is a long distance ice skating race and tour skating event between Uppsala and Stockholm in Sweden. The race length is about 80km. There is also a shorter 50km event called ('The Viking Tour').
Name The event is named after the Viking Age (ca. 1000 CE) because it follows historical water transportation routes on Lake Mälaren which have been used since then.
History The first race was in 1999, when about 4000 skaters participated. The event had to be cancelled in 2000 and 2002 due to poor ice conditions on the planned race date, and again in 2008 due to nearly complete absence of ice all through the winter along the planned route. Beginning in 2003, the race date is only set a few weeks beforehand, depending on short term predictions of ice conditions.
Beginning in 2006 most of the 80km course, called , was kept ploughed for the entire three-month skating season, not just for the race event.
List of winners
1999: Hotze Zandstra – Netherlands (2:35:42) 2000: race not held 2001: Martijn Kromkamp – Netherlands (2:58:10) 2002: race not held 2003: Johan Håmås – Sweden (3:09:00) 2004: Johan Håmås – Sweden (2:57:02 2005: Johan Håmås – Sweden (2:44:07) 2006: Johan Håmås – Sweden (2:45:08) 2007: Johan Håmås – Sweden (2:40:01) 2008: race not held 2009: Johan Håmås – Sweden (2:40:32) 2010: Sonny Peterson – Sweden (2:57:46) 2011: Matt X. Richardson – Sweden (2:51:57) 2012: Jan Maarten Heideman – Netherlands (3:02:35) 2013: Erben Wennemars – Netherlands (2:35:52) 2014: race not held 2015: race not held 2016: unknown 2017: race not held 2018: race not held
See also List of sporting events in Sweden
References
External links http://www.vikingarannet.se/en/ Official site in English http://xray.bmc.uu.se/~alasdair/sport/ice/SKATING/vikingarannet/index.html Description of 2003 event