doing so qualify you for such a venture? It's a bit like assuming that because you like a particular band you are a competent musician.

Had a few follow-up emails from these, keep asking me to join up!! They clearly don’t know who I am

"BE THE FIRST TO CYCLE ACROSS GREENLAND!"

Event will be next year.

Would be fun to pi$$ on their bonfire if someone rode across it this year.

Would they have to refund everyone?